My daughter deivered a baby about 45 days back.It was a Natural Delivery, no drips even.She with stood it gamely with out even a whimper.
Certain behavioral changes were noticed.This is about this and how we over came them.
1.She became highly irritable , at times hysterical, blaming the child ,her father!-Baby’sGrand father!(me)
2.Sleep pattern was disturbed.
3.At the drop of a hat she will consult various Specialists,Gyn,Dieticians,Lactation Expert,Paediatricians et all;all offering conflicting opinions.
4.She was constantly worried about the baby.
5.Food timings were irregular and she was not eating regularly..
For 1-The reason is that she has been able to make people adjust to her till the baby came along.All around her adjust to her ,father, Mother, brother ,husband.She is near perfect in organising herself, both professional and personal life.Baby is different.It can not understand and acts instinctively and demands milk when it needs it;doesn’t matter what time it is.
It cries for no reasons known to us.It needs cuddling well into the night.you can not talk to him for he does not know what the fuss is all about.He wants things ,period.In short, she could not make him adjust to her.At the same time she feels that she feels bad when she finds irritating when she could not meet his demands immediately on demand.This has created conflict in her mind.She lost sleep,that led to tiredness and irritation;this in turn made her more irritable and the cycle continud.Hence the tantrums.The solution was to deal with her firmly, saying that she ought to do it and her comforts ,for the time being should take a back seat, at least till the baby is 90 days old.If he wants to be cuddled, no matter what time it is and fed when he wants.You can not apply discipline and time management to him.This was done by her Husband as she was my favorite and I could not talk to her that way;I was more concerned about her health.Result was evident in a couple of days.When she slleeps, me and her mother shall take care him.She will have the milk expressed; we will keep it in the fridge and take it out hallf an hour before the approximate feed time in the night(around 1am and another at 3 am),warm the milk in bottle in warm water and feed him and cuddle him in my bed.My daughter got about 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep and she is now perrfectly all right and has become radiant as before.
-Child will not follow,at this stage, fixed time frame for feeding nor will consistent in milk intake.Feed it as it demands.Specialists say ,at times, to feed once in two hours.By blindly following this, a friend of my daughter had landed her child in Hospital for Deydration.Reason;when she found the child asleep even after 2 hours of feeding him she kept quiet with out feeding.When people say feed him once in every two hours and also feed him as he demands means, it means you feed him once in 2 hours and even after 2 hrs, even if he is sleeping ,wake him and see if he wants a feed.Child will never take more than what it needs;it will spit it out.( Do not keep the Expressed Milk for more than 4 hours , even in a fridge)
Another prolbem is is child’s bowel movement.it is all right for the child with out moving bowels for 48 hours.
Give the baby well boiled and cooled water at least three times a day,three tea spoons a time.
If the problem persists,take the Stem of the leaf( the betel leaf is from the betel pepper, or pan plant (Piper betle), family Piperaceae) which Indians use it for Pan which they eat after food,wash it,slighly heat the leaf in open fire,say a candle) it should not be burnt) , cut the top small stem protruding at the top ,dip it in pure castor oil and insert it in the anus of the baby and keep it there for about ten minutes; the child shall relieve it self.You can remove the stem.This is very safe.Inserting tablets Doctors prescribe induce colic pain and you can see it in the face of the child when it passes motion.
Do not run to Doctors/specialists for every small thing.If the child takes mother’s milk, it will be perfectly ok.Nothing to worry about.
Do not try to analyse the child too much and its behavior.It is behaving on reflex and be relaxed-Enjoy Motherhood.
What I have expressed here are born out of experience and practices followed in India for ages.For excessive lactation, see my blog on Excessive lactation/Breast feeding.
If some of the points are useful even to one mother, I shall be happy.Decision to follow is yours.
Note;This is applicable to babies being fed Mother’s Milk;others please seek doctor’s opinion.
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