Find info on your childrens health

Because more and more women are choosing to breast
feed their babies, more and more are also finding
that they enjoy it enough to continue longer than
the first few months they planned on. Breast
feeding to 3 – 4 years of age is common in much
of the world recently, and is still common in
many societies for toddlers to be breast fed.

Because mothers and babies often enjoy to breast
feed, you shouldn’t stop it. After six months,
many think that breast milk loses it’s value -
which isn’t true. Even after six months, it
still contains protein, fat, and other important
nutrients which babies and children need.

The fact is, immune factors in breast milk will
protect the baby against infections. Breast
milk also contains factors that will help the
immune system mature, and other organs to develop
and mature as well.

It’s been shown and proven in the past that
children in daycare who are still breast feeding
have far less severe infections than the
children that aren’t breast feeding. The mother
will lose less work time if she chooses to
continue nursing her baby once she is back to
work.

If you have thought about breast feeding your
baby once he gets passed 6 months of age, you
have made a wise decision. Although many feel
that it isn’t necessary, breast milk will always
help babies and toddlers. Breast milk is the
best milk you can give to your baby.

No matter what others may tell you, breast feeding
only needs to be stopped when you and the baby
agree on it. You don’t have to stop when someone
else wants you to – you should only stop when
you feel that it’s the right time.

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Q: My breastfed baby spits up frequently. Is there something I’m eating that could be causing this? Could it be reflux? Or is this normal?

A: If your baby is spitting up, even if it’s a frequent occurrence, it’s rarely a sign of a serious problem. In fact, “In a healthy baby,” according to the late Dr. Gregory White, previously a medical advisor to La Leche League, “spitting up is a laundry problem, not a medical problem.” If your baby is gaining weight properly and otherwise developing normally, you probably have nothing to worry about, and likely the problem will lesson and eventually go away by the time baby is a year old.

Still, it can be disconcerting if your nursing baby spits up a lot. You may be wondering if he or she is getting enough milk or if there is some problem with your breastmilk. Rest assured. There are several things you can do to help prevent frequent spitting up.

1) Let Gravity Help When Feeding

Basically, any position that causes the milk to go against gravity will help baby handle the flow of milk more easily, and cause him to swallow less air. Try nursing baby in the “football” hold with him looking at your breast and partially sitting up, facing you. Nursing lying down will allow baby to let extra milk flow out the side of his mouth. After a feeding, try holding him upright in a baby sling. Many Moms have found that their frequent spitters are helped when they’re frequently held close to Mom’s body in a soft carrier.

2) Finish The First Breast First

At the beginning of a feeding, your baby is getting the lower fat “foremilk” and later on, the higher fat “hindmilk”. If you remove baby from the first breast before he pulls away and give him the other side, he may fill up with foremilk, causing some gassiness, fussiness, and more spitting up. Let him decide when he’s done with the first breast, either by pulling away or falling asleep. If you have a very strong “letdown”, or milk ejection reflex, then this is especially important. You may have an overabundant milk supply. Try keeping baby on one side for an entire feeding.

3) Pay Attention To Your Latch

Be sure baby is latched on properly. His mouth should be open wide and he should have a lot of areola (not just the nipple but surrounding tissue) in his mouth. If he is latched on well you will have no pain, and baby will swallow less air. It’s also a good idea to burp a frequent spitter before offering him the second breast. Oftentimes a thorough burping will prevent spit up later.

4) Relax!

Frequent spitting up is often caused by an underdeveloped esophageal sphincter (fancy term for the muscles that keep food down). The problem will likely resolve as baby gets older.

Spitting up is rarely caused by something a nursing Mom ate. There is no one food that causes trouble in most or all breastfed infants. Nursing Moms worldwide eat a variety of foods (including spicy foods, garlic, dairy products and “gassy” foods like onions, cabbage and beans) and nurse healthy babies. Food allergies are rare in breastfed infants. If you have a strong family history of allergies, then your baby may be allergic to something that appears in your milk. Ask your health care provider for recommendations about changing your diet.

Fussiness can be caused by many different factors, including temperament. If you suspect that your baby’s frequent spitting up is caused by Reflux, he may have some of the following symptoms: trouble gaining weight, difficulty breathing, gagging and extreme irritability. Ask your baby’s Doctor about your baby’s symptoms if you’re unsure.

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Baby Food Allergies – How To Identify And Avoid Them

Many parents find the risk of baby food allergies one of the most worrying aspects of introducing new foods to their baby. But there are simple steps you can take to minimise potential problems and make your child’s introduction to solid food a safe and happy one.

Allergic reactions take place when your baby’s immune system mistakenly treats a harmless substance as a harmful one. Baby food allergy symptoms include diarrhea, eczema, nausea, constipation and watery or red eyes. Very rarely, a serious reaction known as allergic shock can occur. This can cause the throat and tongue to swell dangerously, which could lead to choking. In this situation, professional medical help must be sought immediately.

Baby food allergies should not be confused with food intolerance. A baby with food intolerance would have difficulty in digesting a particular type of food, which can be caused by many other things besides an allergen. In either case, diagnosis should be made by a medical professional.

In order to prevent baby food allergies such as these, or to identify foods to which your baby reacts, it is important to follow these simple guidelines –

1. Try to delay feeding your baby solid food until he is at least 6 months of age. His immune system will be better developed by this stage.

2. Only introduce one new food at a time and wait for a few days to see if a reaction occurs. It will then be easy to spot the “problem” food and eliminate it from your baby’s diet.

3. Avoid foods that are known to be more likely to cause allergic reactions. Examples of such foods include eggs (particularly the whites), shellfish, gluten and citrus fruits.

4. Decide whether or not your baby is at a particularly high risk of developing allergies — for example, do you suffer from an allergy yourself? This can often lead to an increased risk of allergies for your baby, although not necessarily to the same allergen (i.e. the substance responsible for the reaction).

5. Discuss any concerns with a medical professional.

Whilst it is sensible to be cautious, it is still important to remember that baby food allergies only affect around 8% of children. So try to keep things in perspective, introduce new foods individually and stay alert for possible reactions — these measures will give you the confidence to safely introduce the delights of solid food to your little one.

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First-time parents and even parents with several kids, regularly find that their young child isn’t sleeping as well as he or she should.

Many parents try to find the underlying cause of the problem, hoping to find a simple answer. This also leaves countless parents questioning if feeding might have something to do with the issue.

The aim of this article is to burrow deeper into the different aspects of feeding your small child and examine the effects that feeding could possibly have on a babys sleeping schedule and habits.

Initially, we should list the different feeding areas that we will be considering. These are:
Mixing Breast-feeding and Bottle Feedings
Feeding your child to sleep
What are YOU eating and will it affect your babys sleeping pattern?
Will solids help your baby sleep?

Mixing Breast-feeding and Bottle Feedings

It is believed that the mixture of bottle and breast in feedings could potentially sleeping problems. There are a number of different reasons for this when you are breast-feeding your young child. With each feeding, the breast is signaling to the brain that more milk needs to be produced for the coming feeding. When a bottle is incorporated into feedings, this process could be affected. The breast will start to produce less milk due to the less frequent breast feedings.

Furthermore, during the times when you do breast-feed your baby, he or she will not get as full with the breast-feeding because of the lessening of milk supply. This effectively means that your baby will need feeding more often, which will mean his or her sleep patterns will be interrupted by the need for feeding.

Feeding your baby to sleep

Feeding your child to sleep may be creating a problem with their sleep patterns. Your baby will soon begin to recognize that you feed him or her at bedtime. This will become something they depend on and expect. Generally, this will be the situation with each waking throughout the night as well.

There are of course, techniques you can use to avoid your baby from depending on feedings to fall asleep.

Initially, change the time or the length of time you feed your baby when nearing his or her bedtime. Doing so will gradually disconnect the association of bedtime with feeding.

Another option is feed your child earlier in the night instead of as a bedtime routine. When you do these things your child will not associate eating with bedtime. This will help your baby learn to fall asleep on his own accord.

What are YOU eating and will it affect your babys sleeping pattern?

The one word answer is yes. As a breast-feeding mom*, everything that you put into your body affects your breast milk. If you are not eating the appropriate amount of foods and calories each day, your breast milk is greatly affected. It is important that you eat the recommended three meals each day and perhaps a few snacks in between. Your milk needs to have enough calories in it in order for your baby to feel pleasantly full and satisfied. If it does not, he or she will continue to feed longer until he or she is full.

You need to eat healthier foods and try to eat them more often, as well as drinking fluids throughout the day. This will benefit your
milk supply, therefore helping your baby and his or her sleep patterns. The fuller your baby feels, the better he or she will sleep.

Will solids help your baby?

Many parents believe this will help, but numerous studies haven’t associated any change in those who were fed by the breast and / or bottle and those who are fed solids. This has not been proven to help the sleep patterns in babies at all. Doctors recommend not adding solid foods prior to six months of age.

Chris Towland

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The mother of a baby is the most busy person on earth, when she is not very gathered about her daily routine vis–vis the baby.

Breast feeding

Everyday she has to bother about the babys feeding, sleeping, clothing, changing and bathing. It is the best to feed your own milk to the child. Please do not forget to give her the first milk of yours because that would contain colostrums, which is vital for the immune system of the child. Mothers milk will always create the body resistance and the child will be a healthy one in future.

When you are breast feeding your child, the food that causes problems in your body may be communicated to the baby as well. Foods that cause gas or cold should be avoided or the baby will have uncomfortable state or congestion.

Bottle feeding

If you are bottle-feeding your baby for some reasons, then make sure that the bottles are well sterilized and clean. Scrub them with washing liquids. Boil them for 25 minutes to kill unwanted organism that may have developed in it due to the fermenting milk. Steam sterilizer and cold sterilizer methods are also there, about which one has to consult with an expert and should see to it that those are readily available in the market.

Baby sleeping

The materials needed to put the baby to sleep are a good, firm mattress, sheets and blankets. Keep one feet distance from the nostril range of the baby if you are lying along with your baby on the same bed. There should not be unnecessary clothing or clothes around the babys body and bed which may cause temperature rise and heating. The baby is not going to talk about it, and you should be sensitive enough to remove the body coverings as much as possible. There should be a mosquito net, or at least a netted covering around the baby to keep away the flies and the mosquitoes.

Clothing

Summer clothes should be light cotton ones. When the baby is taken out, make sure that his head does not get the direct sun. In winter, there may be sweaters, trousers and other woolens.

Changing

The babys diapers should be regularly changed. The intervals should be fixed according to the babys routine of potting and wetting. Despite the routine, the baby may need changing because of untimely nature calls at times. It is the babys right to feel dry at every moment. See to it that the bed is not wetted and the smelly clothes and bed sheets are removed.

Bathing

The baby needs a mouth washing with cotton. A bath tub large enough to hold it and is easy to wash should be made available. The baby should enjoy the water which can be assessed if leg splashing which is very distinct. The baby should be rubbed with baby oil and baby cream. The nail clippers should be used at bath time. After bath, the baby should be thoroughly dried and should be applied with a baby powder.

Immunisation

The baby should be immunized against Small Pox & Measles with BCG within 3 months of its age. The first DPT (Diphtheria, Tetanus, Psertussis, Polio, HIB, Meningitis C) is due within the first 2 months followed by the 2nd and the 3rd one at one month intervals. The MMR vaccination against Measles, Mumps and Rubella should be done within 1 years of age. The boosters should be taken after the baby is 4 years old.

Training and Education

Though regular training and teaching should not be started before the age of three years, the childs habits and sense of discipline is cultivated through the discipline the mother maintains. When the mother is calm against odds like the baby fever, or baby dysentery while making sure of the treatments, the child gets the idea to be calm against disastrous times.

The most important babycare tip

The parents should find enough time to spend with the baby.

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