Totally Devoted a kiwi run family business

I am Krissy Oliver, and I am a mother of 4 beautiful little kids. Charlie is my oldest girl, then Van is my oldest son, my youngest girl is Mia and my youngest is son is Don.

I breastfed all of them, but unlike some mum's that had surplus milk I have always struggled. I drank water, I had a great diet, I exercised, but still I struggled with my milk production, I never had enough and it always stressed me out.

I felt like I was a useless mum, not being able to feed my baby, and then I would dread Plunket visits because they would weigh my baby and tell me that they weren't gaining as much as they should. I just didn't know what to do.

With my youngest son Don, a friend of mine suggested that I try these amazing Lactation Cookies, that a local woman made. So I went looking for a box and tried them.

I cried, I was able to express milk for the first time in 10 years! Not only was I able to express milk, but Don gained nearly 2kg in 4 weeks. That's it, I was hooked. To me this was the magic product, and if I knew about it 10 years ago when I had my first, I think it would have changed my whole motherhood journey. 

Jesse sold Totally Devoted to me in 2019 and I have promised her I am going to take this product to every mother that has ever struggled with breastfeeding, because this actually changed my life and I know it will change yours.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy our products that are absolutely made with love, right here in Waitakere, West Auckland.

 

How did Totally Devoted start? A note from our founder Jesse...

In the early days of breastfeeding Louie and Maisie, I spent a lot of time with friends with babies and we spent a lot of time talking about feeding and if we had enough milk. We all tried the teas you can buy but they taste like grass! A lot of websites put up recipes for Lactation cookies but as mums with newborns you really don’t have enough time to bake.

Maisie started to get really bad eczema all over her face. This broke my heart seeing her scratch until it bled. The doctors I saw made suggestions that really didn't sit within my comfort zone so I started my own research. I discovered how much diet and effect the skin so I decided to give up dairy and wheat and slowly Maisie’s skin got better. It was hard as there really wasn't a lot of snack food on the market that was dairy or wheat free,  and hardly any that was yummy.

After another coffee group the conversation of lactation cookies came up again. And so the Lactation cookie began! I created something that I could enjoy guilt free whilst benefiting my baby at the same time with the added bonus of being able to eat it with one hand!

The cookies took a long time to get right. Making a dairy and wheat free cookie that didn’t taste like dust was a huge challenge. I adopted the phrase "food as medicine" and had this in mind when carefully choosing the ingredients. When I felt I had created something yummy I gave the lactation cookies to a lot of breastfeeding mums to try for me and had really good feedback. 

I had been at home with my kids for the past 4 years. I wanted to share this concept and make a difference for more mums everywhere, but as a Mum I was unsure how. As luck would have it an old family friend introduced me to Blair, a health conscious guy and also a talented marketer and business man. He was excited about the idea, so we decided to take the adventure together. And the rest is history.