THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 4, 1994 TAG: 9410040079
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
THERE IS no question. Breast-feeding is the best way to feed your infant. Breast milk contains all the nutrients your newborn needs and is more easily digested and assimilated than any other infant food. It provides a safeguard against allergies, protects the baby against infection, causes your uterus to contract after birth and even helps a woman lose her post-pregnancy weight quicker.
Insufficient milk syndrome, which affected Chaz Floyd, is extremely rare, affecting less than 5 percent of breast-fed babies.
But breast-feeding is a learned skill. Both the baby and the mother have to learn how to do it. And with most hospitals sending mothers home 24 hours after the baby's birth; with relatives and older women far away, or uneducated about breast-feeding; and with a dearth of training in the medical schools about breast-feeding, a new mother often finds herself frustrated.
Help is usually only a phone call away. Call your pediatrician, call the hospital where you delivered and ask for the lactation consultant, or call La Leche League (548-3794 in South Hampton Roads), where trained counselors will answer your questions and, if necessary, come to your home to help.
Tips for breast-feeding
Stop using soap or lotions on the breasts toward the end of pregnancy and throughout lactation. The breast's own secretions provide the best lubrication for keeping the nipple area moist as well as more resistant to irritation.
Think about letting the nipples rub against outer clothing for a little while each day during pregnancy (wear a nursing bra with the flaps down) so they will be used to chafing when the baby arrives.
If you are taking any medications, either by prescription or over the counter, ask your doctor if they are safe for the baby. A small amount of all drugs taken by a nursing mother will end up in her breast milk.
Consult your physician about whether the baby should be given vitamin D and/or fluoride supplements. Breast milk is very nearly nutritionally complete, but it may not have enough of the two nutrients for your baby.
Once the breast-feeding has begun, drink adequate amounts of fluids and get as much solid rest as possible. Both are essential.
Make sure the baby takes the entire nipple and most of the areola (the dark ring around the nipple) into his mouth so he can achieve good pumping action and thereby stimulate the release of a sufficient supply of milk during the feeding. As a rule of thumb, use both breasts during a feeding and let the baby suckle as much (or as little) as he wants. Infants can actually suck 80 percent to 90 percent of the milk from a breast within four minutes, but they may decide to nurse longer. That's fine, because the sucking itself is believed to stimulate lactation.
Don't let cracked or bleeding nipples keep you from breast-feeding if you want to continue. (The amount of blood that gets into the milk is negligible.) To heal sore breasts, expose them to the air for a few minutes after nursing. Pain can also be minimized by feeding from the not-so-sore breast first, because the baby will tend to suck harder on the first nipple offered. Then, too, vary the position in which you nurse - sometimes sitting, sometimes lying down. That will vary the parts of the nipple that get the greatest stress as the baby nurses.
Call your doctor should any of the following symptoms occur: a generalized achy feeling, fever or other flulike symptoms, or redness or soreness in the breast. All these may be a sign of breast infection (mastitis). Sometimes, antibiotics are needed but, in many cases, the dose is low enough to cause no harm to the baby, and the infection is mild enough that breast-feeding can (and should) continue uninterrupted. In fact, an infant's drawing off milk will relieve pressure in the infected area (the baby will not become sick because the infection is not in the milk-producing glands themselves).
A newborn, breast-fed baby who is getting enough to eat should be nursing 10 to 12 times in each 24-hour period.
Keep a careful check on the number of wet diapers. You should be getting six to eight really wet diapers and one or two bowel movements a day. A good idea is to keep your baby in cloth diapers the first few days home, so you can gauge how wet the diapers are.
If your baby is nursing at least 10 to 12 times in 24 hours, and is content, alert and gaining about a pound a month, he is probably getting enough breast milk. Also, you can tell by listening to him as he nurses. You should be able to hear him swallowing. And your breasts should feel softer and lighter at the end of each feeding if he is getting enough.
Here are the signs of dehydration in an infant. Contact your physician if you notice any of these signs in your baby:
Dry mouth, cracked lips.
Tears dry up
Urine output decreases, eventually stopping.
The soft spot on the top of the head sinks in.
Lethargic, not responsive
Flushed, heart rate increases
When the dehydration is especially severe, the skin can be pinched and it will remain standing up. Urine output stops, and the child can go into a coma.
- Sources: Prevention Magazine, ``The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding,'' and ``Why Should I Nurse My Baby.'' by CNB