MotherBreastFeeding.com

Giving birth for the first time is both difficult and incredible. All new mommies try to find answers to many questions. The problem of baby sleep is one of the kind. Being quite experienced in the field, I'd like to share several ideas on how to get a good baby's sleep.

Place your baby on its side to sleep. Doctors advise to place a baby on its side to sleep. Many children sleep in an intermediate position; in such cases put a diaper.

Why it may be dangerous to sleep on back? The thing is that during first 6 months a baby vomits often and sleeping on back it may choke as it does not have enough strength to turn its head. Laying on stomach, a baby starts holding its head sooner, baby's flatus discharges better.

I cannot but mention sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Healthy infants 1 month to 1 year old dye when sleeping. It is rare and the exact cause is unknown. Among various hypotheses is sleeping on back. Still my point is that establishing a good sleep hygiene for a baby, a caring mother should not worry about SIDS.

Several days ago my breastfeeding friend asked me what I think about getting a tattoo while breastfeeding. Can a nursing mother get a tattoo? To tell the truth, I knew nothing about pros and cons of getting tattoos while breastfeeding, so, I surfed the Internet and found something really useful.

Pain shock. As you know, tattooing is inserting dark ink into the dermis layer of the skin usually performed through repeatedly driving the special needles in and out the skin. Of course, this is not that painful as it might seem, but different women have different pain threshold. Some don’t even epilate not to feel a pain. I believe that breastfeeding mothers should not run risks, as even the smallest stress may lead to losing breast milk.

Ink allergy. Ink molecules are quite large and they won’t enter your blood. However, sometimes you may develop ink allergy. The symptoms are quite varied – burning, itching, skin swelling. If you don’t want extra troubles with tattoos – you’d better postpone making it. If you have an overwhelming desire to get it – make a test putting a small dot of ink on your skin and watch the skin reaction to the ink, if any.

At about 1 year your baby's teething. This is a real joy for you, especially if teething starts at the early stage. Still, along with joy there comes a problem. If once breastfeeding was a pleasure for you, now you may consider it a bit troublesome. The thing is that some babies bite the breasts that feed them very hard.

I wondered how my friends fight the problem and created a list of actions to take to preserve our nipples .

1. Talk to your baby. Take the breast off and ask not to bite it. Often it is enough just to raise the tone and scold the baby for bad behavior, and it will stop hurting the mother at once.
2. Draw the baby in close to your breast. Do not take the breast off at first uncomfortable feeling. The child develops counterreaction and bites the nipple even harder. When you draw the baby closer, because of discomfort, it will lessen the bite and will give up.
3. Press your baby's cheeks slightly. If you press baby's cheeks a bit - you will lessen the jaws and the baby will release the breast.
4. Cut off the oxygen for a second. Plug the baby's nose for several seconds, the baby will open the mouth for a breast of air. The baby will learn this simple exercise and won't bite you.

Wow, it is not that easy to breastfeed. To bring up a healthy child is one thing and listening to advice from everyone is another. What is awful is that everyone around considers oneself the most experienced.

Let's consider several evil advice my friends gave me. Read it and have fun Keep breastfeeding, listen to your heart and to your lactation consultant - let it be your way to success.

• The first days after you give birth: why won't your baby suck a dummy? You don't care about suckling reflex?!
• Are you going to give a baby some water? It might be thirsty?!
• Father of two children: Isn't time to stop breastfeeding? Don't you have enough money to buy formulas? Should I borrow you?
• Why do you nurse for so long? Breastfeeding will make your breasts sag!
• 2 month old baby. Your baby poops so often! Won't you try ground rice?
• 3 month old baby. Give your baby cream of wheat and carrot juice! Why? Hey, cream of wheat with cow milk is so great for your baby's health!
• Keep to nursing regime! No way breastfeeding at night! Let the baby's stomach have some rest!

As a rule, mothers stop breastfeeding because of two reasons – either it is right time or mothers are reluctant to breastfeed any longer. A baby can be fed mother’s milk for a long time, but not forever. As for getting tired of breastfeeding – I can say nothing about it, as personally I am against such treatment of a baby. I prefer to talk here about how to know if it is right time for stopping breastfeeding or not.

Is mom ready? To detect if mother’s body is ready to stop lactating is quite easy. Watch closely for changes in your breasts when you stop breastfeeding for a while (12-24 h). Are you producing much milk? If there is no uncomfortable feeling, and there is no need to pump – it is ok then.

Is baby ready? It is only you who can understand if the child is ready or not to stop breastfeeding, as there is the bond between a mother and a child. Most women feel when their child needs to be weaned off. Still, there are specific signs apart mere feelings. If your baby needs nursing no more than 3 times a day, when it does not suckle a bottle, thumb or something else, you are welcome to wean it off the breast. Otherwise, try gradual decrease in time at the breast, nurse no more than 1-3 times and only then stop breastfeeding.