Parenting & New Baby Advice Blog

Archive for November, 2007

Research has shown that fathers can influence the diets of their families in some important ways. In one study, eighty-nine percent of the mothers served infrequently or eliminated from the family diet entirely those foods that their husbands disliked. In another study, eighty-one percent of mothers surveyed planned meals based on the food preferences and dislikes of their husbands. As a result of such studies, nutritionists now urge fathers to recognize the important effect that food tastes have on the nutritional well-being of their families.

Your food preferences and dietary habits are the first important way you are involved in feeding. A nutritious age-appropriate diet is the very best for your baby. Your role in achieving this is essential.

During pregnancy, you and the baby’s mother probably discussed how you wanted to feed your baby-by breast or bottle. If breastfeeding was your choice, your unswerving support during the time your baby is breastfed is crucial. If bottle-feeding was your choice, being knowledgeable about formula preparation and healthy feeding practices is necessary and valuable. Perhaps your choice was to breastfeed first and bottle-feed later, or to combine the two feeding methods. In any case, your support and involvement with feeding your baby will be helpful to your baby and pleasurable for you.

If your baby is breastfed, you obviously cannot directly provide milk for your baby, although you can give him bottles of expressed milk if there are times when it is inconvenient or impossible for your wife to breastfeed. There are other important ways you can be helpful during feedings. You can bring your baby to his mother for night feedings and then tuck him back in bed later. You can burp the baby after feedings and take the opportunity to enjoy the quiet but alert time he has after feeding.

Many breastfeeding mothers experience sore nipples, fatigue, and doubts about milk supply. Your encouragement and nurturing help are important. In fact, one study has shown a relationship between the father’s support of breastfeeding and its success or failure.

Another important way you can help is to teach other family members about breastfeeding, so they will understand and support this method of feeding. In the past, less was known about the benefits of breastfeeding than is known today, and feeding practices were different.

If your baby is bottle-fed, you can help by actively sharing the feedings with his mother. Make it your responsibility to mix formula in the proper way and to ensure that the feeding equipment is clean and functioning well.

Always hold your baby when you feed him. He will begin to trust that you love him and are able to satisfy his needs. To provide for normal eye muscle development, hold him sometimes in your right arm and sometimes in your left. Hold him so that his head is slightly elevated. Feeding is a flat position is associated with an increased incidence of middle ear infections.

Discontinue feeding your baby when he indicates that he is through. Burp him during and after feedings. The frequency of burping depends on how much air he tends to swallow.

Whether your baby is breast or bottle-fed, you can help by keeping feeding times calm. Run interference with the doorbell and the telephone. Anything you do to reduce tension is beneficial.

When your baby is ready for table foods, you can be involved in many ways. You can help by making mealtime pleasant and happy. Tension during feedings diminishes appetite. Make an effort to indicate pleasure with the variety of foods you offer your baby even if the food does not appeal to you. As tempting as it might be, avoid using food as a reward for god behavior or a special accomplishment.

Never offer your baby junk food or alcohol. Neither is part of a nutritious diet, and each replaces the foods your baby does need for growth and health. In addition, even small amounts of alcohol can be toxic to a young child.

Your involvement with your child’s mealtimes is important. You can have a significant effect on your baby’s health, and your relationship will benefit from the time you spend together.

NEWS FLASH -- There’s no need to warm up cool bottles for formula. Most babies will take the formula straight from the refrigerator. It’s a lot quicker and easier than trying to warm up a bottle of formula when your baby is screaming.

Some parents heat up their baby’s formula in a microwave oven. There are potential dangers to this method. If heated in a baby bottle, the formula may cause the bottle to break or leak since foods heated in a microwave continue to get hotter for a short while after they are taken out of the oven. The break or crack may not appear until after the bottle has been removed. Another problem is that the formula may become overheated after the removal from the microwave. Test the formula immediately before feeding to be sure you won’t burn your baby.

When feeding your baby, always hold the bottle-never prop it. Your baby shouldn’t lie down and feed. He should always be semi-upright or sitting up. Bottle propping cause’s four problems-increased ear infections, increased cavities, feeding longer than necessary, and decreased emotional and physical satisfaction from being held.

The nipple hole should be large enough that the formula drips out at a steady pace of two drops per second. A flow that’s too slow may increase the amount of air your baby swallows. If the flow is too fast, he may choke.

Breastfeeding

More and more mothers are deciding to breastfeed their new babies. In deciding if you will breastfeed, you will consider many facts, but perhaps the most important one is that breastfeeding gives your baby the best nutrition possible. The more we learn about breast milk and its composition, the more we realize it is the perfect food for babies. Besides the nutritional benefits, a special closeness often develops between breastfeeding mothers and their babies.

Nutritional Benefits

One of the most convincing arguments for breastfeeding is that human breast milk was designed for human babies, just as cows milk was designed for calves. Commercially made formulas are attempts at duplicating human breast milk. Formulas are getting closer to breast milk in composition and in the proportion of various fats, proteins, carbohydrates, salts, minerals, and other constituents, but commercial formulas will never be able to duplicate it exactly.

As we learn about nutrients in breast milk, it becomes more obvious that breast milk provides just about everything a baby needs for good growth and development. All the nutrients are in the perfect balance for optimal absorption and utilization. Earlier research suggested that breast milk is nutritionally inadequate for infants; it now appears that what was inadequate in that research was the study techniques and the information on which it was based For example, the amount of iron in breast milk was once thought to be inadequate for growing infants. Doctors were concerned about breastfed babies becoming anemic [not having enough iron in the blood]. Further studies revealed that the iron in breast milk is so well absorbed by infants that the small amount present is sufficient to prevent anemia.

Perhaps the only important substance lacking in breast milk is fluoride. No matter how much fluoride a nursing mother takes in, little or none gets into her breast milk. Many doctors feel that this is the only type of supplemental nutrient a breastfed baby needs.

Immunologic Benefits

Every time you have an illness or receive an immunization, your body develops immunity against that illness. This means that some special cells become sensitized to a particular type of virus or bacterium. The next time that particular organism invades your body; you are prepared to fight it off. If the immunity is strong enough, you may never come down with that illness again. That’s the principle behind immunizations for such diseases as mumps, measles, and pertussis [whooping cough]. A vaccine contains inactivated bacteria or virus. Your body is fooled into thinking an infection is present. It develops an immunity against the inactivated virus or bacteria, which also works against the active form.

When you breastfed your new baby, much of the immunity you have developed is passed on to him through the antibodies present in your breast milk. Many studies have shown that breastfed babies have fewer illnesses, milder illnesses, and fewer hospitalizations. This increased healthiness is thought to be due to the protection against illnesses that is passed through the breast milk.

Breastfeeding is no guarantee that your infant will never get sick, but it surely lowers the chances. Many mothers note that once they stop breastfeeding, their infants seem to come down with more colds, runny noses, and so on. This may be due to the loss of protection that the baby received from breast milk.

Health Benefits for You

Some of the weight you put on during your pregnancy was a special type of high energy fat called brown fat. With breastfeeding, this extra fat tends to disappear on its own. During the first few months it will almost “melt” away.

Closeness

Many mothers feel certain closeness they have with babies they breastfeed. It comes from more than just holding and feeding the baby. Many of these women have older children whom they bottle-fed. Although they held and fed them just as much, that special feeling wasn’t there. It’s the fact of really being the source of nutrition for their growing infants that seems to be important. Unfortunately, the father may feel left out when the mother breastfeeds because he doesn’t have an opportunity to feed their new baby. This problem can be offset in a number of ways. One is for the father to occasionally bottle-feed the baby. Another is for him to hold the baby at other times.

Economic Factors and Convenience

Breastfeeding is much less expensive than bottle-feeding-fewer bottles to sterilize, no formula to prepare, no midnight trips to the kitchen to warm up the baby’s meal. You will need a breast-pump and other equipment.

Every breastfeeding mother wonders if something she ate caused fussiness, gas, diarrhea, a rash, or nasal stuffiness in her baby. While almost all foods can be eaten without problem, some foods can cause difficulty. Cow’s milk in the mother’s diet may cause colicky symptoms in some babies. If this is a problem for your baby, he will draw his legs up towards his body and scream with gas pains after feeding. You can eliminate milk from your diet for four to seven day into your diet, since the reaction to milk is often outgrown. If you eliminate dairy products from your diet, you will need to talk with your doctor about a calcium supplement.

Other foods that may cause problems for breastfed babies include those that have food additives and dyes, certain gas producing foods [such as broccoli, cabbage, an beans], eggs nuts, tomatoes, shellfish, chocolate, corn, strawberries, citrus fruits, onion, garlic, and some spices. To decide if a particular food upsets your baby, eliminate that single food from your diet and see if the symptoms disappear.

Occasionally, consuming food in enormous amounts will cause problems for a breastfed baby. A half gallon of apple juice or orange juice, very large amounts of fruit, a jar of peanuts, or any other food consumed in unusually large quantities may cause your baby to have diarrhea or gas.

In the past, breastfeeding mothers were encouraged to drink beer to aid milk production. We now know that beer will not increase milk production. We also know that beer and other alcoholic beverages readily enter the breast milk in about the same concentration as your blood alcohol level. Since no safe level of alcohol has been established for the breastfed baby, it is probably wise to strictly limit your alcohol intake or not drink at all. In addition, alcohol can inhibit let-down, [the release of milk from the milk producing sacs within the breasts to the milk ducts], so your baby will not get the milk he needs.

Cigarette smoking and breastfeeding are not compatible. Heavy cigarette smoking may reduce milk production; increases the incidence of nausea, colicky symptoms, and diarrhea in the baby; and decreases the vitamin C content of the milk. Smoking near the baby increases his risk of pneumonia and bronchitis. As in pregnancy, the best advice is to quit if you can, or at least cut down. Avoid smoking in your home.

Caffeine passes into breast milk and may cause your baby to have an upset stomach and be irritable. If you suspect caffeine is affecting your baby, try eliminating coffee, tea, cola drinks, chocolate, and other caffeine containing foods from your diet to see if the symptoms disappear.

Vitamin B 6 has received much attention lately. In large amounts [more than is contained in your prenatal vitamin tablet] it may inhibit milk production.

Almost every drug or medication makes its way into breast milk. Some medications seem to have no harmful effects on your baby, while others are most certainly not safe. Talk with your pharmacist or pediatrician before taking any prescribed or over the counter medications-be sure the medications you take pose no problems for your baby. If you need to take any drugs, particularly on a regular basis, discuss it with your doctor. You may have to stop breastfeeding until all the drug has passed out of your system.

Allergies

It is extremely rare for a baby to be allergic to his mother’s breast milk. If there are allergies on either side of the family, particularly to milk or milk products, your baby is more likely to have problems with formula than with your breast milk.

Diapers and Bowel Movements

Many parents of breastfed babies notice that their baby’s bowel movements are different from those of bottle-fed babies. The bowel movements are soft and yellowish. Changing the diaper of a breastfed baby may not be as unpleasant as dealing with the diapers of a bottle-fed infant. Because breast milk is so well absorbed, breastfed infants are rarely constipated. This all changes, of course, once a baby starts on formula or solid food.

In recent years tremendous progress has been made in the development of genetic tests to diagnose heritable diseases.  You may wish to consult your physician about genetic counseling if:

• You have a family history of hereditary disease or mental retardation of unknown origin
• You are a woman over the age of thirty-five
• You have had a previous child with a chromosomal or other genetic disorder of any birth defects
• You have had three or more miscarriages or a stillbirth

If you have any concerns, ask your physician. If you are considered to be at risk for passing on a hereditary disease to your children, you can receive genetic counseling.  A genetic counselor will ask you about your personal and family medical history.  Blood tests may be necessary to help determine whether you are a carrier of a heritable disorder.  You may be advised about the chances of transmitting hereditary illness to your offspring.If you are pregnant, the well-being of your fetus can be assessed by several procedures:

• Ultrasonography.  High frequency sound waves are used to produce images of the placenta and fetus.  It is a painless procedure and can detect gross defects, especially of the heart, bones, brain, and spinal cord.
• Amniocentesis. Many genetic diseases can now be diagnosed prenatally with the use of amniocentesis.  A small amount of amniotic fluid, the liquid that bathes the baby in the uterus, is withdrawn and analyzed.  Amniocentesis is usually performed between the fourteenth and eighteenth weeks of pregnancy.
• Chorionic Viilus Sampling [CVS].  This technique is still under investigation.  A few fetal cells from the chorionic villus, a part of the placenta, are withdrawn and analyzed for the presence of a few select diseases.  The advantage of CVS is that it can be performed earlier than amniocentesis.  The disadvantage, currently the risks of infection and miscarriage after the procedure appear to be higher than for amniocentesis.
• Fetoscopy is a procedure wherein the fetus is directly observed within the uterus by use of special lenses.  During fetoscopy fetal blood can be sampled.  These procedures are currently performed only at a few medical centers for prenatal diagnosis of a limited number of serious diseases.
• Radiography.  X-ray films are occasionally used because they can be helpful in detecting certain skeletal abnormalities.

Remember that the diseases described in this section are rare. Most expectant parents can look forward to the arrival of a healthy baby.  If you are pregnant or hope to be and have any worries about the well-being of your future child, don’t hesitate to address them to your doctor.

Continue eating a good quality diet just as you did during pregnancy.  If you are not breastfeeding, your nutrient and calorie needs will be the same as they were before you became pregnant.  If you are breastfeeding, or if you’re anemic or recovering from a cesarean delivery, special nutritional management is most certainly in order.

Take a creative approach to nutrition, choosing foods that take little or no preparation.  Fresh fruit, raw vegetables, melted cheese on toast, cottage cheese for breakfast, and yogurt with sunflower seeds or granola are quick and nutritious.  Broiled meats and fish are faster to prepare than casseroles and can be prepared whenever you have time to eat.

Let friends and family help you by providing nutritious meals during the early months after childbirth.  Meals that can be frozen are especially helpful since you can pull them out of the freezer for use on those occasional difficult days.

Nurture yourself by taking time to sit and eat your meals.  Eating on the run or standing to eat makes you feel you have not had a meal; this habit contributes to fatigue.  Place your baby in a swing or infant seat so that your hands are free.  If your baby needs to be close to you, an infant backpack or sling is helpful.  Or you may wait to eat until your baby’s quiet time or when she is asleep.

Constipation is a common and unpleasant postpartum complaint.  You can relieve constipation by:

• Getting some form of daily exercise, such as walking.
• Making sure you have adequate dietary fiber.  Bran muffins, high fiber cereals, and lots of fruits and vegetables will help.
• Drinking prune juice on an empty stomach followed by several cups of hot water, tea, or other hot beverage. [This works wonders for many mothers]
• Drinking to quench your thirst, which ensures that you are getting the fluids you need.  Two or thee quarts of fluids a day is generally recommended.