RGV's Big Latch On 2013

I meant to have this post ready on World Breast Feeding week... It didn't happen. It's still August though! The entire month of August is Breastfeeding Awareness Month so I'm still in the clear here. ;)

South Texas has held The Big Latch On event in the RGV (Rio Grande Valley) for 3 years now. I've been fortunate to attend two of these events and I love to see other moms' excitement over breast feeding!

This year's event was held at the Children's Museum of Brownsville and it was hosted by Blissful Baby. I think we had a bigger turn out in 2012 but it was so nice to be able to meet moms from the Lower Valley at this gathering. 

The museum brought on a great atmosphere since I was able to bring along my older children and husband to enjoy everything the museum has to offer. Everything is hands on and the kiddos had a great time. Derek is 11 and he spent a lot of his time building projects and working with the "weather" section of the museum. Tyler is 8 and he loved being the check out cashier at the mini grocery store. It turns out, he's pretty good at it too! He was also a chef that day in the mini restaurant set up the museum has. Ben is my little guy and he had a blast just touching everything! 

    (Ben playing dentist with his big brother)

    (Gardening in our future???)

    (The Tot Spot was super cute!)

At 10:20, all the breast feeding mommas gathered in a room to get ready to latch on!

    (Photo taken by Blissful Baby)

Our local count this year was 16 which I think was lower than last year's. The count doesn't discourage me though, we bring light to nursing our babies in public which is a great thing. Anything that we can do to bring light to breast feeding and nursing in public is good... 

Locally, we find ourselves in an area where many families struggle to put food on the table so this option seems like perfect solution for many. Even with this in mind, you'd be surprised to find that many families opt for formula thinking that formula is easier etc. 

We had Dr. D. Lee presenting after our official count and he seems to be very informed in the benefits of breast feeding which is refreshing to hear! He had some great information about our nursing rights in Texas. I look forward to meeting with Dr. Lee in the future... I like his approach on birth, and nursing.

I hope next year we can break our own record in numbers in the RGV. We need to educate our community about the benefits of breast feeding for our children's future. 

A big THANK YOU goes out to Blissful Baby for organizing this event! Hopefully, I can lend a hand next year to make this event huge! 

~Norm