A few days ago we talked about the results of a survey of 155 mothers who were breastfeeding for a long time. At the entrance we explained that health professionals sometimes criticized some mothers, despite being aware (or not), that the best food for babies is breast milk and despite the recommendation of the WHO and of the AEPED to breastfeed until at least two years of age.
Given the number of criticisms that could be seen in the survey (midwives supported 123 times and criticized 20, the pediatricians supported on 125 occasions and criticized in 56, nurses supported 106 times and criticized 70 and family doctors and gynecologists supported 101 times and criticized 52), a second survey was conducted to find out what kind of criticism these mothers had received.
Today We will talk about the criticisms or the “no supports” that came from the pediatricians. On some occasions they were from the same pediatrician assigned to the baby and in others from substitute pediatricians (the mother declared that with her pediatrician very well, but that she had never touched another that not so well) or of pediatricians visited in the emergency department from the hospital (and vice versa, since sometimes it was the substitutes or the emergency department who supported when the assigned pediatrician issued criticism).
"You must not have milk, bottle feed"
It is true that, just as there are blind, deaf or blind women, there must be women who don't really have milk. However, as is not likely, the fact that a child is not gaining enough weight does not have to be that the mother does not have milk, much less.
Before issuing said diagnosis and offering such a solution, it is preferable to try to solve the problem that causes a baby not to gain enough weight, which is usually, in most cases, a bad position at the time of breastfeeding, some type of difficulty in the baby's mouth (that has lingual frenulum, retrognathia, ...) or that the baby is sucking following a schedule of the type "10 minutes in each breast every 3 hours", which causes some babies not to take enough food.
"Breastfeeding is a gypsy thing"
Breastfeeding is cheap, so much that it is free. In addition, it implies a very continuous contact with the baby that not all mothers are willing to maintain and for this reason, many years ago, they used their nurses to breastfeed babies in well-positioned social classes.
With the arrival of artificial milk and thanks to slogans who talked wonders about them, couples who could afford it bought artificial milk, breast milk being relegated to those mothers who simply did not have to buy formula milk. This made the phrase "breastfeeding is a gypsy thing" to become known and often used in a derogatory way towards breast milk and disrespectful of Roma women.
Currently, having more information about breast milk and thanks to the support of WHO, UNICEF, the Spanish Association of Pediatrics and others and the work of thousands of health professionals who try to preserve physical health and Emotional of babies and children with breastfeeding, there are more and more mothers who are choosing to breastfeed their children.
Interestingly, the fact of breastfeeding is being associated with the quantity and quality of information that a mother has and it is observed that the mothers who demand more curiosity and more information are the ones with more studies. In other words, women who could afford artificial milk without any problems are the ones with the best breastfeeding rates.
This means that no, that breastfeeding a baby "is not a gypsy thing", but, above all, mothers who with information about it, decide to breastfeed their children. Moms with less information tend to end up giving the bottle due to lack of confidence or because a pediatrician or professional with little knowledge and with very little education loose wonders of the type "breastfeeding is a gypsy thing".
"Don't feed well, bottle feed"
This phrase would be quite related to the first of "you must not have milk". In this case, there is no specific talk about having or not having milk, but covering more possibilities, about the fact that the baby, for whatever reason, is not feeding well.
As I commented on the other point, Before giving a bottle with artificial milk, which is usually the beginning of the end of breastfeeding, you should try to solve the possible problemsIf there are any, they are causing a deficit in weight gain.
Perhaps the expectations are unrealistic (there are pediatricians who do not know how to interpret the growth graphs), perhaps the baby is not sucking well and is not pumping the milk well, perhaps someone put breastfeeding schedules, ...
Introduction of early complementary feeding (before six months)
This is not a criticism in itself, but a mistake, for recommending something that is not the best for a baby. About ten years ago, WHO declared that the ideal feeding pattern for a baby is: exclusive breast milk for the first six months, breast milk as the first food, but supplemented with other foods, up to 12 months and keep breast milk at least until the second year, food being the main source of energy.
At the moment when someone recommends starting to offer food before six months, the recommendation is being skipped and is causing a baby who could be breastfeeding, more nutritious food than any other that can be offered to a baby, leave of taking it to eat other things that you still don't need.
"If you ask before you touch it, give it water / give it water with saccharin"
Another mistake regarding breastfeeding that originates from an unfortunate lack of information / training by the pediatrician is that of not allowing breastfeeding to be on demand. The mere fact of saying "before it touches you" shows that there is a set time when you eat when you play, but you don't eat when you don't play. As if babies were precision clocks that were to fail if they received food earlier than the pediatrician dictates. In other words, It is as if pediatricians knew how hungry children are and when they are.
If in addition to not allowing a baby to feed on demand of breast milk, it is recommended to give water or water with saccharin, a drink with no nutritional content, we run the risk of filling the stomach with nothing (well, yes, water, but I say that doesn't feed) and get that later the baby does not want to take the food he needs so much to grow and live. That is, we run the risk of malnutrition (it is as if we skip food every day because we have swollen with water and on top of living, we ate to grow).
"When your teeth come out, weaning"
The same phrase falls by its own weight. It is so absurd that it is not necessary to comment too much. The teeth are no impediment to continue breastfeeding or to continue breastfeeding. If the pediatrician already knows this and the phrase originates from the concern for the woman's breasts, then "thank you for the advice and especially thanks for worrying, but I will wean when it seems to me."
Take off your tit or you will be too dependent
This A pediatrician told a mother who was breastfeeding her seven-month-old baby. The truth is that it is very common to associate any attachment behavior (the tit, arms, affection, contact, ...), with the dependence of babies and the reality is that there is no study that demonstrates such thinking. Moreover, a few years ago it is being shown that Babies and children need to be dependent on children to learn, for themselves, to be independent.
Being independent and autonomous is a characteristic of people that appears from self-confidence and self-confidence. When babies and children are allowed to live with their parents and their learning times are respected they are able to take their own autonomy without fear of being wrong, since dad or mom will be there if necessary. It is not necessary to force rhythms or separations to spread, because if they feel lacking and feel insecure in their forced "loneliness", that which in theory makes them learn to be independent (as if they were to live alone at 7 years) , may end up being even more fearful, less daring (not to err) and in the end more independent ("as you have left me alone learning, I prefer not to risk just in case").
All this to say that breastfeeding is giving food and giving a hug, comfort and affection when necessary. So far, neither breast milk nor hugs, comfort or affection have created children who are not capable, with five years, of separating from their mothers.
"Don't give it more than 5 or 10 minutes, then just swallow air"
In a woman's body there are many, but many things. In a woman's breast there are also many things. What surely is not there is air. When a baby clings to the breast, it does not catch it as it would take a nipple or as a hand grabs a ball. The baby sucks the breast, attracts it towards itself and keeps it inside the mouth generating vacuum (that's why they say that if you have to remove the chest from the mouth, put your finger through the mouth to avoid the windy effect). This means that it seals its lips with the mother's chest preventing air from entering. If there is no air in the mother's breast and the baby cannot take it from outside, where the hell is the air going to get from?
Breastfeeding should be on demand and it is the baby, always, who decides when to stop and when to continue breastfeeding, 5-10 or the minutes needed.
"Breastfeed for 10 minutes every 3 hours"
Similar to the previous point. Neither 10 minutes nor 3 hours. A baby fed with this rhythm runs the risk of being hungry and crying a few hours a day asking for food.
Depending on the speed with which a baby sucks, at ten minutes it may be the time when the milk begins to be more fat providing more calories to the baby. If at that time the intake is stopped, the child will remain undernourished and will be hungry, surely, long before three hours (in fact, even if he was given a full intake of breast milk, it is very likely that before three hours ask again, since breast milk is digested in about 60-90 minutes).
"The tit is on demand the first 10 days, then every 4 hours"
Of course, day ten can be allowed to breastfeed every half hour if you want, but nature has foreseen that the night the baby turns 11 days his stomach becomes so incredibly large that he can house breast milk to spend four hours without ask, while the mother triples her milk production to give the baby milk for a whole day, which on the tenth day she got in about 12-15 shots, in just 6 shots.
Obviously this paragraph is written with sarcasm. The strange thing is that a pediatrician is able to believe such nonsense.
“The boy is very old, he no longer feeds him”
Said by a pediatrician to a mother with an eight month old baby. According to him, with eight months a child is already too old to drink breast milk because he no longer feeds him. As I said and you all know, breastfeeding a child is an act that has a lot of food, but a lot of other things.
I will never be able to understand what a breastfeeding mother can feel because I will never be able to do it, but the fact that your child grows and lives thanks to the food you create for him seems really fascinating to me. See how he asks for his chest when something worries him, when he is nervous, when he has hurt himself, when he wants to be with mommy, when ... he must be magical.
Therefore, even if this pediatrician was right and breast milk at eight months would no longer feed, surely thousands of mothers would continue to breastfeed (absurd and unconscious them) to their children. The funny thing is that he is not right, that breast milk continues to feed as much as the first day, which has changed in composition to adapt to the age and size of the child and continues to provide defenses to a baby who until 3-6 years will not have his fully mature immune system.
If we also take into account that both the WHO and the AEP talk about two years as the goal to be achieved, how can a pediatrician say that an eight-month-old baby is too old to breastfeed?
“What you have is aguachirri”
This was told by a pediatrician to a mother with a seven-month-old baby. Continuing with the previous point, there are many pediatricians who believe that after six months children have to start eating because breast milk is transformed into water. Some are more specific and "friendly" and dare to call watery milk "aguachirri".
The truth is that, as I said, neither milk becomes water, nor complementary feeding is given for that reason, but to offer some nutrients to babies who, growing up, begin to need them, just as they need them They drink artificial milk.
And if it became aguachirri, then to continue offering the breast, which, at six months of age, begins to offer water, better than the bottle than the bottle.
In a couple of days I will continue with the criticisms or errors of the pediatricians who visited the mothers who responded to the survey, since there are others that I think are worth mentioning.
Photos | Flickr - moppet65535, Daquella manner, c r z
In Babies and more | Who supports and who criticizes prolonged breastfeeding ?, Can we rely on pediatricians when talking about breastfeeding ?, My experience with pediatricians little friends of school and breastfeeding (I), My experience with pediatricians little friends of Colecho and breastfeeding (II)
