Let's Breastfeed

If you are one of the many moms who are struggling to get baby down after a feed, have a quick read of this.

It is often the case that new moms and dads are more concerned about getting food into baby than anything else. This does not always calm the situation down and often, even though the baby is crying, he or she simply won’t latch onto the breast! WHAT IS THAT ALL ABOUT?? parents ask….WIND – would you believe it?

You see, your baby has been curled up inside you for months. When he or she finally makes an appearance, all the organs are squished out of place and it is difficult to help baby eject trapped wind or a ‘burp’ – I prefer to call them bubbles!

So, if you were to drink water really quickly and swallow air – you would feel a pretty nasty pain right under your diagphram. You would need to relieve this pain – by arching your back – before being able to drink any more – right.

Well the same is true for your baby. If your baby is breastfeeding and swallows air – this needs to come out before baby can comfortably take in more milk. However – as moms are told to keep baby on the breast for 45 minutes – the poor thing is promptly put back onto the breast when he or she pulls off. The bubble that would have popped out relatively easily now becomes trapped under more milk and thus becomes more difficult for your baby to expel.

If this is happening at every feed, just think how much trapped wind will accumulate in your baby’s gut. How much pain and discomfort do you think that will cause? Would you like to eat or drink anything more with a bloated gut? Would you start to feel sad, frustrated and scratchy everytime you were put back onto the breast…I would.

So dear dear parents – look at your baby.

If he or she is arching backwards, he or she has trapped wind that needs to come up and out.

If he or she is pulling up legs, he or she will have trapped wind that needs to come down and out.

Wind your baby until you feel him or her relax or if you are not able to, offer 1 squirt of infacol before each feed (3hourly) for 5-10 days.

You can have a break after that time and if baby is fine – there is no need to reintrodce it. If baby presents with pain re-introduce it again and re-assess after 2 weeks.

See a Cranial Osteopath to ensure that there is no tightness or pain causing your baby feeding problems and then get in touch with someone like me if you need further help.

Your baby is crying because he or she is in pain – not to drive you up the wall. I can help – just ask

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 7:49 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.