KellyMom
This is definitely a site for new parents, especially those who want their baby to breastfeed. It covers topics such as premature infants, newborns, infant reflux, nighttime parenting, baby's health, growth, and development, and mom's health. It has breastfeeding basics, can I breastfeed if, what is normal, common concerns, exercise and breastfeeding, pumping and employment, breastfeeding and alcohol. It has mother to mother forums with thousands of posts organized for easy access, and a place to ask questions such as “Are green stools normal?”. This site is devoted to new parents!!
I happened onto kelly.mom when my adult daughter worried if her stored breastmilk—that had separated—was safe. I searched many websites, but kelly.com was the most useful. I was pleased that the information was researched and referenced. It explained why some mothers' milk breaks down due to an extra lipase enzyme which is healthy but digests the milk for quicker breakdown when stored ( Lawrence & Lawrence, 2005 as cited on Kelly).
I wondered if Kelly had been a Family Life Educator, psychology major, or medical student because her profile said, “At KellyMom.com, our goal is to provide support & evidence-based information on breastfeeding, sleep and parenting”. This website links to sources such as the Yale Medical School on pyloric stenosis (forceful vomiting), an article by the American Academy of Pediatrics on the benefits of nursing and how pediatricians can help new mothers succeed (American, 2005), several links to the La Leche League, hospital sites, and articles written by doctors and nurses.
Don't let the research/reference quality of this website scare you away. Most of the posts are down to earth, easy reads. There is a KellyMom Parenting Community where mothers connect to other mothers. Lisa and MAsmom set up the topic "Newborn to 6 months", which had 17,450 threads and 128,247 posts. Wildflower and Hot Dog moderate the topic" 6-12 month", and they had 9,842 threads and 73, 892 posts. There was a "Diet and Health Chat" with 7,544 threads and 45,383 posts; the last post was today about ear infections. Some of the questions were very open, things you might be afraid to ask your mom or the doctor. The largest group I located was called Coffee Talk by Timothysmama and Konurs Mom, which said “Want to talk about something that doesn't fit any of the other boards: Come on in!”; it had 17,545 threads and 227,995 posts! WOW!!! You get to this community forum from almost any Kelly web page by clicking the large blue rectangle near the top right that says. “Do you have breastfeeding or parenting questions? Visit Our Forums!”
KellyMom was relatively easy to navigate, which was restful. It had a box in the upper right corner which said “enter text and click to search”. I typed in the question that had brought me to KellyMom in the first place, and the internal search engine worked! Some websites have such poor search engines that I must step outside the site, write the question and the name of the website in google search, in order to find information within the site.
Who would think that a website named KellyMom would be so diversified and far-reaching. I recommend KellyMom to new parents for its evidence-based information, for its mother to mother forums, and its relative ease of use. Kelly.com is definitely pro breastfeeding, and has some of the best information on how to succeed in any situation, but if you are squeamish, you might be turned off by such articles as tandem nursing.
References
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2005). Breastfeeding and the use of human milk.
Pediatrics 2005; 115; 496 DOI: 10.1542/peds.2004-2491. Retrieved online March 31, 2012
at http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/115/2/496.full.html
Larson, R, & Lawrence, R. Breastfeeding: A guide for the medical profession, 6th ed, as cited on
kelly.com. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Mosby, 2005: 781)
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