We publish today the third part of this interesting and intense interview with the breastfeeding specialist Ana Charfén. She is titled as IBCLC and she is currently a university professor, Coordinator of Breastfeeding Support Groups in Mexico City, and owner of the COZYBEBE site from where she writes about breastfeeding and parenting and also markets related products.
He usually organizes and teaches breastfeeding courses at Institutes of Health, Universities and Companies, in addition to performing an intense activity in the Mexican media.
In this third part of the IBCLC interview Ana Charfén We will talk about how to achieve a successful breastfeeding, get adequate milk production and other factors of parenting that will also influence breastfeeding.
There are breastfed babies do not gain weight, right?
It may be because the mother is following the advice of someone who does not know much about breastfeeding, because she does not breastfeed the baby on demand or because she puts schedules on her baby or tries to lengthen the shots either by letting him cry or giving him a pacifier .
Mothers' breasts have the ability to calm the baby, sleep it, give it warmth and love.
In our body we have the tools to easily raise our baby. Hopefully mothers increasingly recognize the power of their arms and breasts to raise happy children. If, despite the fact that the baby is breastfeeding frequently and actively, the mother lets him decide when he finishes and the mother is healthy and has no breast operations, and yet her baby does not gain weight compared to the standards from WHO, causes of both the mother and the baby can be sought.
What causes are there for breastfed babies not to gain weight properly?
Some causes associated with the baby after ruling out a bad management of breastfeeding are: ear and urinary tract infections, neurological or cardiac problems, congenital hypothyroidism, cystic fibrosis, parasites, problems of malabsorption or intestinal obstruction, neuromuscular diseases or excess of adrenalin. Are there causes that depend on the mother? Of course. Some of the causes associated with the mother are varied: What can we do before supplementing to increase milk production? The first thing is to ensure that the weight is effectively stagnant, if so, ensure that breastfeeding is given freely, that is, as often as the baby wants. Sometimes mothers do not recognize the sign that the baby wants to breastfeed, when other people make her doubt her instinct by telling her that the baby cries for something else that is not because she wants to breastfeed. Always, then, the first is to offer the chest? I suggest if the baby is restless, the first thing is to offer breastfeeding, if it calms down it is already there. If not, other causes can be ruled out. It is normal for babies to want to breastfeed very often, to gather shots, which sometimes do not want to take off in the afternoon (it is very useful to wear them in rebozo at those times) and have days that take much more often than usual. At all hours? Yes. It is important to mention that it is normal for babies to breastfeed at night, it is not true that they should sleep without breastfeeding from a certain age. Some babies do not gain weight because their moms have been instructed not to breastfeed at night, when it is normal for the human baby to breastfeed at night too. It is also not true that you should not breastfeed within two hours or for a certain amount of time after the previous intake. We don't really know exactly how much milk a breastfed baby is taking, so we have to trust him if half an hour ago he breastfed, and now he wants to do it again. It is false for babies to 'bind' when they breastfeed. I understand: breastfeeding on demand also at night and as many times and as long as the baby asks. But, and when they grow? As a general rule, for the baby to gain weight well, we can say that he must breastfeed at least 8 times in 24 hours until he begins at 6 months with solid food, and between 6 months and the year of Age always breastfeed before solid feeding, to preserve milk production. Throughout the first year of life, milk is the main food and the one that best nourishes the baby, solids have fewer calories and are less nutritionally balanced. They are given after 6 months if the baby accepts them because the baby shows interest and is an opportunity to meet new textures and flavors, but not because breast milk loses its characteristics. Let's talk a little, finally, about parenting. Do you think it is good to take babies in their arms when they cry or ask us? What mothers feel when our baby is restless or crying, is that we must do something to remedy it. That is normal and natural. Humanity has evolved and we have come to where we are thanks to the fact that mothers have responded to the demands of their babies and in most cases they have attended to them. The truth is that it is a myth that the baby who stays peacefully in the crib watching his mobile. I think that myth comes from when we played with the dolls, that we left them lying like that and they didn't claim. It is a fact that especially at the beginning of life, babies are very demanding and do not stay in the crib, they want to be in the arms of their mother and only there they remain calm. So, in your opinion, is it healthy and natural for the baby to claim arms and contact? Of course. All that comes from the beginning of humanity, in which only the babies who were in constant contact with the mother were the ones who survived. Imagine a long time ago a baby who did not cry when his mother put him on the floor, surely he would not have lived many days. Don't they cry to annoy or manipulate? Of course not. They can't help it, that's what their instinct tells them. Imagine that the baby was a little while ago inside his mother, warm, tight, listening to his heart, feeling his movements, listening to his voice, and now he is in a world full of light, free, cold. When he doesn't feel that warmth and mom's movement and heart, he feels very uneasy and cries. Many moms notice that when the baby is in constant contact with them, they do not cry, and over time and thanks to all that contact with their mother, they become more confident babies. The pediatrician Carlos González has documented the normal behavior of the mother and her baby, through her books as "Kiss me a lot" and "A gift for a lifetime." There is documentation of the damage we would do if we let our baby cry, I suggest reading Dr. Darcía Narváez's research. Is it good for breastfeeding to carry the baby in rebozo? Women in many parts of the world have continued their work after their baby is born and at the same time they have continued to care for and keep the baby close, with a type of upbringing that takes into account that the baby is happier when it is very close his mom. This is easily achieved with a charger like the rebozo, but now with the benefit that they are adjustable. This hammock adjustable baby rebozo is very comfortable because the baby's weight is distributed and it can go in a variety of positions. I have them for sale on my site because of their importance for breastfeeding among other reasons. What case is the rebozo for? Sometimes breastfeeding moms feel they have more freedom to move if they learn to do it with the baby in the rebozo, which is very practical for these cases: With this we finish this long and exciting IBCLC interview Ana Charfén, in which he explained to us the reasons why, whenever possible, it is better to give breast milk and it has helped us to achieve it if problems arise. It has been a pleasure to have a certified breastfeeding expert and we deeply appreciate your effort and time.Our babies have the genes of the successful babies, of the babies who cried a lot when their mother left them alone, and sometimes that makes us very heavy.
