In Soviet times, the rules of breastfeeding were established by medicine. Young mothers were taught in advance that before feeding they should wash their breasts, preferably with boiled water, after feeding they should express milk to an empty breast. It was supposed to feed the baby strictly at certain hours, not paying attention to whether the child was crying or sleeping. All these moments turned the care of the baby into flour. These rules have now been revised.
Previously, young mothers were advised to feed their children strictly on time, even if such a schedule did not suit the baby.
Only at the beginning of this century, the World Health Organization (WHO) made a statement that only mother's milk is absolutely harmless for a child under 2 years old. This thesis is very relevant, despite the development of medicine. Breast milk forms the child's immunity, promotes the development of the brain and nervous system.
Thanks to WHO, the policy of training medical staff in maternity hospitals has changed. Doctors, consultants and nurses began to be trained in breastfeeding techniques. They began to give the child to mothers in the first half hour after childbirth, plus, the mother and baby in the maternity hospital lie in the same ward. A woman after childbirth can ask the staff for information, but some tips for mothers should be read in advance.
When breastfeeding is supposed, experts give advice to the nursing mother on all issues that concern her. The most important advice is to stop worrying. There are women who have a lot of milk, there are those who have little. In the second case, it is necessary to apply methods to increase the amount of milk produced. How to do this will be described below. Lactostases and cracks in the nipples do not always appear. If they do appear, they just need to be cured.
Even if there is not enough milk, you should not rush with supplementary feeding - it is almost always possible to increase the volume of lactation Even during pregnancy, you need to tune in to breastfeeding, enjoying these thoughts. Imagine how the baby lies in your arms, touches you with small hands, takes a nipple in his mouth. Talk to other mothers who are breastfeeding. Read specialized literature. Watch the programs of Dr. Komarovsky. Remember that only 3% of women cannot breastfeed a baby. The rest you just need to want, and everything will be fine. No reasons - unfavorable heredity, anatomical features of the structure of the breast, illness, are not the reason for refusing to breastfeed.
How to increase the amount of breast milk?
This article talks about typical ways to solve your questions, but each case is unique! If you want to know from me how to solve exactly your problem - ask your question. It's fast and free!
The first point is the choice of a maternity hospital. It is necessary to choose an institution in which, after giving birth, mothers are immediately placed on the stomach and chest of the baby.
The body of a woman, upon contact with a newborn, triggers the mechanism of lactation. While a woman does not produce milk, but colostrum is a very useful product for the baby. It transfers immunity from mother to baby, contains vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
A woman after childbirth experiences nervous tension. She worries about the baby, thinks that there is too little colostrum to feed the baby. This is not true. The substances contained in colostrum are quite enough to satisfy the needs of the baby in all useful substances. In no case should you start supplementing your newborn with formula milk, otherwise he will get used to easily getting food from the nipple and refuse to suckle. Milk will come in 2-3 days. Don't rush things.
One of the effective ways to improve lactation is the use of natural preparations based on the royal jelly of bees. For example, the drug Apilak Grindeks, which contains 10 mg of natural royal jelly, will provide the body with all the necessary vitamins and macro- and microelements to maintain vitality and comprehensive assistance to the body. It contains the same valuable substances as in breast milk: proteins, fats, carbohydrates, a group of vitamins (A, C, B1, B2 B3, B5 B6, B12, E, K, folic acid), macro and microelements (calcium , iron, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, sodium, potassium).
Apilac Grindeks has been clinically proven effective in the treatment of hypogalactia by gently stimulating milk secretion in women suffering from this problem.
What rules to follow?
Old views on the sterility of the maternal nipple are being revised. Moreover, modern doctors believe that it is impossible to wash the chest with soap or gel. The nipples are very tender and can crack from the soap, which dries out the skin. Think about the smell - the baby will recognize the mother by the smell, and if she smells the same soap as the rest, he will not recognize her, get worried and may refuse to breastfeed. It makes sense to wash the breast no more than 2 times a day with warm water without soap.
The use of brilliant green and other disinfectants to lubricate the nipples can lead to overdrying of the skin and cracked nipples. The nipples are covered with a natural lubricant that protects them from external influences. You don't need to wash it off with soapy water.
If you feed your baby and he starts crying after 1-2 hours, breastfeed him again. Maybe he didn't have enough to eat last time. It is necessary to feed the baby at his first request, and not to maintain a schedule. A baby, of course, can cry for another reason - a wet diaper, a tummy ache or something else, but hunger is the most common reason for crying.
You should not interrupt the familiar and familiar aroma of mother's breasts with a sharp smell of soap or shower gel. How often to feed the baby?
Babies suckle breasts in different ways, depending on their strength and character. There are children who suck actively and quickly fill up. Others breastfeed slowly, resting occasionally. The first days a woman feeds a baby very often. A regimen is gradually developed - eating every 1.5-2 hours. The mother and child should come to such a regimen on their own, without forcibly limiting the number of feedings.
Don't take your baby off the breast when you think he's full. At first, babies very often suck their mother also because feeding is a way for him to communicate with his closest person. During suckling, he calms down and can fall asleep.
No need to accustom a newborn to a pacifier. On the street, it is convenient to give him a pacifier so that he does not have to go home and breastfeed. This habit, however, does not increase lactation, unlike breast sucking. The more the baby suckles breastfeeding, the more lactation is stimulated. When part of the feeding is replaced by a dummy, the woman's milk gradually disappears. The psychological connection between the baby and mother is also present only during breastfeeding. A dummy does not establish such a connection.
A pacifier is more of an emergency measure than a panacea, so it should be used extremely rarely. When is pumping necessary?
If the mother follows the above rules, there is no need to express the breast. Previously, when a mother fed a baby by the hour, her breasts would overflow with unclaimed milk. He had to be squeezed. When a newborn is breastfed on demand, there is no excess milk left. The baby, as it were, makes an order for a certain amount of milk - how much he eats this time, the same amount will arrive next. When pumping after feeding, the next time there will be more milk than the baby is able to eat. This can lead to lactostasis.
Pumping leads to another trouble. Thick milk, which contains lactase, is removed from the breast. This enzyme breaks down the sugar that is present in mother's liquid milk. When feeding, the baby will receive the liquid part of the milk with a lot of sugar. This sugar will enter the intestines, which can upset the stool. When there is a need to express:
- The mother leaves the house for a long time, another relative will have to feed the newborn with milk from a bottle (we recommend reading:). To do this, the mother stores breast milk in advance.
- The woman produces too much milk and the breasts harden. There is a danger of mastitis.
- Lactation is reduced, the mother is not able to provide the child with milk. This happens when the baby feels unwell and has little strength to actively suck on his mother.
- In connection with the illness of a woman, treatment with drugs prohibited for the baby was required. In this case, they are expressed to maintain lactation until the mother recovers.
Postures for feeding
How often should you change breasts while breastfeeding? This should be done no more than once every 2 hours. Only with this tactic will the baby receive both types of milk - liquid and thick.
In order for the milk not to stagnate, it is necessary to change the position of the child during feeding. Practice says that where the baby's chin rests, milk comes from there. Changing posture is an excellent prevention of mastitis.
When applying to the breast, pay attention to the area where the baby is grabbing the nipple. He must take into his mouth not only the nipple itself, but also the area around it - the areola. His lips will be as if turned outward - with such a grip, feeding will be successful. If you do not follow the capture of the nipple, the baby will swallow air and his tummy will hurt.
The problem of proper nipple latch can also affect the weight gain of the baby - he will absorb less milk, and his weight will lag behind the age norm. The doctor in the clinic sometimes does not have the time or desire to think about the correct capture of the nipple, he will prescribe you complementary foods with milk formula, and this will lead to a decrease in lactation.
Take the baby in your arms and bring it to your chest. Put the nipple deep into his mouth, hold the baby firmly. In this position, the baby does not swallow air, he and his mother will be comfortable.
There are many poses for feeding, but in each of them the child must capture the areola area completely. Is the baby eating?
How do you know if your baby is getting enough milk? This is where the wet diaper method comes in handy. In the first days after birth, the baby pees 5-6 times a day. Gradually, this number increases to 20-25 per day. If your child pees less than 6 times a day, he is not getting enough fluid. In this case, you need to contact the district pediatrician to avoid dehydration of the little man's body.
Should I give water to the baby?
Do I need to feed the baby? If the child is breastfed, he does not need to be supplemented. Milk consists of 80% water. It is heterogeneous in its structure. At the beginning of breast sucking, the baby drinks the liquid part of the milk, which he drinks. Then the milk goes thicker, which serves as food. These 2 types of milk fully meet the baby's needs for food and drink. If you give a baby water to drink, it will occupy a certain volume in his stomach, he will suck his mother less, lactation will decrease.
Do you feed at night?
You must breastfeed at night. It is at this time of day when feeding in large quantities that prolactin is produced - a very important hormone. Prolactin not only promotes lactation, but also stimulates the immune system, anesthetizes, and keeps ovulation during breastfeeding. Mom may not worry that she will become pregnant when the first baby is still too small (we recommend reading:).
So that it is not difficult for the mother to get up, take the child out of the crib, and so on, it is better to put the baby to sleep with you. When he turns over, mom can only give him a breast and sleep on. In the same bed with parents, the baby feels protected and quickly calms down. If you find it uncomfortable to sleep with your baby, place his crib so that he is close to you. Remove the partition between you and the child from it. Then the mother will be able to take the child to her bed only for the time of feeding.
When to introduce complementary foods?
Don't rush into feeding. Up to six months, a baby can easily manage with mother's milk. After 6 months, complementary foods can be introduced to introduce the baby to different flavors of food. Complementary foods should not replace breastfeeding. Mom's milk is much healthier than any vegetable puree. With early supplementation of feedings with baby vegetable purees, mother's milk is gradually replaced by other, less useful products.
What should a mother eat during lactation?
A healthy balanced diet for a nursing mother is very important for active lactation. The nutrition of a woman must be thought out in advance (we recommend reading:). Many substances from food and medicine pass into mother's milk and can harm the baby. Some foods cause allergies, and drugs bring tangible harm. It is not necessary to prescribe treatment for yourself - this should be done by the therapist, taking into account your situation.
Mothers should exclude allergenic foods from their diet. Do not eat red and orange vegetables and fruits. Smoked meats, pickles, spicy and fatty foods should be excluded from the diet. Do not eat seafood, nuts, honey, chocolate.
It is necessary to limit the content in the mother's diet of products that cause fermentation. They will not harm the mother, and the baby will have a tummy ache. Such products include cabbage, grapes, radishes, radishes, chocolates and other sweets.
- dairy products;
- rice, buckwheat, oatmeal;
- yellow and green vegetables and fruits;
- vegetable soups;
- lean meat;
- durum wheat bread.
Dairy products are great for breastfeeding moms How much to feed a child?
Until what age should a child be fed? Many women believe that it is enough to feed up to 1 year. This is wrong - you can feed up to 2 or up to 3 years. In a year, the baby receives many other products, but is in no hurry to refuse the breast. Sucking on his mother's breast calms him down. By forcibly stopping feeding, you will injure the child psychologically, and this will also affect the health of your mammary glands. Wait until the baby refuses breast milk on his own.
