Baby Care

Posts Tagged ‘feeding’

The first months of baby’s life are not only very happy but also very tense time for its parents. They have an important task: to understand the child, to look after him/her and assist him/her in overcoming the inevitable challenges of growth.

One of the first challenges which have the vast majority of children and parents is infantile intestinal colic. As a rule, they start during the first three weeks and continue up to the first three months of the child’s life, delivering a lot of suffering to the baby as well as its surrounding adults.

Why does it arise?

Intestinal colic is not considered to be a disease. This is a so-called functional disorder, which is a natural stage of maturing baby’s digestive system and the adaptation of the gastrointestinal tract for digestion of food. However, these processes are accompanied by a rather unpleasant and painful effects such as intestinal spasm, excess gas, a violation of intestinal peristalsis.

Over time, the digestion comes right and colic passes without a trace. But this does not mean that the kid can do without the help of adults – they need to understand him/her when he/she has colic and alleviate the child’s sufferings.

How you can understand it?

As a rule, colic torment baby during the evening hours. During the attack of pain the child is crying, fidgets legs and makes “vermiform” movements. It doesn’t stop even during lactation – while sucking the intestine changes its sizes (spasm), increasing the pain. Because of this, the kid is a little more nervous during feeding.

What should you do?

If the child is breastfed, the mother will have to adjust the diet, removing from it products that are fermented (black bread, sauerkraut, grape, radish, beans, etc.). While feeding the baby should tightly capture the teat in order not to swallow excess air.

For children who already use artificial feeding, it is desirable to feed with special anti-colic bottles that prevent swallowing excess air.

After feeding hold the kid so that he/she could take out the swallowed air. It is important that the intervals between feedings are not less than two hours, otherwise the milk will not fully digest, which can increase the baby’s discomfort.

Remember also that after feeding the child should be put on the side – this will prevent the diversion of milk into the respiratory tract. In addition, this position facilitates the evacuation of milk from the stomach into the gut. It is also good to often put the kid on the stomach after feeding. This position helps to strengthen muscles of the front abdominal wall, which favorably affects the peristalsis of the bowel and helps to reduce colic.

To facilitate the child’s condition you can use herbs, such as chamomile, fennel, dill and anise. They have proved themselves as effective ways to combat colic. For example you can give your child medicinal herbal preparations, such as Planteks based on the fruit and fennel essential oil. It comes in the form of soluble beverage, which is very easy to brew, while respecting the required dosage. The drug has mild antispasmodic effect, regulates the processes of digestion, reduces gas and helps reduce the frequency and severity of colic.
Light massage can also help the child. It includes clockwise massage of tummy, bending legs, stroking the back with the sides in the direction of the stomach to the waist.

And try to remain calm even when the baby cries bitterly, – it has been proven that the anxiety of parents is transmitted to children and makes them to feel uncomfortable.

List of things which a young mother need is really enormous. But a small bottle for feeding is always the first in this list. Even if you are breast-feeding your baby, you’ll need a couple of bottles in order to save squeezed milk. Later bottle will become a loyal assistant when your baby starts trying different juices. And, of course, if you are bottle-feeding your child, the bottle is an essential item.

While choosing the bottle for feeding, please pay attention to the material. Glass bottles, unlike plastic ones are more brittle and heavy. If your child has already grown up, then you’d better choose plastic bottle, as children like throwing objects on the floor, and this subject can be his/her glass bottle.

The form is also important. It is very important to choose a bottle that is easy to clean. For example, the triangular shape is not conducive to perfect purity: the brush simply can not penetrate into all corners.
What about nipple, it is the most responsible part. Here you have to be very legible in the selection. First, the form of the nipple should remind the maternal breast. But it’s not a secret that it’s difficult for a child to suck milk from breast. But
Milk in a bottle comes easily without much effort. For this reason, many children while trying milk from the nipples become “lazy” and refuse to eat from the breast. If you don’t want to face with this kind of problem you need to buy a “correct” dummy with a broad soft ground and a short nipple. It makes the child perform the same movements as eating from the beast.

Mainly, producers prefer latex or silicone nipple. However, the latex has a sharp smell and taste; it would be preferable to choose silicon. It has no smell and should not cause an allergic reaction.

It’s also worth mentioning that the nipples should be made by same company as bottles: they are of the same diameter, and in the future, this will facilitate the purchase of new “details”.

But the most important parameter for the bottle is the ability to allow air, preventing the vacuum, thereby reducing the probability of occurrence of intestinal colic.
However, some modern bottles solve this problem thanks to the so-called anti-vacuum “skirts”. Among these models the best choice is Philips AVENT bottle. It has a unique system preventing vacuum. In the process of feeding the kid doesn’t outstrip from nipple, as its edge bent without losing form. During feeding, you can also see bubbles on the surface of the milk which proves that the air goes into the bottle.

Bottles Philips AVENT positively affects the well-being of the babies. This was proved by British scientists. Seven years ago, British experts in the field of child nutrition carried out clinical studies, during which they compared the behavior of 60 infants. They were divided into 2 groups, one of which ate from the Philips AVENT bottle, the others – from the standard “tableware”. As a result, it was found that infants who were breast fed or ate from Philips AVENT bottles, suffered from colic much less, and consequently, behaved more calmly.

Philips AVENT bottle itself is made of lightweight and durable plastic. Its form is convenient for both adults and children, and a wide spout ensures easy cleaning and filling of the dry mixture. Another plus is its nipple made of silicone; it has no taste and smell, and it repeats the shape of female breasts.

Finally, after a detailed story about quality, it is worthwhile paying a little attention the quantity. If you give child milk, you need immediately to buy about five bottles in order to have clean at hand. If you are breast-feeding, two small bottles are enough. Later they will be useful for giving a baby water or juice.

A child usually knows how much he/she needs to eat. If a mother has less milk because of fatigue or nervousness, the child most likely will wake up early and start his/her hungry cry. He/she will drink the milk until the last drop and try to find more with his little mouth. In these cases weight the baby to make sure that he/she adds less weight than necessary. If the child is very hungry, he/she may start to cry immediately after feeding.

If you have such issues, you should talk with your doctor.  Maybe you need to increase the portion of milk. But beware, do not insist, if your baby does not want more milk than usual. If you breastfeed him/her and he/she wakes up early, feed him/her, even if it leads to additional feeding during the day. More frequent emptying of the breast will stimulate the formulation of more milk if the mother’s body is able to do so.

How much should children put on weight?

The most correct answer is: the child himself/herself knows how he/she should put on weight. If you give him/her less milk, he/she wakes up earlier for the next feeding. Some children add more weight, while others – less, and that’s OK. However, a slow gain in weight may mean that the child is malnourished or sick. If your child slowly adds weight, it is better to visit  a doctor to be sure that he/she is healthy. There are children who slowly add weight, but do not show signs of hunger. However, if you give more milk, he/she will be willing to drink it, and put on weight faster. In other words, the child does not always shout, when he/she is hungry. Usually, children born weighing 3.5 kg, weight 7 kg by 5 months. But children born with small weight, gain weight faster, as though striving to catch up with their larger brethren. As a rule, child adds about 900g per month during the first 3 months (160-200 g per week). Of course, some healthy children add less weight, while others – more. And in the second year of life the child usually adds 200-250 g per month. The older becomes the child, the slower and more regularly he adds weight. While the child’s teeth grow, usually his/her appetite is deteriorated, and within weeks he/she can not put on weight. When he/she is healthy, the appetite returns to him/her, and the weight is increasing rapidly.

His/her weight at each weighing depends on the fullness of his/her stomach, bladder or bowel. If one morning you weigh him/her and see that he/she has added only 100 grams over the past week, while before he added up to 200 g, do not conclude that he/she is malnourished or sick. If a child is completely healthy, wait a week or two, perhaps in the next week he/she will add more weight. But always remember that the older he/she becomes, the slower he/she adds weight.

How often do you need to weigh the child?

Of course, most mothers do not have weights at home, and children they weight children only when they visit a doctor and that is enough. If the child is healthy and cheerful, it does not make sense to weigh him/her more often than once a month. If you have any scales at home, do not weigh the newborn baby more often than once a week or better – every two weeks. Weighing him/her every day, you will be too worried about his/her weight.

Feeding a newborn baby is not only pleasant, but also a lengthy process. It can take 20-40 minutes, and there are kids who do not release mother for an hour. If mother holds her still quite small (4-5 kg) baby for so long, at the end of feeding she fells it is physical fatigue, heaviness in arms and tension in the back. Can this be avoided? How to make the process of feeding a real pleasure?

There is an advice in many books about caring for children: «… if you want the process of breastfeeding to be comfortable, you’ll need to store up to five pillows. Mom sits on the sofa or chair, puts on his knees two pillows (so that baby is at breast height), two more pillows she puts a under her hands, the last pillow is placed behind her back ».

I do not think that any time you need to feed the baby, you will resort to such a complex structure. And why, when there is an excellent alternative – a special pillow for breastfeeding!

Pillow to feed is in the form of split-lifebuoys, which is tightly enclasps around the waist of a mother. Pillow does not allow mother to move when she feeds a baby. The front of the feeding pillow is densely filled, so it helps the baby lying on it to stay at the level of mothers breast. The ends are rounded cushions to pad for the feeding was based on mother’s waist. Moreover, the construction of a universally valid for mums of any size. You can use such a pillow from birth and until you breastfeed a baby.

Pillow for feeding makes breastfeeding comfortable for mom and baby. Mom does not have to hold the child with two hands. Mother can drink tea or read a book without interrupting breastfeeding. Pillow allows you to change the chest and rotate the position of the child to different angles of the chest. The alternation makes it easier to generate a different proportion of empty chest, and this decreases the likelihood of lactostaz.

When selecting pillows for breastfeeding pay attention to its completion. It is best if the pillow is attached to feed removable slip at a lightning. In this case, you have no difficulty to withdraw pillow for washing – it’s convenient and hygienic.

Breastfeeding pillow should be made of solid teak, with 100% cotton pillowcase. This is an environmentally friendly material that retains good form, does not cause allergic reactions, does not absorb odors.