Search Results for 'breast feeding'

[Anonymous]

I have a question about the amount of milk/formula babies drink when they have reflux. I breastfeed, so it’s kind of hard to really know how much Cade is drinking, but on the occasions that I’ve left a bottle for my husband or the sitter, he only drinks about 2-3 oz. Since my milk’s come in, he has always only drank from one side at each feeding. I now realize this was a bit of self preservation because if he drinks more, he always spits it up (I also have an overactive letdown and lots of milk). Anyway, while he’s drinking for longer periods of time (in the beginning I was lucky if he stayed latched for 5 minutes, now he’s consistently on for 10 minutes. GREAT for going about my day, not-so-great for getting through the night without him needing to eat again…) He’s now 9 weeks and I tried to get him to drink from both sides since he’s going a bit longer between feedings (up to 2.5-3 hours), but he won’t drink more and seems perfectly content. The pediatrician said he should be drinking 5-6 oz. per feeding by now, especially if he’s ever going to sleep through the night. She doesn’t understand how he can be so big drinking 2-3 oz. at a time (he’s 14 lbs.).

Do all reflux babies drink a little at a time? I know they say to limit how much they drink, feed them more frequently, etc., but I just wanted to see how everyone else’s babies handle the milk volume (breastfed or formula).

Thanks!
Andrea

[Anonymous]

If your nipple stings, especially when the water hits it… then I would suspect thrush..

But the whole breast being sore, sounds more like a breast infection/mastitis.

Just to be on the safe side… even if it’s not thrush, since you are on the antibiotics and could develop it from that… you may want to wipe out Kate’s mouth after each feeding and take a probiotic.

[Anonymous]

My three month old, breastfed baby seems to take in a lot of air during feedings. I’ve been block feeding and I had his latch evaluated by a Lactation consultant so no problem there. It just seems like he takes in a LOT of air when he swallows. Heck, even when I give him his Zantac he seems to gulp and swallow a lot.

I didn’t think about it too much when he was smaller because I thought maybe it was something he would outgrow. He hasn’t though and it really seems like it causes him a lot of discomfort. In fact, in sometimes seems like that causes him more discomfort than the reflux does! I have to burp him continuously or he’s so uncomfortable.

Is this normal? Is this something he’ll outgrow? Is there anything else I can do?

[Anonymous]

Hey Everyone

I wasn’t sure where exactly to post this but I hope it’s okay here. I’m in SO much pain right now and I can’t get to the doctor untill the morning so I know it’s the 4th of July but HELP!!! I’m a first time mommy so I’m not quite sure what this is. It’s just my right breast and it’s SUPER tender to the touch and aches starting today. It stings a little at the beginning of feeding the baby and subsides after but comes back in minutes. No lumps(blocked ducts), no streaks, I feel fine except for the throbbing, no fever, and Kate doesn’t have any thing in her mouth(thrush?) I don’t know what this could be. Could it be a breast infection? I’m just having trouble with my right side and like I said it just started today. If it is and I end up on antibiotics, should I be worried aboutClostridium difficile? I’ve heard that somewhere and was wondering what it was. Anyway, thanks for the help if you have any!

[Anonymous]

We weaned from meds for our first at 12 months. I was breast feeding and kept breast feeding for one more month as we didn’t want no meds + milk. Milk at 13 months went fine. My ped. tried to have us wean at 6 months, telling us most kids grow out of reflux at 6 months. It was a terrible experience. I thought “is she crazy, growing out of it at 6 months, I can’t imagine someone growing out of it at 6 months.

Then, with our 2nd, the day he turned 6 months he was miraculously better. I was off dairy as he was MPI, but other than that, it was like he was cured. We weaned off the meds by 6 and 1/2 months. After 2 and 1/2 pretty good months, I started eating dairy again. He seems ok (will be 10 months in a few days).

I guess I have 2 points. One, each kid will be ready to wean at a different time. You sound calm about out. I’m sure you’ll figure out when she’s ready. Two, when you wean, try not to combine it with any other change in diet — i.e. at 12 months if you’re going to milk, etc.

Good luck.

[hellbennt]

I waited until into my babies’ 6th month to start solids.
I waited for all the signs: able to sit up fully upright without toppling over, didn’t push foods back out (no tongue thrusting reflex), was able to bring objects with hands into mouth…

I read this article which states, as I believe, there is no reason to start foods in any particular order: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/

American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement on Breastfeeding

http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;115/2/496

cons of pureees (not sure I agree 100% but find it interesting nonetheless): http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21924101-5006007,00.html

I started w/ avocado, banana, sweet potato & pretty much just gave oatmeal or barley cereal sometimes to mix in w/ jarred fruits/veggies (all organic)

I did not introduce proteins until babies are 9months old- beans, poultry, soy, meat, yogurt, egg yolk, etc

I am very interested in this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby-led_weaning

http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voeds…

http://www.babyledweaning.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/B-LW/

http://blwbaby.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_blwbaby_archive.html

http://www.myblwexperiences.blogspot.com/

http://www.babybanana.biz/page4.htm

http://kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/index.html

http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detwean.html

this is what I do/did.

~laura

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your replies. Yes, I’m breastfeeding and I got excited about the thought of putting it in a bottle with bm, but you’re right – doesn’t work with the timing thing. Darn! I also tried the pacifier route, but he gagged on the pacifier, and the medicine came out with it. He’s very picky about the pacifier and sometimes gags on it and other times loves it. I enlisted the help of my husband tonight and between the two of us, we coaxed (and, unfortunately, forced) the medicine down, but he did spit quite a bit of it back out.

The prescription said only one dose daily, but I might split it up into two times daily(and actually increase it a bit since I’m reading that 2.5 ml isn’t going to be very effective) to see if he’ll accept the smaller doses throughout the day. We have a doctor’s appt. Tuesday, but I’m feeling that the pediatrician is just humoring me by giving me such a small dose. He didn’t want to give Cade any medication, wanted to see if he’d “grow out of it” first. I later called and insisted on the meds. Anyway, I’m going to ask him all these questions Tues., but I have a bad feeling that he’ll blow it off again. Who wants to watch their kid suffer for 3+ months to see if he’ll “grow out of it”??? Not me!

Thanks for the info!
Andrea

[hellbennt]

welcome!

well for one thing what form is the Prevacid? there’s ‘Prevacid 101’ that should help you- it can be accessed from 2 places- first of all it’s linked from Groupie Intro, which is stickied in the Introduce Yourself forum- groupie intro is my welcome/intro & please please bookmark it so you can refer back to it– there’s a lot of info there (sorry for it being overwhelming) so you’ll find that you scroll/skim through to find what you need & then come back– there’s even a ‘section’ about breastfeeding your GERDling

Prevacid 101 is also found in the Medicines forum, there’s a sticky there called ‘treating GERD w/ PPIs’ this is a very informative thread, and Prevacid 101 is a few posts down into the thread

[Anonymous]

I can’t believe I’m even typing this – my first ds was a reflux baby. I guess I thought I knew what I was doing, but no such luck…

My ds is 3 months old. I suspected he had reflux from the beginning. He was arching all the time. Terrible sleeper, etc. By about 2 weeks old I was certain and we took him to the dr. She prescribed Zantac to start with. As is typical, the Zantac helped for a whopping week. Then it wasn’t cutting it. So we put him on Prevacid once daily. Zantac twice daily.

After poking around this site and Marci-kids I called the doctor and asked her if we could put ds on 7.5mg of Prevacid 3 times daily. She okayed that.

So here are my questions: How in the world do I get all this medicine into him?? He’s breastfed so timing feedings is hard! I know the Zantac and Prevacid have to be spread out 4 hours. The Prevacid has to be given on an empty stomach (how long does it take a breastfed baby’s stomach to empty?) and then you have to wait 30 to 60 minutes to give a feeding. What does your feeding and medicine schedule look like?? I’m feeling really overwhelmed by all of this….

[Anonymous]

They are all different when it comes to eating. My two oldest ate chunkier foods fine by 9 months. Caden is 8 months and is starting to become interested in chunkier foods and beginning to chew, but I have friends whose babies weren’t ready for chunky foods until after 9 months. She will get it soon, don’t worry

As for wiping the teeth…I’m a breastfeeding mom, but with our 3rd child, adopted from China, I gave her a bed time bottle until she was 18 months old (for bonding and attachment purposes), and I asked her ped about it. He said not to worry. The decay mostly comes from babies who are allowed to actually sleep WITH the bottle, and the milk begins to pool around the teeth while they’re sleeping. He said the milk on the teeth right before bed is not a problem.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I’m so happy you found someone you trust and can talk to. He sounds seems to be very knowledgeable and it’s great that he promotes breast feeding. I hope the tests provide the answers you need. Good luck and please keep us posted.

[Anonymous]

Hi all-

Laura-Dr. Putnam is supposed to be one of the best. He’s booked till November The only way for someone to get an earlier appt. is if they’re dealing with EE or FPIES. He is very knowledgable about food allergy and intolerance. I hope we don’t need him. Thanks for your reply.

Naomi-We’re familiar with Dr. Kaul. He’s the motility guru. Couldn’t get an appt till August. I don’t think we can go that long without a plan. Thanks so much for asking.

Our appt. with the new doc. was kinda comforting. We seem to be on the same page and he’s easy to communicate with. He says he believes in doing whatever it takes to keep babies breastfeeding as long as it’s not going to become unhealthy for them.

He wants to scope Eli next week. He wants to see if there is inflammation and if so, allergic or acidic. He said if it’s allergic then we may be able to treat the symptoms with steriods and continue bf. If it’s acidic then it’s just a matter of finding the right drugs and dosing. Eli might just have a faster metabolism.

So…..I wish we would have found this doc. 3 years ago with Evan. He seems to be eduacated as well as having some common sense. My husband and I both feel like he’s a good match for us. We both like that he laid out the possibillities. Most of all he promotes breastfeeding.

The bad….Eli has to be off his meds 5 days prior to the scope. As much as the don’t make things good…It’s going to be hell without them I am soooo scared. Lots of nursing in the shower, I guess

Thanks for all the replies.

Jennifer

[Anonymous]

We thickened Bryce’s breast milk for awhile and while the milk didn’t actually get “thick” it did help with his vomiting some.

[Anonymous]

Hi-
We feed our baby both breastmilk and formula at the same feeding. My sister-in-law said that both her and a friend of hers had a lot of spitting up and digestive problems with this combo and as soon as they stopped breastfeeding and just used formula it resolved. Has anyone else experienced this? I thought it also could be related to the baby being older when they stopped breastfeeding.

BTW, been on Zantac for about a month now and Ella is much better. Had to increase the dose a bit, but then she was fine…

[Anonymous]

hi, before you try CIO, i hope you will take a minute to read this, from dr sears, who also had a high needs baby himself. my friend just forwarded this to me….his sleep advice really saved a lot of my friends and me.

LETTING BABY “CRY-IT-OUT” YES, NO!

If only my baby could talk instead of cry I would know what she wants,” said Janet, a new mother of a fussy baby. “Your baby can talk,” we advised. “The key is for you to learn how to listen. When you learn the special language of your baby’s cry, you will be able to respond sensitively. Here are some listening tips that will help you discover what your baby is trying to say when he cries.

The cry is not just a sound; it’s a signal – designed for the survival of the baby and development of the parents. By not responding to the cry, babies and parents lose. Here’s why. In the early months of life, babies cannot verbalize their needs. To fill in the gap until the child is able to “speak our language,” babies have a unique language called “crying.” Baby senses a need, such as hunger for food or the need to be comforted when upset, and this need triggers a sound we call a cry. Baby does not ponder in his little mind, “It’s 3:00 a.m. and I think I’ll wake up mommy for a little snack.” No! That faulty reasoning is placing an adult interpretation on a tiny infant. Also, babies do not have the mental acuity to figure out why a parent would respond to their cries at three in the afternoon, but not at three in the morning. The newborn who cries is saying: “I need something; something is not right here. Please make it right.”

At the top of the list of unhelpful advice – one that every new parent is bound to hear – is “Let your baby cry-it-out.” To see how unwise and unhelpful is this advice, let’s analyze each word in this mother-baby connection- interfering phrase.

“Let your baby.” Some third-party advisor who has no biological connection to your baby, no knowledge or investment in your baby, and isn’t even there at 3:00 a.m. when your baby cries, has the nerve to pontificate to you how to respond to your baby’s cries.

The cry is a marvelous design. Consider what might happen if the infant didn’t cry. He’s hungry, but doesn’t awaken (“He sleeps through the night,” brags the parent of a sleep-trained baby). He hurts, but doesn’t let anyone know. The result of this lack of communication is known, ultimately, as “failure to thrive.” “Thriving” means not only getting bigger, but growing to your full potential emotionally, physically, and intellectually.

“Cry…” Not only is the cry a wonderful design for babies; it is a useful divine design for parents, especially the mother. When a mother hears her baby cry, the blood flow to her breasts increases, accompanied by the biological urge to “pick up and nurse” her baby. (“Nurse” means comforting, not just breastfeeding.) As an added biological perk, the maternal hormones released when baby nurses relax the mother, so she gives a less tense and more nurturing response to her infant’s needs. These biological changes – part of the design of the mother-baby communication network – explain why it’s easy for someone else to advise you to let your baby cry, but difficult for you to do. That counterproductive advice is not biologically correct.

“It…” Consider what exactly is the “it” in “cry-it-out”: an annoying habit? Unlikely, since babies don’t enjoy crying. And, contrary to popular thought, crying is not “good for baby’s lungs.” That belief is not physiologically correct. The “it” is an emotional or physical need. Something is not right and the only way baby has of telling us this is to cry, pleading with us to make it right. Early on, consider baby’s cry as signaling a need – communication rather than manipulation.

Parent tip: Babies cry to communicate – not manipulate

“Out” What actually goes “out” of a baby, parents, and the relationship when a baby is left to cry-it-out? Since the cry is a baby’s language, a communication tool, a baby has two choices if no one listens. Either he can cry louder, harder, and produce a more disturbing signal or he can clam up and become a “good baby” (meaning “quiet”). If no one listens, he will become a very discouraged baby. He’ll learn the one thing you don’t want him to: that he can’t communicate.

Baby loses trust in the signal value of his cry – and perhaps baby also loses trust in the responsiveness of his caregivers. Not only does something vital go “out” of baby, an important ingredient in the parent- child relationship goes “out” of parents: sensitivity. When you respond intuitively to your infant’s needs, as you practice this cue- response listening skill hundreds of times in the early months, baby learns to cue better (the cries take on a less disturbing and more communicative quality as baby learns to “talk better”). On the flip side of the mother-infant communication, you learn to read your infant’s cries and respond appropriately (meaning when to say “yes” and when to say “no,” and how fast). In time you learn the ultimate in crying sensitivity: to read baby’s body language and respond to her pre-cry signals so baby doesn’t always have to cry to communicate her needs.

What happens if you “harden your heart,” view the cry as a control rather than a communication tool and turn a deaf ear to baby’s cries? When you go against your basic biology, you desensitize yourself to your baby’s signals and your instinctive responses. Eventually, the cry doesn’t bother you. You lose trust in your baby’s signals, and you lose trust in your ability to understand baby’s primitive language. A distance develops between you and your baby and you run the risk of becoming what pediatricians refer to as a doctor-tell-me-what-to-do. You listen to a book instead of your baby. So, not listening and responding sensitively to baby’s cries is a lose-lose situation: Baby loses trust in caregivers and caregivers lose trust in their own sensitivity.

Mother loses trust in herself. To illustrate how a mother can weaken her God- given sensitivity when she lets herself be less discerning about parenting advice; a sensitive veteran mother recently shared this story with us:

“I went to visit my friend who just had a baby. While we were talking, her three-week-old started crying in another room. The baby kept crying, harder and louder. I was getting increasingly driven to go comfort the baby. Her baby’s cries didn’t bother her, but they bothered me. My breasts almost started to leak milk! Yet, my friend seemed oblivious to her baby’s signals. Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore and I said, ‘It’s okay, go attend to your baby. We can talk later.’ Matter-of-factly she replied, ‘No, it’s not time yet for his feeding.’ Incredulous, I asked, ‘Mary, where on earth did you get that harmful advice?’ ‘From a baby-training class at church,’ she proudly insisted. ‘I want my baby to learn I’m in control, not him.'”

This novice mother, wanting to do the best for her baby and believing she was being a good mother, had allowed herself to succumb to uncredentialed prophets of bad parenting advice and was losing her God-given sensitivity to her baby. She was starting her parenting career with a distance developing between her and her baby. The pair was becoming disconnected.

and sleep links:

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070100.asp