Breast milk is what every child needs and should feed on first before introducing any other food later. But when breast milk is not filling up a baby, it becomes an issue of concern to the mother because it places the child’s health at risk.
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At the early stage of pregnancy, the breast of a pregnant woman begins the formation of breast milk. Mothers are happy when their babies are being filled up with breast milk, but this is not always the situation.
Breast milk has a composition of many vital elements that has all the nutrients that the baby needs, this includes carbohydrate, protein, fat, and water. Hence it is important to note that breast milk also comprises millions of living cells that are capable of protecting your baby. Also, it includes proteins that play a vital role in your baby’s overall growth, amino acids which function is to help you baby get sound sleep, enzymes which helps in the digestion process, and finally vitamin’s and minerals which help in the formation of teeth and bones of your baby. Therefore, the baby needs enough breast milk for their development.
Breast milk has so many benefits to both the child and the nursing mother, this has made so many nursing mothers worried about their babies not getting enough breast milk or not getting at all. But there are solutions to what to do when you encounter a problem such as this.
5 Things A Mother Can Do When The Breast Is Not Producing Enough Milk For Infant Feeding
There are few instances where mothers cannot produce enough milk for their babies. Furthermore, the babies are likely to suffer for the inappropriate breast milk even up to adulthood, but as a mother if you notice that you arenot producing enough breast milk to fill up your baby, here are five things your should do to remedy this problem.
1. Seek advice from a lactation consultant
A lactation consultant is a specialist in breastfeeding. They have better knowledge and even experience on issues relating to breastfeeding. Therefore, as a mother, when you noticed your breast cannot produce enough milk for your baby, you can see a lactation consultant to seek advice on how to go about this problem. Besides this, if you are not financially capable of getting the service of a lactation consultant you can go online to the various websites of lactation consultants and ask questions to get help on how to deal with inadequate breast milk for your baby.
2. Eat a healthy diet
Mothers who are not producing enough milk for their babies may not be eating a healthy diet. As a nursing mother, it is important to be conscious of what you eat and what not to eat. This is very important because it also plays a role in the flow of breast milk.
Based on several medical research, some foods are being recommended for nursing mothers and there are some foods that are to be avoided.
Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables; this includes the vitamins that will help to keep you in good health and increase breast milk production. We also have whole grain; it is advised that nursing mothers add whole grain to every meal. Examples of whole grains are oatmeal and brown rice among others. Whole grain is denser in calories and carbohydrates when compared to many fruits and vegetables. It is important for nursing mothers to drink at least eight cups of water daily. Last, always add some healthy fats to your diet and regularly take multivitamins to ensure you are getting the proper nutrients.
Some foods to avoid as a nursing mother include excessive alcohol and caffeine, processed food, and high mercury fish should be avoided in other to produce adequate breast milk needed by your baby.
3. Use galactogogues
Galactagogues is a medication that can help you stimulate the production of breast milk. Galactagogues are used when the breast milk is flowing but not adequate for your baby. This could boost the quantity of breast milk produced.
4. Try hand expression and breast pumping
When you discover that you are not producing enough milk for your baby to fill them up, use some other techniques that will help you produce more milk.
Hand expression is a manual technique used to get the milk flowing from the breast. It is recommended that nursing mothers learn this technique. The hand expression process usually takes 20 minutes to 30 minutes before milk flows. To apply the hand expression technique you need to massage the breast starting from the top, stroking the breast from the top down to the nipple then shake your breast to enable the flow of milk.
Most often, hand expression and breast pumping are combined together, but breast pumping can involve the use of a manual or electric breast pump to enable the flow of milk from the breast.
5. Supplement breast milk with other options
Once you have tried the other four options and to no avail, then there is a need to adopt this method.
First, is to search for another nursing mother that can feed your baby, most mothers are not comfortable with this option but it benefits the child. Second, is to make use of milk formulas to support your baby with extra milk in other to enable your baby to get filled up. There are different milk formulas for babies out there, all you have to do is to get one for your baby.
How To Know When Your Baby Is Filled Up Or Not
Identifying whether a baby is filled up with breast milk or not is one problem nursing mothers do face, but there are some signs that shows when your baby is filled up with breast milk or not.
Breast milk is filling up your baby when they show the following signs.
i. Gain weight
ii. Poo 5-7 times in a day
iii. The baby pee often and the pee is colourless.
iv. When your baby is gulping when feeding.
Breast milk is not filling up your baby when you see the following signs.
i. Loss of weight
ii. Poo less times, maybe two or three times daily.
iii. Excessive crying after feeding.
Benefits Of Breast Milk
Breast milkdoes not only benefit your baby, but also benefit you as the nursing mother. Breast milkhas its own uniqueness that makes it incomparable with other formula milk and here are some benefits.
i. Prevention of diseases
Breast milk can protect your child from different diseases and other forms of illness. They include respiratory infections, poor sight, diarrhea among others. The child is immune to all these diseases and infections and this means if your baby is getting enough breast milk; it decreases the risk of your baby dying at the infant stage.
ii. Breast milk helps your baby to grow physically.
It also helps them grow in other aspects such as the brain development and increase in weight.
iii. Breast milk helps mothers to lose their weight gained during pregnancy faster.
iv. Breast milk is more economical when compared to other milk formulas that have a higher cost, therefore mothers are advised to feed their babies with breast milk.
Conclusion
From time immemorial up to today, breast milk is the best acceptable food for infants all over the world. This shows the relevance of breast milk, even though over the years science has always tried to come out with an alternative for breast milk, but has failed in doing that. Therefore, mothers should note that breast milk is essential for the baby. Producing enough breast milk that will be able to fill up your baby is the best thing you can do for your child because this plays a role up to their adulthood and throughout their lives.
However, it is important that mothers are very sensitive to know when they are producing enough breast milk or not so that quick remedy could be made when there is an issue with breast milk not filling up the baby.
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