chatwithketch

“Don’t do family planning while breastfeeding. It will dry up your milk.”

How many mothers have avoided contraception because someone gave them this warning?

The truth is that breastfeeding mothers have several family-planning options. But safe for breastfeeding does not automatically mean the best method for every mother.

Where in doubt, always check with your healthcare provider.

Your period returns and someone tells you to stop breastfeeding until the bleeding ends because the milk is now “dirty.”

Please don’t.

Menstrual blood does not mix with breast milk, and having your period does not make your milk harmful to your baby.

The return-to-work date is already on the calendar.

Does that date also have to mark the end of breastfeeding?

No but continuing successfully is much easier when the plan begins before your first morning back at work.

The pregnancy test is positive but your older baby is still breastfeeding.

Must you stop immediately?

For most mothers with an uncomplicated pregnancy, the answer is no. Breastfeeding does not automatically end because another baby is on the way.

That breast milk in your fridge may look and smell perfectly fine.

But can you remember exactly when you expressed it?

Before you feed it to your baby, ‘check the clock, not just the smell.’

Here is the breast-milk storage rule every breastfeeding mother should save: ‘4 hours, 4 days, 6 months.’

Pap? Oats? Lactation tea? Supplements?

The moment a mother worries about her milk supply, somebody recommends a “milk booster.”

Were you told to take lots of pap with evaporated milk? 😃 I was!

But before you spend money or begin swallowing herbs and pills, there is something more important to check: Is milk being removed from the breasts frequently and effectively? How to do that? Put your baby to the breast! 😊

Beans? Pepper? Milk? Fruit?

Many breastfeeding mothers begin removing foods from their diet because someone says, “That is what is disturbing the baby.”

But most mothers do not need a bland or severely restricted diet to breastfeed. Read!

Q: Evening Ma, please I need help. My baby is 2weeks and her stool is watery. I am practicing exclusive breast feeding. What type of food should I eat or what do I do?

A: Congratulations on your new baby! May she be a blessing to her generation!

Okay to your question, exclusively breast fed babies may pass stool a couple of times during the day to lots of time (it might even be after every meal :D).

You’re still getting to know your baby and so you should look out for the normal consistency of his stools and the frequency. Diarrhea is usually rare in exclusively breast fed children because you’ve cut off all the middle men like bottles and teats etc that could have been reservoirs of infection.

Having said that, watch out for signs like blood or mucous in stool, explosive green stools and foul smelling stools. How can this occur in exclusively breast fed babies?

It may be due to an infection (viral and bacterial), food allergy to something the mother ate, it may be due to food poisoning in the mum or perhaps the mother had taken antibiotics.

If in doubt as to whether the stools appear normal or as they have been since birth, please see your baby’s doctor.

If your baby has diarrhea, he/she should be rehydrated as quickly as possible.

The first way is to continue breastfeeding even before going to the hospital. This also provides valuable antibodies that help the baby fight diseases.

So, it is clear now that diet affects our breast milk and by extension, baby. These are foods to avoid or limit their consumption while breast feeding:

Caffeine in coffee (try decaffeinated and stick with 2 small tea cups), energy drinks, some soft drinks etc This makes the baby irritable and by extension, makes sleep difficult for the baby. Now, you don’t want that, do you?

Alcohol: This should be avoided at all costs.

Cigarette (yeah, yeah, I know it’s not food) should also be avoided as it reduces the production of breast milk.

If baby reacts to what the mother ate, efforts should be made to pinpoint what the mother ate before the incident started and then eliminating that from the diet to see if the diarrhea or allergy stops.

Make sure that you eat well: lots of fruits and vegetables and complex carbohydrates. Cut out the junk which will not help you achieve your weight loss goals and in addition have empty calories. And drink sufficient fluids daily.

Be careful before taking any drug as most find their way into your baby.

Hope this helps.

Goodnight y’all 😀

Have you received this advice?

Breastfeeding does not flatten a baby’s nose and repeatedly pulling or pressing it will not make it pointed. Read!

Q: What do I do and what food do I take to make my breastfeeding baby’s nose pointed?

A: This question reminds me of my childhood. My mother jokingly tells me till date that I don’t have a flat nose because she made sure she always pulled my nose 😀 At that time, I couldn’t figure out if that pull was done as a means of showing anger or pleasure 😀 And my mum is a doctor oh 😀 But I digress….

There’s no evidence that pulling or pressing your baby’s nose makes it more pointed. Most babies are born with flat or squashed noses. The reason for this is not hard to imagine considering the tight, squashed and compact spaces that nose was pressed against on its way out of mummy’s womb 😀 Given all of that, it usually takes a couple of weeks and maybe even months to get the nose all straightened out and looking like it really belongs on your baby’s face…without your help, mind you 😀

In the same way, if your baby’s head appears a bit lopsided or bigger on one side as opposed to the other when born, you may not need to worry. During the process of childbirth, the baby’s skull bones are molded to enable the baby pass through the birth canal. Thus, sometimes when the baby is born the head may be lopsided because of uneven molding. It could also happen after birth in babies who lie on their backs a lot. Where in doubt, please see your doctor.

So, back to our nose pressing gist…give your baby’s nasal bridge a chance to develop well, on its own. You may actually be tampering with that process by pressing it continually.

To answer your question, what should you do? Nothing 😀 What should you eat? Healthy stuff…to make you and baby healthy. It has nothing to do with your baby’s nose 😀

“MY NEWBORN’S POO IS RUNNY AND YELLOW—AND IT HAS WHITE ‘CHEESY’ BITS IN IT. SHOULD I STOP BREASTFEEDING?”

No.

If your breastfed newborn is feeding well and otherwise appears healthy, that alarming-looking nappy may be showing you exactly what normal breastfed poo looks like.