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#1
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bare minimum bfing duration
little background here. A friend of mine recently had an emergency c
section and she had one heck of a time delivering the baby. now they are doing fine. the baby stayed in icu for few days and for the lack of knowing better they gave the baby a bottle and guess what! ended up with nipple confusion. I warned her about this problem but still.. Anyways, despite the pain and everything my friend is diligently pumping and giving the baby ebm. When I called her last time we talked about nursing the baby, quitting the bottle etc etc. She asked me how long, in my opinon, is the absolute bare minimum that the baby should get breast milk? I told 6 months. What do you think? I agree that it would be best if the baby nurses until he/she self weans. But for whatever reason if the mother just can't do it, how long should she nurse the baby as a bare minimum time? Thanks. |
#2
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bare minimum bfing duration
"ted" wrote in message
om... What do you think? I agree that it would be best if the baby nurses until he/she self weans. But for whatever reason if the mother just can't do it, how long should she nurse the baby as a bare minimum time? I don't think it's really quantifiable. I mean, some babies are never breastfed and do OK, so it could be argued that the bare minimum is no time at all! It all depends on what you consider acceptable. Personally, I suppose a bare minimum for me would be to nurse until she can thrive on a balanced diet of 'real' food, since I never want my baby to have formula. That's just me though, and even that is not a specific time limit, since it depends on my baby's readiness. Considering the problems your friend has been having, it probably wouldn't be wise to tell her she has to nurse for x number of months. It might be best if she just concentrate on getting the baby to the breast and take it one day at a time. Just my opinion. Lucy |
#3
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bare minimum bfing duration
"ted" wrote
What do you think? I agree that it would be best if the baby nurses until he/she self weans. But for whatever reason if the mother just can't do it, how long should she nurse the baby as a bare minimum time? LLL have a saying: 1 year is better than 1 month, 1 month is better than 1 week, 1 week is better than 1 day, 1 day is better than 1 hour. IOW, each additional feed adds to the previous ones but even 1feed is better than none. Jean - who took it one *minute* at a time at one stage -- HOLLY: Nothing wrong with dog's milk. Full of goodness, full of vitamins, full of marrowbone jelly. Lasts longer than any other type of milk, dog's milk. LISTER: Why? HOLLY: No bugger'll drink it. Plus the advantage of dog's milk is when it goes off it takes exactly the same as when it's fresh. LISTER: Why didn't you tell me, Holly?! HOLLY: What, and spoil your tea? (Red Dwarf: Series 2, Episode 1) |
#4
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bare minimum bfing duration
ted wrote:
snip What do you think? I agree that it would be best if the baby nurses until he/she self weans. But for whatever reason if the mother just can't do it, how long should she nurse the baby as a bare minimum time? I think of one year as the barest bare minimum. I get sad when I hear about children under the age of two being weaned. But then, I'm a zealot :-) Emily |
#5
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bare minimum bfing duration
ted wrote:
But for whatever reason if the mother just can't do it, how long should she nurse the baby as a bare minimum time? As long as she can. There's no magic cutoff date. Phoebe -- yahoo address is unread - substitute mailbolt |
#6
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bare minimum bfing duration
"Emily Roysdon" wrote in message om... ted wrote: snip What do you think? I agree that it would be best if the baby nurses until he/she self weans. But for whatever reason if the mother just can't do it, how long should she nurse the baby as a bare minimum time? delurk When I had my first child I had terrible problems getting him to latch, partially because I didn't have much for him to latch on to, I had also had a c-section which meant finding a decent position was much harder and partially because the midwives kept sneaking him out in the night and giving him a bottle, but then berating me when he wouldn't latch properly. This was 10 years ago, and UK midwifery policies have changed a bit since then. At the time also, it was recommended to breast feed for 3-4 months if possible, rather than the recommended 6 months now. I ended up struggling on through the colostrum stage (expressing mostly) and then moving on to formula after that. In retrospect, I think I would have struggled to keep him fed and happy after 3-4 months on mere milk, he was taking 8x 8oz bottles a day by then. I'm certainly going to try again this time around to b-f, but I think the most important thing is to not have any expectations about what will happen in the future. I will give it my best shot, and if it works out then great. You can't predict how things are going to turn out, and to my mind, you have to just go with what's best for the baby while you can. Trying to put a timescale on it adds un-necessary anxiety which if it doesn't go according to plan can make the mother berate herself for "failing" and can add extra pressure to a time when pressure is the last thing you really need. Feeding the baby should be enjoyable, and no-one should feel guilty or unhappy if things don't go the way they hope. JMO UberMinx relurk |
#7
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bare minimum bfing duration
ted wrote:
Anyways, despite the pain and everything my friend is diligently pumping and giving the baby ebm. When I called her last time we talked about nursing the baby, quitting the bottle etc etc. She asked me how long, in my opinon, is the absolute bare minimum that the baby should get breast milk? I told 6 months. What do you think? I agree that it would be best if the baby nurses until he/she self weans. But for whatever reason if the mother just can't do it, how long should she nurse the baby as a bare minimum time? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1974976.stm suggests that breastfeeding up to 7 months increases IQ with each additional month, but that breastfeeding beyond 7 months does not confer additional benefit. This agrees quite well with your six month estimate. - Dan |
#8
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bare minimum bfing duration
Anyways, despite the pain and everything my friend is diligently pumping and giving the baby ebm. When I called her last time we talked about nursing the baby, quitting the bottle etc etc. She asked me how long, in my opinon, is the absolute bare minimum that the baby should get breast milk? I told 6 months. What do you think? I agree that it would be best if the baby nurses until he/she self weans. But for whatever reason if the mother just can't do it, how long should she nurse the baby as a bare minimum time? My *personal* minimum is two years. But that's the youngest I would allow a baby to wean (I won't feed any child of mine under age 2 cow's milk, period, so they really must nurse.) But really there is no set minimum. I think 6 months is a wise "bottom", but I couldn't imagine weaning my daughter at age 6 months. I think the ideal is to give breastmilk until the baby is old enough for something other than formula. That usually means age 1. But is it reasonable to expect a mother who pumps exclusively to pump for a full year? I don't know. Obviously some babies never get breast milk. Others nurse for 6 years+. But as for biological minimums? I think age 1 is sort of the bottom limit I'd accept for a baby without a tendancy to allergy and 2 years is the absolute earliest I'd think about considering a child "self weaning" vs. "nursing strike" in my family because we *all* get allergies. Jenrose |
#9
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bare minimum bfing duration
"UberMinx" wrote in message ... "Emily Roysdon" wrote in message om... ted wrote: snip What do you think? I agree that it would be best if the baby nurses until he/she self weans. But for whatever reason if the mother just can't do it, how long should she nurse the baby as a bare minimum time? delurk I ended up struggling on through the colostrum stage (expressing mostly) and then moving on to formula after that. In retrospect, I think I would have struggled to keep him fed and happy after 3-4 months on mere milk, he was taking 8x 8oz bottles a day by then. Given that my daughter was able to triple her birthweight in just over 4 months (She was not quite 8 pounds when born, was 20 pounds at her 4 month check), you might be surprised. With a bad latch, it can be difficult to get anything out. With a good latch, it's very difficult NOT to meet the needs of even a "huge" baby. Or twins. It is rare, when a latch is good and a baby nurses well and frequently, for a mother to not simply be able to produce however much milk her kiddo needs. If you were already expressing in the colostrum phase, I'm guessing that nipple confusion added to whatever initial difficulties there were. What kind of nipples do you have? (I know, odd personal question, but my breasts are very large and my nipples very small, and if you've got the same, I can probably tell you some ways of figuring how to make it work better next time.) FWIW--nursing was torture for me the first week. Then someone helped me fix my latch (and my nipple shape turned out to be completely irrelevant to what was making the latch bad) and poof, it worked and didn't hurt. Jenrose |
#10
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bare minimum bfing duration
"Jenrose" wrote in message s.com... My *personal* minimum is two years. But that's the youngest I would allow a baby to wean (I won't feed any child of mine under age 2 cow's milk, period, so they really must nurse.) I'm certainly not disputing your minimum of two years. I am, however, disputing your claim that a child *must* nurse simply because they are not drinking cows milk. You can get Vitamin D from sunlight and calcium from cheese, yogurt, etc. and what happened to good old fashioned water for hydration? Milk should certainly not be compared as a substitution for breastmilk, nor should it be construed as a staple food for humans. Shannon |
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