Dear Elisheva,
Yes, you use cabbage directly from the grocery store, once you have
washed it with plain tap water... It is especially nice to mothers when
it comes directly from the refrigerator. You apply cold cabbage leaves
directly to the breasts but not the areola not the nipple. You leave it
there about 20 minutes if the mother is breastfeeding since you don't
want to "dry her up". We also use it at the hospital for moms who decide
not to breastfeed since no more medications are available to dry their
natural milk production. For those moms, you leave the cabbage leaves on
until they are faded (?), soft and put some more until the mom feels
comfortable. Kay Roberts from Australia (Hi Kay, are you there?) wrote
some research articles on the use of cabbage leaves but I don't have
them handy here. Anyone who has????

You know, I have used cabbage leaves while camping in the woods when I
needed something fast to put on a wound or sore that didn't seem to heal
or was infected. It worked beautifully until we came back in town...
Louise

Louise Dumas, R.N., M.S.N., PhD
Professor-researcher in Nursing Sciences
University of Quebec in Hull
(Western Quebec, Canada)

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