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Tips from a mother with a premature baby

Thank you Iona 🙂

“From the outset my son’s entry into the world was never going to be straight forward. From week 20 of the pregnancy I was warned that he was growing slowly. By week 30 I was told that he would not make full term and that I should prepare for an early delivery in week 35, but it was not to be. At 32 weeks I went to A&E with what I thought was food poisoning. It was not until 18 hours after being admitted that a student doctor recognised my epigastric pain as a primary symptom of a rare form of preeclampsia called HELLP syndrome. By the time my son was delivered by emergency caesarean, we were apparently hours away from a crisis situation that could have ended very badly for us both.

He was delivered safely, and the first image I remember is of trying to crane my head to see him while reaching out to touch him, but restrained by cannulas, wires and tubes. All I could do was point ET-like with one finger towards this miniature alien-being, wrapped in a foil blanket proffered by a nurse, before being whipped away from me and taken to SCBU. I was then transferred to the recovery unit for observation as I was still at risk of complications after the birth.

I was very lucky that a friend of mine knew that I was in hospital and also knew how important it was to me to breastfeed even if my baby arrived early. She got in touch with the breastfeeding specialist in the hospital who visited me in the recovery unit and showed me how to hand express the ‘liquid gold’ or colostrum into a small test tube. I was still bedridden, attached to multiple tubes and machines, in extreme pain and separated from my baby. The one thing I felt able to do was to get my colostrum to him, so I painstakingly squeezed and coaxed millimetres of the stuff into a pipette, only to meet with a disparaging “let’s wait till you can manage a bit more” from the duty nurse. I was incensed – didn’t she know how important even one tiny little drop of this stuff could be for my baby? Evidently not. In my enraged and hormonal state I made sure that SCBU knew that I had colostrum and insisted that a nurse come down to my floor to get it at regular intervals. Later on I made sure that my care plan included that my expressed milk would reach my baby. I also made an appointment from my bed to see the breastfeeding nurse on the SCBU. She helped set me up with a breast pump which I was able to use at my bedside.

I was put on the general ward with other mothers who had recently given birth normally. It was utterly torturous to hear them through the night, being able to have their babies in their arms and nurse them when they cried. It was almost 48 hours before I was mobile enough to be able to see my son. Before that I had to rely on my partner and my parents bringing me reports, and a very grainy photo that my partner took on his mobile. Finally after breaking down and crying, I was escorted to SCBU in a wheelchair to meet my baby. Nothing could prepare me for this moment of helplessness, to see my tiny tiny child in a glass box attached to wires and tubes.  But as I rose painfully out of my chair he opened his eyes and looked directly at me with his deep brown eyes, as if to say “So here you are! What took you so long?”

I was frightened to touch him, he looked so frail – all angular limbs and a large perfectly formed head. I was so very grateful for the wonderful nurse Sam who had prepared for my arrival. She was so incredibly sensitive, but challenged me to overcome my fears. She helped me for the first time hold my baby against my skin and I watched as I saw my heart rate slow on my monitor, and the oxygen levels rise on his. I sat for hours and hours over the following days like this. I found out that I could visit at any time so I spend some beautiful hours holding my baby in the middle of the night, rather than being awake listening to other mothers with their babies on the general ward.

Very soon Sam encouraged me to try Aryam at the breast. To increase his interest she held back his feed so that he would be hungry when I visited. The first time to my great astonishment, he latched on confidently. It didn’t look physically possible given that my breast was bigger than his entire body! My nipple looked like a large apple going into his little mouth! But he was very happy to hang out and nuzzle. So a routine developed where I became confident in taking him out of the incubator, holding him on my chest skin to skin, giving him his tube feed while he nuzzled, and then doing his ‘care’ (nappy change and cleaning). Aryam began to timidly suck after about a week of nuzzling – but I wasn’t confident that I was producing anything despite an arduous regime of pumping that I had begun. I also wondered whether he would ever be strong enough to suck efficiently to get any milk from me.

I was then lucky enough to meet in a hospital corridor, my friend and breastfeeding counsellor Petra, who I’d met previously when I took my firstborn to a local breastfeeding cafe. Petra came into the unit to meet my son and I proudly showed him off and his great latching skills! She lent me an amazing book which outlined the importance of kangaroo care for prem babies and went into the research about benefits and possibility of breastfeeding a preterm infant. This helped me to understand that the process of learning to breastfeed for a prem baby and mother is completely different in timescale to that of a full term baby, and that I needed to be patient and persistent to be ready when he was.

In my second week I began to be more focused on trying to get Aryam to breastfeed as I was becoming more confident that he could. So I timed my visits for when I knew he was due a feed and made sure that I offered him breast before a tube feed. For some days the SCBU nurses were happy for me to do this and then top up with a tube feed afterwards based on my estimate of how much Aryam had taken in. I was wildly underestimating how much milk I was producing for him as I still didn’t seem to be producing much through pumping. But by the end of the second week he had put on the target weight ahead of schedule and graduated out of the incubator into an open cradle. He was still being tube-fed at regular intervals.

There was some debate among the nurses as to what point he was ready to be exclusively breast fed. I kept feeding him through the third week and by the beginning of the fourth Aryam was beginning to ‘demand’ his feed. He was one of the most vocal babies on the unit and he became so hungry and loud especially at night, that the nurses eventually realised that the time had come to see if we could go it alone. It came to a head when one of the nurses gave Aryam a bottle at night to calm him as he had been crying for me all night. I had specifically asked for this not to happen, and was pretty disgruntled that he had been given a bottle and a dummy against my wishes. However I took this incident to mean that Aryam was now strong enough to assert himself and demand a feed.

So at my request we booked into the ‘going home suite’ for a trial of two nights. For the first time, Aryam was not attached to a monitor or intubated. I co-slept with him all night, and couldn’t sleep of course because of the combination of joy – just watching him breathing all by himself next to me, and the fear of squashing him or him rolling out of the narrow single bed! By the morning I knew that we were going to be okay. He had fed at four hourly intervals through the night and importantly it felt so right.  We were discharged the following morning and sent home!

My learnings for mothers in the same situation:

Ø  Make an appointment to see the breastfeeding specialist in the SCBU as soon as you can to ensure that you are linked into any available support

Ø  As early as possible find out how to express colostrum by hand and get it to your baby. You may only be able to squeeze out a few drops but this is still highly beneficial for your baby if you can get it to them. Speed is of the essence and most nurses/midwives know this.

Ø  Even if you are separated from your baby initially you can express milk for them, so find out where the pumping station is, or ideally ask for a pump beside your bed so that you can begin expressing as soon as you are able. This will also help you build up your milk supply.

Ø  Look after your own health, healing and energy levels. After the physical shock of a C-section, the SCBU routine is exhausting physically, mentally and emotionally. You must get adequate sleep, eat well and make time to process your emotions. Pull in whatever support you can from those around you. This will ultimately benefit your baby and ensure that you leave SCBU sooner rather than later.

Ø  When other mothers around you are producing pints for their babies, you may feel inadequate. However there is no competition! Go easy on yourself in terms of your expectations. Your body has gone through an enormous shock.  You have also started to produce milk before your body was scheduled to. But you are more than likely to be able to produce what your baby needs at the rate and quantity that they need it (which is millilitres at first!).

Ø  Make sure that your wish to breastfeed is written into your care plan for you and your baby from as early as possible and that all care givers are made aware of the implications of this for the feeding schedule and methods.

Ø  If you wish to establish breastfeeding, ask staff not to use pacifiers or bottles to feed your baby to avoid nipple confusion. In my opinion this is one of the main reasons that so many babies leaving SCBU do not successfully breastfeed as they have already got used to being given bottle feeds from very early on.

Ø  At some point you may meet with resistance to breastfeeding from some staff. This is because breastfeeding may conflict with the regular feeding routine set up within SCBU – and because it is a variable which is less controllable than feeding via tube or bottle. I was able to reach a compromise where breastfeeding took precedence over tube feeds until my baby reached his target weight. Thereafter I had to prove my confidence to look after my baby and breastfeed on demand. Happily my baby was totally agreeable to this plan and made his opinion known loudly!

Ø  Be confident, assertive and identify which key staff are your allies and will actively support you in establishing breastfeeding. At the end of the day most will be supportive because it is in their interests for you and your baby to graduate from SCBU as soon as possible.”

This is the book: 

Front Cover
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Let’s walk together for a while using my new service at the Salvation Army – Forest Road E17

The blog expresses my personal opinion.

Hello smiley

I am starting a Breastfeeding support and Counselling service at the Salvation Army – it is open to everyone.

I will be there Fridays from the 13.11.2015 onwards and as I have to pay for the room I have to see how I can best organise it. I am wondering if an online booking service will be best, as I then can also tell the Salvation Army how long I would like the room and if I need it on other days. I am interested to hear your thoughts and comments on it, so I can create a service that supports you the most.

Please email me either over the contact page or via petra22@btinternet.com the options you prefer and add any comment at the bottom – Thank you smiley

1.     Breastfeeding Group

–         Run as a drop-in

–         Online booking

–         A variation of the above

2.     Postnatal Depression Group (small – closed – running for 8 – 10 weeks) – Payment amount depends on size of group

3.     Birth Trauma Group (small – closed – running for 8 – 10 weeks) – Amount depends on size of group

4.     Private Counselling sessions – Walthamstow rate ÂŁ30/session

4.     Funding for the breastfeeding support group – I will have to start with the pay option, while I’ll work out if there is a way to do this where you don’t have to pay

–         You pay

–         Crowd funding

–         Grant

5.     What amount do you feel able to pay for a 30 minute session?

         Nothing  –  Donation  –  ÂŁ 5  –  ÂŁ10  –  ÂŁ15  –  ÂŁ 20 –  more

smiley THANK YOU smiley

Comments/Thoughts

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Today an era came to an end

The blog expresses my personal opinion.

Today an era came to an end â€“ my last clinic where I offered breastfeeding support working for a Children’s Centre.

This is how it started: Back in 2002 breastfeeding support was offered by Volunteer organisations and Health professionals, all working on their own doing the best they could. Being aware of the limitations that come with volunteering and organisations we founded the Breastfeeding Project Group (BPG) to see if we could achieve more by working together.

We started our first Volunteer Breastfeeding support session within a Weighing clinic at Comley Bank and from there it snowballed. In 2003 North Leyton Sure Start offered us a paid job as Breastfeeding counsellor and I haven’t looked back since.

The BPG organised (funded by the local Public Health Programme) a Breastfeeding Conference and training days for staff and soon the Children’s Centres trained peer supporters and added Breastfeeding Cafes to the support network, which kept growing.

I ran a few pilot projects – my favourite was visiting families within 48 hours of leaving the hospital. It was a project with long hours 7 days a week and it made such a difference. The parents didn’t need to desperately search for help and a lot of problems either didn’t get started or got nipped in the bud which meant happier parents and breastfeeding could continue as long as people wished.

Then in 2010 the new government came in and within a year a lot of what we had built up (some of it as volunteers) had been dismantled.

Some Children’s Centres managed to keep breastfeeding support going with shrinking budgets for quite a while and I was lucky to be part of that support system all that time.

From September on the Children’s Centres will still offer breastfeeding support groups, but they are not paid for out of their budget. Breastfeeding is now looked after by the local Public Health Department.

The groups are run by staff who have done the 3 day Unicef training (I assume something like this: http://www.unicef.org.uk/BabyFriendly/Health-Professionals/Training/childrens-centres/), what else will be in place I don’t know.

What I do know is that I am not part of the Children’s Centre support network anymore.

I have supported 1000s of families over the years and loved being part of this wonderful community. I have learned a lot from the parents and the babies and it is with a heavy heart that I say ‘Good Bye’.

Thank you for trusting me.

Thank you for the honour to be part of your journey.

Petra 

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Breastfeeding beyond a year

The blog expresses my personal opinion.

……is often not something women imagined during their pregnancy. It often goes

…….I’ll give it a try

……I’ll do it for a few days

…….I’ll do it for a few weeks

……I would like to breastfeed for 6 month, start weaning and by 1 year the child will be fully on solids.

Occasionally that is how it happens. And often women find themselves in a situation where they have gone past the 1 year mark and they are still feeding.

If all parties concerned (Mum, Baby and Partner) are happy with this -> no problem 🙂

And then you talk to other family members, friends, colleagues and strangers and all of a sudden you find yourself in a position having to justify why you are breastfeeding beyond a year.

Yes there are plenty of good reasons you can give: Health Benefits, emotional support for the child, having food when your baby is ill and can’t eat anything else, good reason to sit down – slow down and connect with your child, wonderful parenting tool, etc, etc….

But – this for me is the second step. The first one is: What makes people think they have the right to tell you what you can feed your baby and how to raise your child?

I know it happens in a lot of child related areas and it seems particular bad when it comes to breastfeeding. So I would suggest don’t defend your choice of going with what is 

a) normal    and

b) the right choice for your family

Often people make the suggestions from a place of caring and wanting to be supportive and sadly most of the time it is not what you need. Either ask them to explain what it is that makes them think that their choices are better for you and/or your child or thank them for the information given and leave it at that.

There is nothing wrong with breastfeeding beyond a year (there are blogs who cover the benefits of it) as long as it is the right choice for you and your family 🙂

You might also be interested in visiting these websites:

Jodie May Smith: http://lifewithpinkprincesses.co.uk/

The secret life of Kate: http://www.thesecretlifeofkate.blogspot.co.uk/

Breast4Babies: http://breast4babies.blogspot.co.uk/

Smiling like sunshine: http://www.smilinglikesunshine.com/

Barefoot Books: http://www.barefootbooks.com/marketplace/38341

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Top Breastfeeding Tips

The blog expresses my personal opinion.

I have been mulling this over for a while and creating one list after the other in my head and then dismissing it, because it felt just too long.

When you are a new mum there is soooooo much to learn and think about – and your brain is not doing well with information at the moment anyway, as you have what people call a ‘baby brain’ and it is often said with a lot of excuses or a negative tone, like it is something bad. 

I sometimes wonder how this society ended up turning a lot of women and children related things into something negative.

For me there is nothing more beautiful than a human being willing to meet and connect with another person and that is what you do when you have a ‘baby brain’.

How do babies communicate? 

On the physical level they cuddle and relax or squirm and tense up.

On the language level they cry to voice their needs or make happy noises and chat with you when everything is all-right.

But there is so much more to communication than hearing and seeing. 

There is the emotional level, which communicates a lot non-verbally and how can you pick these communications up? By shifting from your left brain – the logical, thinking side, to your right brain (your baby brain) – the creative side. From here you can sense/feel (intuitive) what your baby wants and needs. Oxytocin is a great help in making that shift.

It might take you a while to fine tune it (as most of us have forgotten how this works) and in my experience it is very often spot on, even if it doesn’t make sense from a logical (left side brain) point of view.

And from here I come to my 3 top tips:

1. Trust your intuition/instincts – no-one knows your baby better then you.

2. Forget most of the things you read about positioning and work with your body shape. If your nipple points outwards – tummy to         mummy is not going to work for you. There are not 1-5 positions (depending on to who you talk) there are 360 (sorry – I have forgotten who coined that phrase) and I am sure you will find a few that will work for you……and NO breastfeeding is not supposed to hurt!

3. If you can’t work it out: Ask for help – it is not a sign of weakness, nor are you a failure. We are living in a society where we don’t grow up seeing women breastfeeding, often your baby is the first baby you take care of, therefore you don’t have bucket loads of knowledge to fall back on. Breastfeeding has sadly become a learned skill, rather than being an innate one.

If you can view your relationship with your baby like you would view any other new relationship: that it takes time to get to know each other – and the first year of babies’ live as the last part of your pregnancy – life will be a lot less stressful and hopefully that makes space for you being able to enjoy your baby 🙂

I wish you lots of wonderful connective moments using your beautiful ‘baby brain’heart

Here is some new research to the theme:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150415133158.htm

You might also be interested in visiting these websites:

Jodie May Smith: http://lifewithpinkprincesses.co.uk/

The secret life of Kate: http://www.thesecretlifeofkate.blogspot.co.uk/

Breast4Babies: http://breast4babies.blogspot.co.uk/

Smiling like sunshine: http://www.smilinglikesunshine.com/

Barefoot Books: http://www.barefootbooks.com/marketplace/38341

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Wow – it is this time of the year again…

The blog expresses my personal opinion.

…..it is ‘Breastfeeding awareness week’ and with that I have joined the ‘Keep Britain Breastfeeding Scavenger Hunt‘ again.

And the week starts with a piece in the Guardian ‘Breastfeeding figures fall as NHS budget is cut’ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/22/breastfeeding-figures-fall-nhs-cuts) and I am getting worried that we will end up with a new wave of breastfeeding promotion that is doing more harm than good.

Surely I am wrong there: “All breastfeeding promotion is good – isn’t it?”

Let me give you an example:

A normal Maternity ward – Breastfeeding posters everywhere, the Midwifes promoting breastfeeding, all the leafleats telling parents how important and superior (no it isn’t by the way – it is normal) breastfeeding is and more and more women decide there are going to give it a try, as we all want what is best for our children.

And then birth happens – often with a lot of interventions, which put road blocks in the way of breastfeeding (were the parents made aware of the consequences of their choices?). Afterwards there is often little or contradictory support on the wards, so mums go home already feeling discouraged or like a failure.

In the community there is very little support as the Midwifery services are often over stretched and the GPs often don’t have enough breastfeeding training to pick up more complicated matters (like tongue ties) – a lot of slack is picked up by the voluntary breastfeeding supporters, but there is only so much you can do as a volunteer who also has a family to support.

And not everyone knows about the support that is out there or has the energy to contact them, so – often with a heavy heart – formula comes into the picture. The mother’s self-esteem is shattered, the partner is worried about the physical and mental health of mum and baby and a lot of guilt for both parents is croping up, not helping the situation.

What a bleak picture and sadly one I all to often encounter.

As great as it is that breastfeeding is promoted and science keeps pointing out ever so more the things breastmilk does for our health and the environment – promotion without a support system and good  training (and staffing levels) of the health professionals who are to support the parents is not good enough – all it does is make parents feel like failures and induce guilt for not succeeding. 

I think parents and babies deserve bettersmiley

Breastfeeding – once you have ironed out the kinks – is a lovely way of parenting and I wish that all the parents who want to raise their children this way, get the support they need to achieve it – without emotional blackmail or bullying.

The good news is: You don’t need to know anything about breastfeeding to offer support!!

Support is: Offering to do the shopping, so parent’s can catch up on sleep.

                     Cooking a meal.

                     Knowing where to send people to find good breastfeeding information and support.

                     Respecting parents feeding choices.

                     Getting used to the normal sight of a child breastfed in public and creating nice spaces (they don’t need to be hidden away)

                     to do so.

                    ……I am sure you can think of more ways to support smiley

                                                                      Let’s work together to get parents/families the support they need. 

You might also be interested in visiting these websites:

Jodie May Smith: http://lifewithpinkprincesses.co.uk/

The secret life of Kate: http://www.thesecretlifeofkate.blogspot.co.uk/

Breast4Babies: http://breast4babies.blogspot.co.uk/

Smiling like sunshine: http://www.smilinglikesunshine.com/

Barefoot Books: http://www.barefootbooks.com/marketplace/38341

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Return to Zero

The blog expresses my personal opinion.

Hello

Some of you might know that I trained a few month ago with ‘Stillbirthday.com’ and am now a ‘Birth and Bereavement Doula’.

I decided to do this training as I was shocked to see in my work as Breastfeeding counsellor/IBCLC and Gestalt Counsellor how litttle support there is out there for parents who have gone through this particular nightmare.

Part of the problem is that in our society death in general is not something people talk about often and when it comes to a stillbirth even less – and I do understand that this is not done out of malice 🙂

Therefore when I came across the project ‘Return to Zero’ and a chance to help create a better support system – I grabbed it with both hands and now I am asking you for your help.

This is what this film is about (from their website):

RETURN TO ZERO

Based on a true story, RETURN TO ZERO tells the story of a couple who, just weeks before the delivery of their son, are devastated to learn that he has died in the womb and will be stillborn.

Grief and trauma nearly destroys their marriage, until they learn they are again pregnant, and must navigate their way through a terrifying and turbulent pregnancy with the help of an empathetic doctor.  With warmth, humor, and exploration of the human spirit RETURN TO ZERO casts a light on an all-too-often overlooked subject (http://www.facebook.com/returntozerofilm?ref=ts&fref=ts).

Here is some info of what it means to be a leader and what they want to achieve:

I am not asking you to become a leader (that doesn’t mean you can’t become one if you want too wink) – I am asking you to make a pledge and if you want – spread the word. Here is the link for the pledge:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HqU43R7iij8WJt1bavZkmjhmPdci56qakUUKt2VfvWg/viewform?pli=1

I’ll leave you with the words of Sean Hanish:

Some people are hesitant to pledge because they think it will cost them something down the road–I get that.

Please make it clear to people who are pledging that there is no obligation to see the film opening weekend. We’re not going to badger or bully them. And if they change their mind and don’t want to see the film at all that’s fine too. By pledging they are simply helping us let Hollywood know that there is interest in this film from a wider audience. And while it doesn’t cost them anything to pledge, their names are GOLD to us! (Obviously, if they have no interest in seeing the film then they shouldn’t pledge.) 

Petra Hoehfurtner

Local Leader

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Children’s Centres and Community support – Feedback

The blog expresses my personal opinion.

Hello – this is a bit of an unusual request for your help.

As you know the Children’s Centres have been re-organized into clusters – now the managers are looking into the best way to reorganize the services, to meet the needs of their families; with the budget available.

I thought it would be amazing if a lot of mums and dads could write to me (petra22@btinternet.com) of what has supported them to get started with breastfeeding and/ or keep going and what has hindered them.

It doesn’t matter if you have not met me personally – this is not about my work – this is about “How well or not works the support that is out there already”

I would like to feed this than back to the 3 Children’s Centres I work for, so the managers have a lot more information to base their choices on 🙂

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your feedback 🙂

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Allergies

The blog expresses my personal opinion.

I can’t believe this is already the last week of the ‘Keep Britain Breastfeeding Scavenger Hunt’.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the wide and varied entries. I hope you found the information and support you needed.

I decided at the very beginning that I would write about ‘Allergies’ as it seems that parents are often left alone in their quest to find support if they have an allergic baby.

The most common problems I come across in my breastfeeding cafes and clinics are: Eczema, sleep problems, constant cough and/or ear infections and green mucous stools; in rare cases the baby is not gaining weight.

The most common allergen is cow’s milk, therefore if you are breastfeeding and nothing you have tried has worked, try to exclude all cow’s milk from your diet which also means things like ‘Whey’ or ‘Casein’……sorry label reading is going to be a requirement for this. It is amazing in which products you will discover cow’s milk. It also needs to be done for at least 2 weeks, as it takes a while for your body to get rid of the protein in your body.

And by the way, if you are formula feeding – there are formulas, where the protein that causes the allergy has been changed. They don’t taste great, but if your baby is suffering with e.g. eczema it is definitely worth a try. Problem is that your Health care provider might not put those two together (formula and eczema that is), so it will be for you to point out this possibility.

Karen Zeretzke (http://www.llli.org/nb/nbjulaug98p100.html) lists 58 different symptoms as possible sign for an allergy. How do you know if the signs your baby displays are a sign for an allergy or something else?

Sadly you don’t. It is trial and error – a detective game – which can stretch you to your limits if the symptoms are severe.

London has 2 hospitals who deal specifically with allergies; sometimes it helps to get your child tested, as they can have several allergies and there is just so much ‘being a detective’ anyone can cope with. You will need a referral from your GP as far as I am aware. But you can always call and ask them what their procedure is.

For some reason allergies are often not thought of – So it falls to you as a parent to read around, try things out and see what it is you need.

Now let’s get back to breastfeeding.

So is there a point to breastfeed if something you eat can still trigger an allergy or your baby will get one anyway?

Yes – breastfeeding protects your baby from the allergens by putting a protective layer on the gut walls, which means the allergens can’t get through that easily. This is especially important until the middle of the first year, when the big holes in the babies gut close down (that’s why the start of weaning has been changed to 6 month) and with that the baby is less vulnerable.

Even after 6 month every breastfeed counts. So don’t believe if people say that your milk is not good enough anymore. It is. Breast milk has always everything your baby/child needs (it even adapts to your babies needs e.g. when the baby starts crawling, there will be more antibodies in your milk as your baby is now encountering more germs) and during the first year solids are just a fun way of experimenting with different tastes and textures – the main calorie intake is still via your milk.

In my experience children with allergies will often avoid the food that causes them trouble (don’t ask me how they know) and they start solids later – some of them avoid solids well after they have turned one year old. Therefore you might be breastfeeding a lot longer then you have planned and will give your child an amazing gift by doing so.

Overall I can just encourage you to trust your instincts – you know your baby best. If you think there might be an allergy that causes all the problems, stick it out. Get yourself some support by talking to a Breastfeeding Counsellor or Lactation Consultant (IBCLC).

If you don’t speak up for your baby who will?

Please feel free to add your thoughts and comments 🙂

Petra

Lactation Consultant IBCLC and La Leche League Breastfeeding Counsellor
Gestalt Counsellor

Other websites you might find interesting:

Dispelling breastfeeding myth: http://www.mythnomore.blogspot.co.uk/

The secret life of Kate: http://www.thesecretlifeofkate.blogspot.co.uk/

Ponderings of a Doula: http://www.betterbirthing.blog.com/

Smiling like sunshine: http://www.smilinglikesunshine1.blogspot.co.uk

http://boobiemilk.blogspot.co.uk/

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Community support

The blog expresses my personal opinion.

Strange – I thought I had a good idea of what I want to say and then when I sat down to write….nothing.

I tried a few sentences, but found them not to my liking……

Then I started wondering what people mean when they use the word ‘community’ and looked up the definition of the word – there are quite a number of different definitions, depending on the context the word is used in.

For me community is the area I live in and the services and support I can access there.

What does community mean for you?

….and then you have the online community you can access day and night for support….built out of people with a common interest.

Both communities – the real and the virtual – can offer you information which actually supports and it also offers information/advice which is undermining or destructive.

So – maybe when choosing where to go for breastfeeding support, it is not the locality that is important, but the attitude and intend with which support is given.

There will be problems where you will need to meet up with someone to work out what is going on and it might be helpful to you if someone in the virtual community goes: “I really think you would benefit to have someone have a look at that.” – because it e.g. validates what you think or points something out you hadn’t thought of and there will be problems/moments where ‘all’ you need is for someone to say: “You are doing a brilliant job.”

So – after a lot of mulling over this – maybe sometimes it is not the ‘where’, but the ‘what kind’ of support can you get, that will decide to where you go to ask your questions.

Please feel free to add your thoughts and comments 🙂

Petra

Lactation Consultant IBCLC and La Leche League Breastfeeding Counsellor
Gestalt Counsellor

Other websites you might find interesting:

Dispelling breastfeeding myth: http://www.mythnomore.blogspot.co.uk/

The secret life of Kate: http://www.thesecretlifeofkate.blogspot.co.uk/

Ponderings of a Doula: http://www.betterbirthing.blog.com/

Smiling like sunshine: http://www.smilinglikesunshine1.blogspot.co.uk