Good Baby TipsTips for keeping your baby happy and healthy

The most important factor that influences a mother’s decision to breast feed her baby, as discussed in the previous article, is perhaps the nutritional benefits of breast milk. However, there are a number of other advantages of breast feeding that should be taken into consideration.

Immunological Benefits

Every time the human body is attacked by a disease, it develops immunity against it i.e. some special cells become sensitized to a particular type of virus or bacterium. The next time that disease attacks, there are cells that can fight it off. If the immunity is strong enough, the body may not catch that disease again.

When a mother breast feeds, much of the immunity she has developed herself is passed on to the baby through the antibodies present in her milk. For many years, doctors thought that breast-fed babies contracted fewer infections, compared to bottle-fed ones, because breast milk, coming directly from the mother, was free of any bacteria whereas bottle milk had higher chances of contamination. However, it was observed that even when infants were given formula milk in sterilized bottles they contracted more gut, ear, respiratory or urinary infections.

According to Jack Newman, a mother’s milk is not only safer for a child; it also contains Antibodies (immunoglobulins) that help to develop a child’s immune system. An infant is not born completely helpless against foreign diseases; during pregnancy the mother passes her antibodies to the child through the placenta, however, after birth, breast milk helps strengthen the immune system by delivering antibodies and a battery of other infection-fighting agents. (Click for source) Specific components of breast milk kill harmful bacteria and virus cells, while promoting the growth of helpful ones. A mother’s milk also delivers hormones for speedy maturation of the child’s digestive track.

As recorded in Consumer Reports, breast-fed babies are reported to develop fewer lifelong allergies that are mostly caused by dairy products. They are also at a lower risk of suffering from allergic skin conditions such as eczema. Babies receiving breast milk have fewer colds and stomach upsets (saving them from life-threatening forms of diarrhea.) The antibodies in the milk help the body to fight against mumps, measles, chicken pox, tetanus, pneumonia, meningitis etc. Breast-fed babies also have a lesser chance of becoming overweight adults. They run a lower risk of developing diabetes, appendicitis, arthritis or multiple sclerosis later in life.

Breast feeding a baby does not guarantee that your child will never get sick, but it does lower the chances by equipping the baby’s immune system to fight with the disease.

Benefits to the Mother

Breast feeding helps a mother to lose the extra high-energy fat that she has gained during pregnancy. According to Dr. Spock, it also helps the mother’s uterus to return back to its normal size. When the baby nurses, the muscle wall of the uterus contracts vigorously to hasten its return to its normal position and size.

Research has also shown that breast feeding can reduce the chances of breast, uterine and ovarian cancer, or osteoporosis after menopause for the mother. The younger you are when you breast feed and the longer you do it, the lower the chances become. Women who breast feed their child often do not menstruate during those months, which acts as an aid to birth control. (Click for source)

Practical Benefits

Breast feeding is also practically convenient. It saves a lot of time because there are no bottles to wash and sterilize, no measuring of formula and water to prepare the milk and no worries of refrigeration and proper storage. Breast milk is not only safer because it does not require protection from bacteria, measuring, mixing and storing, it is also more convenient as it is available anywhere the mother is.

There are also economic advantages to be considered. As breast feeding does not require any bottles and formula, an infant’s parents save money. Also, as discussed before, it reduces the chances of the child contracting diseases; it also saves the parents’ money on hospital bills and medical treatments.

Closeness between Mother and Child

Breast feeding an infant is the best way to develop closeness between a mother and a child. For a mother this bond stems from the knowledge that she is truly the source of nourishment for her growing infant. This feeling is concretized when she sees her baby’s response, his fondness for feeding and his satisfaction expressed by smiling, giggling or general having a content demeanor.

Dr. Spock, in Baby and Child Care, evidences mothers who have breast-fed and express their views about the satisfaction that comes with breast feeding and knowing that they can provide their baby with something no one else can. It is a misconception that a mother feels close to the baby because he was born to her. The development of this closeness, the time when she really feels joyous for being a mother, is when she is feeding her baby. She becomes a real mother when she’s taking care of her child. It is for this reason that breast feeding, after the first few weeks of nursing, becomes pleasurable for the mother; a time for relaxation and bonding between her and her baby.

Dr. Sheldon H. Cherry, a well-known obstetrician and gynecologist in New York’s Mount Sinal Hospital, in his book Understanding Pregnancy and Childbirth, asserts that the decision to breast-feed or bottle-feed a baby should be completely left to the mother’s personal preferences. As she is the one taking care of the baby, it is important for her to feel comfortable with the decision. Being pressured into either method of feeding will only lead to discontentment.

Dr. Benjamin Spock in Baby and Child Care is of the opinion that as a general principle it is always safer to adopt natural ways with your baby unless there is an exception and the mother is absolutely sure that there is another, better way. In recent years, the number of breast feeding mothers is growing, as there are definite advantages known of breast feeding and perhaps others that have not yet been discovered. There are many factors that contribute to a mother’s decision to breast feed her baby. The most important one, perhaps, is the nutritional benefits of breast milk for the infant. The more research is conducted upon breast milk and its contents, the more doctors are convinced that it is the perfect food for babies.

The Nutritional Benefits:

“There are 4,000 species of mammals and they all make different milk. Human milk is made for human infants and it meets all their specific nutrient needs,” says Ruth Lawrence, M.D., professor of pediatrics and obstetrics at the University Of Rochester School Of Medicine, and spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics. (Click for source) Each species’ milk has specific qualities that ensure the survival of its offspring in a particular environment. This principle is known as the biological specificity of milk. For instance, mother seals produce high-fat milk because baby seals need a lot of body fat to survive in cold water. Similarly, since brain development is crucial to the survival of humans, human milk provides nutrients for rapid brain growth. Not only does breast milk provide the best nutrition for an infant, it is specifically tailored to meet the needs as the baby grows. The milk changes its composition to meet the child’s changing needs. (Click for source)

Does breast milk contain everything a child needs? Does he require any supplements?

Vicki Lansky in the Complete Pregnancy and Baby Book expresses the opinion that as more is learnt about breast milk and its contents it becomes more obvious that breast milk contains a perfectly balanced amount of nutrients for optimal absorption in a baby’s body.

Early researches suggested that breast milk was nutritionally inadequate for infants, for instance, it did not contain a sufficient amount of iron for growing infants, which made doctors concerned about babies becoming anemic. However, it has been proven that these researches were based on inadequate studies and techniques and the small amount of iron present in the mother’s milk is optimal for absorption and enough to keep the baby from becoming anemic.

Some doctors are still concerned about the amount of fluoride present in breast milk and may suggest supplementing the baby with fluoride drops. However, babies have thrived even before the invention of fluoride drops and iron supplements, because breast milk is optimal itself. The doctors’ recommendation of these supplementary nutrients is often attributed to the fact that benefits of breast-feeding are not studied in depth and are overlooked in American Medical schools by summarizing them in one sentence “Breast feeding is best.” (Click for source)

Does formula milk contain all the same nutrients as breast milk?

For some mothers, due to various reasons, breast feeding is not an option and infant formulas have to be used. According to Dr. W. Steven Pray, Ph.D. Professor, School of Pharmacy, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, “Infant formulas have a difficult gap to fill. They must mimic breast milk as closely as possible. Yet it is difficult to produce a formula equal in all respects to breast milk, because its exact chemical composition is not yet known.” As every baby has unique nutritional requirements, according to his age, birth weight and growth rate, breast milk changes to suit these requirements whereas formula milk is a compromise between ideal infant nutrition and starvation. (Click for source)

Infant formula contains synthetic replicas of the nutrients found in breast milk. However, breast milk is so complex that it is estimated that there are still hundreds of ingredients in it that haven’t been discovered yet. Many of those that have been discovered cannot be replicated in a lab. Thus, formula milk is an imitation of breast milk but not a duplication. In addition, many ingredients in formula are as such that they cannot be readily absorbed and utilized by the baby’s body. For example, the iron found in infant formula is not easily absorbed. This can cause problems such as the baby becoming anemic from lack of iron absorption into the bloodstream or constipation due to the extra unabsorbed iron lying in the intestines.(Click for source)

Some babies want water; others don’t. It is not absolutely necessary, because the amount of fluid in the feed is enough to satisfy the baby’s ordinary needs. However, it is important to note that babies younger than 6 months of age should not be given water.

Is there a difference between the water requirements of breast-fed and bottle-fed babies?
According to Dr. Sears, “Breastfeeding babies do not need extra water, though formula-fed babies often do. Your breast milk contains enough water for your baby (it is 88% water,) even in hot, dry climates. Formula contains higher concentrations of salts and minerals than breast milk does, so that extra water is often necessary for the kidneys to excrete the extra salt. Also, because of less efficient metabolism, formula-fed infants lose more water.” (Click for source.)

Doctors often recommend that formula-fed babies should be given sips of water beyond 6 months of age when solid foods are introduced, to avoid constipation. However, this is only a suggestion, not a strict condition.  Don’t force your baby to drink water if he does not want to, he knows how much his body requires.

How much water should a baby be given?
Beyond 6 months, a baby can be given around 2-4 ounces of water a day. The baby will mostly need this water in hot weather or when he has a fever. However, it should be kept in mind that the amount of water being given should not be significant enough to affect the amount of his breast or formula milk intake. If a baby requires water it should only be offered after he has satisfied his hunger with milk. According to Dr. Spock in Baby and Child Care, babies do not really want water till they are a year old. If the baby requires it, he won’t require more than 2-3 ounces a day. 

What is the risk of giving the baby too much water?
According to physicians at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, babies should not be given water before 6 months. This is because the baby’s kidneys are not mature enough and giving him water causes him to lose excess of sodium along with water. This condition is called Water Intoxication. (Click for source.)

Dr. Jennifer Anders, a pediatric emergency physician, is of the opinion that “even when they’re very tiny, babies have an intact thirst reflex or a drive to drink. When they have that thirst and they want to drink, the fluid they need to drink more of is breast milk or formula.” When, instead, children are given extra water, they lose sodium leading to Water Intoxication. The first symptoms that a parent might notice include irritability, drowsiness, low body temperature (generally 97 degrees or less), puffiness or swelling in the face, and seizures. (ibid)

Using Safe Water.
It is important to ensure that the water you are giving your baby is safe. If you are unsure of its quality it is a good idea to boil it till the child is a year old. The water should also be tested for bacteria and nitrates. The presence of nitrates in water causes blueness of lips and skin of babies.

What if the baby does not take water beyond 6 months?
Beyond this age you might have several reasons for wanting the baby to drink more water, for example, if you are trying to get him off night feed, or he’s taking too little milk as a result of some illness, or the weather is too hot etc. If the child refuses to take plain water you could add a little sugar, honey or gripe water in it. Another technique is also to use a sippy cup and add ice cubes of different shapes in the water. This will make the water look more interesting to the baby.

Sucking is a child’s inherent need. According to Vicki Lansky in Complete Pregnancy & Baby Book, Nonnutritive sucking (that is, sucking for pleasure and not for nutrition) is one of the baby’s first means of exploration. Babies use their mouths for exploring the world by touching and tasting objects.

Rosemarie Van Norman is a Certified Orofacial Myologist – an expert in thumb and finger sucking. She says, “Thumb-sucking actually makes the brain produce endorphins, which calm the body and give the child pleasure-almost like that feeling of satisfaction you get after eating a big meal. There’s an actual change in body chemistry that takes place when a child sucks his thumb.” (Click for source)

 
What to do if my baby sucks his thumb?
The main reason that a baby sucks his thumb is that he hasn’t had enough sucking at the breast or bottle to satisfy his sucking needs. Every baby varies in his sucking instincts. Most start it before three months of age but some start to thumb suck in the delivery room and keep at it. Some are even seen in an ultrasound, inside the womb, sucking their thumbs. It might be an instinct running in the family.

It is not a matter of concern if the baby sucks his thumb for only a few minutes before his feeding time. He is probably hungry. It becomes a cause of concern when he tries to get his thumb just as soon as his feed is over, or when he sucks a lot between feeds. This means that his sucking desire is not being fulfilled and it would be a good idea to let him suck on the bottle or breast for a few extra minutes. You should also think of ways to satisfy his sucking desire, for instance, by giving him a dummy or pacifier. The most effective method, by far, to prevent thumb sucking is the ample use of the dummy/pacifier in first 3 months because the baby’s need to suck is strongest during that period.

Is there a difference in the tendency of breast-fed babies and bottle-fed babies to become thumb suckers?
In his book, Baby and Child Care, Dr. Benjamin Spock expresses the opinion that breast-fed babies are less likely to become thumb suckers. This is because the baby gets the maximum amount of milk in the first 5-6 minutes of feeding and nurses on the breast for several more minutes just to satisfy his desire. On the other hand, a bottle-fed baby, after finishing his bottle in a few minutes does not suck on it for long either because he does not like to take in air or the mother removes the bottle when it’s empty.

For breast-fed babies who become thumb suckers, try to keep the baby at each breast for as long as he wants. If he doesn’t want to nurse any longer, there is nothing you can do about it except offering him the other breast and keeping him there for as long as he desires. For bottle-fed babies, thumb sucking starts when the baby starts to finish his bottle in 10 minutes instead of 20. To avoid this it is recommended to often change the rubber teats that allow air to enter the bottle. When they become old and loose and let air come in, the baby can finish the milk quicker. When the bottle is more air-tight it will take the child longer to finish it. This practice should be kept up for at least the first 6 months.

For thumb suckers, drop feeds slowly.
It is not only the length of each feed but the number of feeds given to a baby that determine his thumb sucking too. With such babies it is advisable to drop feeds slowly. A child might be content with sleeping through a feed time with a lot of thumb sucking. In this scenario that particular feed time should not be dropped rapidly as the child’s thumb sucking indicates that he is feeling hungry.

Does thumb sucking affect a child’s teeth or thumbs?
As many parents are concerned, thumb sucking does not affect a child’s permanent teeth. True, thumb sucking can result in pushing the upper milk teeth forward and the lower teeth back (depending on the frequency of sucking and the position the thumb is held in,) but it does not affect the permanent teeth that start to appear around 6 years of age.

Some parents also worry that if a child sucks on his thumb it will not grow properly. That is not true, it might become sore and soggy due to the enzymes in the saliva that cause a mild dermatitis, but according to Dr. Hilary Jones, that can be easily cured by cortisone creams.  (Click for source)

Why do babies suck their thumbs beyond 6 months?
Up till now, the discussion of thumb sucking was related to babies less than 6 months. If a baby continues to suck his thumb beyond this age, it is not due to hunger but because he finds comfort in the act. Babies older than 6 months often have a desire to return to the state when they had a close bond with the mother and nestled at her breast. Simultaneously they also want to preserve the freedom they acquire when they leave breast feeding. Thumb sucking then works as a comforter when the baby is tired, bored or frustrated.
  
Isn’t it better if a child is prevented from thumb sucking as soon as he shows the first signs?
If your baby starts thumb, finger or hand sucking, it is not preferable to stop him directly. This habit usually tapers off itself in a few months. Some parents try to put restraints on children, for instance tying down a baby’s arms or putting aluminum mittens on them. In mild cases of thumb sucking this might prove helpful but it does not cure permanent thumb suckers because as soon as the restraints are taken off, the baby puts his thumb back in his mouth. Sometimes babies also suck and chew their tongue when they do not have anything else to suck on. This practice is called ruminating. It often happens when the baby cannot access his thumb. It is strongly advised to let such a baby suck on this thumb instead of his tongue so that ruminating does not become a habit.

Doctors have observed that other techniques such as elbow splints, mitts and bad-tasting stuff only makes the child miserable, doesn’t make him stop and in some cases, actually prolongs the habit. So if your child is still sucking his thumb beyond the age of six, do not scold him or jump forward to pull his thumb out of his mouth every time. Instead, it would be a good idea to keep things around (toys for example) to distract the child into forgetting about sucking his thumb.

Should parents worry?
Parents often worry needlessly about their baby’s thumb sucking. If the child is generally active, outgoing and happy, which most thumb suckers are and as it has been noticed, children severely deprived of affection don’t thumb-suck, the parents need not worry. If a child is sucking his thumb for a great deal of time the parents should think of things they can do so that the child doesn’t need to comfort himself so much. For example, maybe he is bored and needs other children’s company, or perhaps he’s scolded too often and needs a little more freedom to do what he likes etc. The most important thing for parents is not to keep worrying constantly about their baby’s thumb sucking. This would lead them to nag him all the time and even if they don’t, the child would feel their anxiety and react to it. Thumb sucking, in an overwhelming number of cases, peters out itself between the ages of 3 and 6.

Contrary to the general perception, babies have a strong sense of hunger and know a lot more about their diet than they are given credit for. It is important to realize that feeding is a great joy for babies; it is where they get their first ideas about life. So instead of trying to feed him as much as prescribed by feeding charts, it is important to look for his satisfaction. Trust the baby’s instincts, when he wants to stop, let him, even if there is a little milk left in the bottle. If a mother constantly tries to urge her baby to take more than he wants, he is bound to become uninterested in feeding and might develop an early idea about life as a struggle. In the words of Dr. Benjamin Spock in Baby and Child Care the baby might develop the idea that “those people are always after you. You have to fight to protect yourself.” On the other hand, if you give the baby as much as he wants it will lead him to developing a positive attitude towards life. The baby’s satisfaction with the amount of feed taken can be noticed when he is groggy with pleasure and falls asleep, when he makes sucking motions during sleep and his countenance is blissful or simply by his attitude of contentment during the gaps between feeding times.

But there must be some way to assure that the baby takes the amount of feed required for his age. For this, hospitals often give diet-charts that prescribe how many ounces of milk and water should be mixed and what times, e.g. 6 a.m., 10a.m., 2 p.m., 6 p.m., 10 p.m., and 2 a.m., should the baby be fed. These amounts and timings have been derived by doctors after calculations of what the babies generally need at a specific age and weight. Sticking to some kind of schedule might be a good plan but it is also important to remember that the baby is not a machine. Every baby is unique and knows how much milk his body needs and what amount his digestive system can handle.

It is important to be regular but flexible with a baby’s feeding schedule. During the first half of the twentieth century it was a common practice to keep babies on very strict and regular schedules, to force them to have the prescribed amount of milk at prescribed times, regardless of their own will. The generally held idea was that severe intestinal infections were caused not only by contamination of milk but also by wrong proportions of irregular feedings. Thus by keeping them on a regular schedule, doctors tried to avoid these infections that plagued thousands of children yearly. Doctors were also of the opinion that irregular feeding would spoil a child thus the child must be ignored at all times except the prescribed feeding times. Even though strict regularity worked with most of the babies, there was a percentage whose stomachs found it hard to hold four hours of milk.

It took many years for doctors to start experimenting with flexible schedules and their results showed that flexibility did not lead to diarrhea or indigestion and did not spoil the child either. It is observed that if babies are fed on demand, they fall into quite a regular pattern themselves too. According to the CNN Health Library: Most newborns breast-feed eight to 12 times a day — about every two to three hours. Within two to three months, your baby may be satisfied with six to eight feedings a day. Eventually your baby will fall into a fairly predictable feeding schedule, taking in more milk in less time at each feeding.

It should also be kept in consideration that a baby does not take the same amount of milk at all times. He may want more milk during ‘growth spurts’- often at 10 to 14 days after birth, as well as at three weeks, six weeks, three months and six months (ibid.)

Keeping the baby on a self-demand feeding schedule or a regular one is not a strict condition. Some young parents, in order to be progressive, take self-demand feeding to the opposite extreme, thinking there is something fundamentally wrong with scheduled feeding. The purpose of following any kind of feeding practice is not to make it a religious or political conviction, but to find convenience for yourself and the baby, which means getting down to a fairly (not rigidly) regular routine and omitting the night feeds as soon as the baby is ready. Parents need their sleep to keep up their spirits in order to look after their child. 

Self-demand feeding may work perfectly if the baby is a rather calm one, the mother does not have very strict schedules to follow herself and does not mind being woken up in the middle of the night. If a mother feeds her baby irregularly for a fairly long time it does not nutritionally harm the mother or the baby, the doctors’ only concerns are that a mother might end up giving up too much of her own life and activities for the baby. This attitude, in the long run, is psychologically harmful.

The main consideration for the baby is that he must not have to cry for long periods because of hunger. Follow the baby’s early hunger cues (such as stirring and stretching, sucking motions and lip movements) and feed him. However, babies have a tendency to fall into a regular feeding schedules themselves and their schedules can be conveniently managed by the mothers with a little guidance. As the baby grows older his stomach grows and his capacity to drink milk increases and his intervals between two feeding times can be prolonged. The trick to that is that mothers should not start feeding as soon as the baby stirs and whimpers only a couple of hours after the last feed. They should hold back a few minutes, distract him with a toy, and accustom his stomach to longer intervals. If the feeding is started promptly the baby will only be accustomed to short intervals and small feeds.

Most babies who are relaxed and are good feeders fall into a fairly regular four-hour routine a month after birth. Those who are listless, restless, fretful wakers can be smoothed into this routine slowly if the mother keeps working gently towards more regular feeds.