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Healing Broken
Skin
on the Nipple
Added 6/3/05
If a baby bites you or if your nipple cracks, it is
very painful. Go to: kellymom.com:
Healing broken skin in the nipple area
to find out how to help heal the skin. (Basically, mix 1/2 teaspoon of
salt with 1 cup of warm water. Place the sore nipple
into the salt solution for about a
minute or so (but not more than five minutes). Pat it dry
(softly) with a paper
towel. Apply expressed breastmilk to the nipple. There are
more
resources at the previous link.)
Question: Can
I still breastfeed if I have flat or inverted nipples?
Answer: Yes you can. I
have read at ivillage:
Breastfeeding: Can you nurse with flat nipples (or inverted)? that
you can still breastfeed using a breast shield. Read how you can
at the previous link.
Whatever type of
milk you decide to give your baby
(or babies) is up to you. Your baby will still love you know
matter what.
I am no expert on breastfeeding. I have done it for just under 3 years. I know by my experiences what is best for me. Do what is best for you! Just have fun with your babies and watch them grow!
One thing I have
learned even more with my third child that children can react to food
you eat while they are breast feeding. You have to be careful and
see if your baby reacts to your
milk. It is a good thing to nurse as long as possible to find all
the food allergies or intolerance you child may have. One thing
that will help is to keep a food diary.
Write down the reaction if your baby/child reacts. (I know my son
and older daughter reacted to either milk and/or gluten because they
had really bad diaper rashes. The doctors told me to put Desitin
on the rash but that never helped the red and sometimes bleeding
rash. It was the food I ate (probably milk and/or gluten and
maybe something else) because my baby doesn't have a diaper rash like
my other two children did. Now, she only gets it if she is
teething.
My third child is allergic to cinnamon and so am
I. (Cinnamon is made out of bark and I'm allergic to most
tree.) I break out in a rash on my legs when I eat cinnamon
and my baby has some raised bumps on her bottom but not even near the
amount my son and daughter had. I've read other
places that cinnamon can cause a diaper rash like it did for my
baby. My daughter did react to some beets I ate but when she was
20 1/2 months old, she had some and I had some and she did not react to
eat. When she was a baby, she reacted to my breastmilk after
eating cranberries. I ate quite a bit and I also reacted. I
will be try cranberries again but is much smaller amounts. I'm so
glad I'm aware of my food allergies and what food
can cause a baby when a baby drinks my milk.
We do not give our
children peanuts or peanut butter
until
the age of three since it is recommended not to give children peanuts
until
after the age of three or more because the chance of peanut allergies.
When
I am breastfeeding, I do not eat peanuts or peanut butter since they
get
into the milk. My oldest daughter does not like the smell and
taste of peanut butter (or even sunflower seed butter). I eat
sunflower seed butter since I'm still nursing my 20 1/2 month old
daughter and I did react to a skin allergy test I took in 2001.
Nursing
I am a Stay At Home
Mom and I love it. We have not used formula or any
type of bottles for our three children. I
planned to tandem nurse by oldest daughter but she self
weaned herself at 25 months when her brother was born. I tried to nurse her the next
day
and other days and she does not want to breast fed. She said,
"No, baby." I breastfed my son until he
was about 32 months old but I was tired of nursing so I stopped.
(Most of it was just comfort nursing and I didn't have much milk
anyways.)
Experience With Solids With Our First Daughter
We
tried to start her on solids off
and
on since seven months but she was not interested. I never tried that
hard
but we did try to give her some cereal but she was not interested in
it. The
doctor suggested we have my daughter blood tested for anemia at her 6
month
check-up and her blood was fine. At my daughter's 9 month check up, her
regular
doctor was on vacation so another doctor from the same office saw her
instead.
He said we needed to start her on solids. He verbally gave a list of
foods
she should start eating because she was below the average for the
weight
growth chart. She was 18 pounds and 14 ounces and she was 29 inches
long.
I think she was fine in growth. He said if we wanted to wait until she
was
a year that was our decision but he kept on stating why we should give
her
solids; for example vitamins. Breast milk has all the vitamins,
minerals,
and antibodies that a baby needs to have. Breast milk is the best you
can
get because it is designed for your baby. I will paraphrase what The
American
Pediatrics Association has stated, a baby's main nutrition should come
from
breast milk or Formula for the first year of life. My daughter's
regular
doctor always says that her weight and height are perfect.
He even asked us if we were throwing steak (meat) at her.
(We laughed at him.) Our regular doctor is for
breastfeeding.
He never has told us to start her on solid even when she was younger.
He
always said, "Continue breastfeeding her.") We kept on trying to give
her
solids but she didn't want it. Some babies just don't want to eat
solids
until they are ready. You can not force any baby or child to eat
something
they do not want. She finally started to eat solids just before she
turned
15 months. I think she didn't want to eat solids before because she got
her
four first molars between 13 and 15 months.
Experiences
with Solids with our Third Child
Our daughter started to graze the house to find whatever she can to eat
(hard ground beef, hard bread, cereal, scraps of paper, etc.) at about
9 months old. We realized she was ready when she gets mad if we
take anything away from her. She is totally different from our
other two children. They weren’t interested at all until almost
15 months old but not this child.
Experience In The Hospital
When my first daughter was born, the nurse in the hospital gave us some formula but we told the nurse we didn't need it. The nurse told us to take it in case we wanted to supplement with formula. (We didn't take it.) We have never given my daughter anything except for breast milk. I have only feed her by breast; no bottles.
Pacifiers
The nurse even gave us a pacifiers for my daughter to us. We never did use the pacifier in the hospital. We tried to give her a pacifier once when she was fussy. We put it in her mouth and it flew right out. We started to laugh. We just wanted to see what she would do and we never tried again.
When I am in the
hospital with the next baby, we
will tell
the nurse to keep the formula and pacifiers because we won't use them.
We
believe you can calm a baby by a finger, a toy or just holding them if
they
are not hungry.
Added
7/31/06
Our third child decided to be a finger sucker. Our other two
children did not do this. Hopefully, she will break this habit.
Revised
4/13/05
Our Beliefs and Doctors Beliefs About Feeding
Solids to Babies
There are many beliefs about solids. Most doctors
will
say to start solids between 4 and 6 months; our doctor didn't. He said
to
continue to breast feed. I agree with my doctor and La Leche League
beliefs
about solids. You can read more about starting solids at: La Leche
League:
FAQ on Starting Solids. In the second to the last paragraph,
it
states
different things about iron.
One thing it states is breast milk has
small
quantities of iron in it but the baby can absorb it very easily. You
can
also search for a lot more things on their home page: La Leche League. It is up to you baby when s/he is ready to start to eat
solids. My older two children were not interested in solids until
they were 15 months old. It was just
Mommy's milk and that was fine with me. (La
Leche League says between 6 and 12 months.)
You can help
prevent food allergies by watching what
you eat while breastfeeding and delaying feeding solids to your baby if
you have a history of food allergies. Some people don't know they
are allergic to any foods but they are really allergic to some
foods. I have read lots about food allergies on the web and have
realized my hay fever really wasn't hay fever and really was food
allergies. I'm so glad I feel better now. Thanks to
eliminating all the foods that cause me problems. Go to The Pratt Family
Allergy Free Cookbook and Resources to read more about food
allergies.
Note: It is up to you when you start your baby on solids. However, it is mostly up to your baby, when he or she wants to start solids.
Baby Food vs. Homemade Food
We have never
bought bottled baby food. We just give
her
our food; like canned fruit and vegetables. We give her homemade food
because
bottled food is so expensive in the store and the nutritional value
isn't
that great. We never have bought regular baby cereal because it has
added
iron in all the cereals. The iron in breast milk is absorbed so well
that
we believe there is no reason to give her cereal with iron added.
(It
would
just decrease the iron absorption in the breast milk.)