Natural Nursery Blog

by Arabella Greatorex
Most parents bond instantly with their babies, an intense feeling that makes you want to hold and love and protect them.  For some parents, this can take a little longer, especially if there has been a difficult pregnancy or labour.

Research indicates that babies who develop fulfilling relationships with their parents tend to grow into secure, well-adjusted adults and even perform better at school.

Bonding is a natural process but there are many ways to help out, especially if you provide focused, responsive care in a nurturing environment.

Breastfeeding - a breastfed baby will receive regular close contact with its mother, helping an early bond to develop.  Unfortunately, this is not always easy, so speak to your health visitor if you need any help or assistance.

Touch - a baby’s first communication is via touch, so hold your baby close, cradle her in your arms or use a sling if you need to get on with chores.

Massage - is a more structured method of touching your baby and a way of promoting physical and mental growth as well as the parent/baby bond.

Singing - no matter how tone deaf you may think you are, your baby will love to hear your voice.  The rhythmic nature of nursery rhymes is very soothing and is believed to help with language development.

Talk - although she may not understand what you are saying, your baby will love to hear you chatting away about what you are doing, whether it is changing her nappy, peeling the potatoes or folding the washing.  She will gain confidence from the fact that you are always near and always focused upon her, even if the household chores need to be done.

Pull a face - even very young babies are fascinated by facial expressions.

Regular activities - such as nappy changing time, are a wonderful time to show your baby just how much you love them.  Talk to her, kiss her tummy, tell how what lovely dimples she has, how much you love her smile.  This will take your mind off what a messy job it is and show that you love her, no matter what.

Slow down - life is getting faster and faster but slow and steady is best for baby.  Stop and spend time with your baby, relax and enjoy yourself, your baby will love you no matter what.

Here are some answers to questions I get asked by pregnant friends on a regular basis - they are based on my experiences though, and may be glaringly obvious to some people, but they were not to me! Please feel free to add to this list of useful tips in the comments section.

Clothes
Come in sizes according to weight and don’t last very long at all in the beginning. You will need a slightly larger size if you use real nappies. Some babygros have integral gloves that fold back - very useful for babies that want to scratch their faces off. Things that fasten at the front are easier than things that go over heads. All socks are sacrificial; they don’t stay on feet for long so I prefer things with feet for colder weather.
Nappies
Cloth nappies rock and I like the smell of the Weleda nappy cream which is brilliant stuff. It is a good idea to research nappies, and there are some helpful tips on this blog.

www.naturalnurseryblog.co.uk/how-easy-are-cloth-nappies-to-use

www.naturalnurseryblog.co.uk/why-use-cloth-nappies

Toys
My child at 3 month liked noisy things, mirrors and things he could hold with his tiny fingers. Brightly coloured board books are good too.  If you buy anything musical remember that you will have to listen to it too.

Feeding
I used a pump to express milk and I pumped in the morning while feeding after the small had triggered off the let down reflex. Thinking milky thoughts of waterfalls made the milk come out faster! My son never took to a bottle but he would use a sippy cup. Pumping was just in case of emergencies. I boiled cups and the pump to sterilise them, it’s not a hassle and I don’t think the sterilising equipment is really necessary, though it may make life a bit easier. I have read that the sterilising solution can increase the risk of thrush.
Sleeping
I had a Moses basket for small but didn’t like it ‘cos I had to peer in to check his breathing. I bought a cot because it seemed to be the thing to do but in the end decided that I am a fan of co-sleeping. There are guidelines for safe co-sleeping that are well worth looking at. Grobags are brilliant and my small sleept much longer when I got one.

Bathing
I think a bath thermometer is vital, what’s warm to me is boiling for the small. We shared the bath and he loved it. You also need a soft sponge and ducks!

I hope some of these hints are useful, I found it daunting and confusing trying to work out what I needed and what was clutter and I hope my tips can help you.

One of the most common worries for a breastfeeding mum is her milk supply. Here are some reassuring words and helpful tips to help you carry on breastfeeding through a growth spurt.

First of all - DON’T PANIC! One of the things that can slow down milk is stress, so try to relax as much as possible - easy to say I know but it is important.

If your baby is nursing more than usual and you are worried that they are not getting enough milk they might be going through a growth spurt. This generally happens between 4-6 weeks and again between 4-6 months. When my son was at this stage I felt like I never stopped breastfeeding and it was exhausting, but it was worth it. As long as your baby is getting bigger and producing wet nappies you should have no need to worry. What the baby is doing is changing the calorific value of your milk to suit them better as they go through different growing stages, once through the growth spurt they tend to feed less often and sometimes have been known to sleep longer, though I think that is a myth, my son still thinks sleep is for the weak! If you formula feed through a growth spurt you will be telling your body to produce less milk and your body will not be triggered to change the nutritional value of your own milk to suit your baby.

Drink gallons of water - It helped me to have a small bottle of water everywhere I was likely to breastfeed, because as soon as I settled down I would become incredibly thirsty.

Change your position -  It is very easy to settle into one breastfeeding hold but you will probably feel more comfortable in the long run if you change your position occasionally so that you drain all your milk ducts.

Forget the ironing - This time with your baby will not last forever, revel in your super power to give them the best start in life and let the housework slide. You are burning off about 500 calories a day by breastfeeding so you need rest, and possibly chocolate!

Support your system - Oats are supposed to be very good for helping you produce milk - they are also a good supply of iron and there is something very comforting about a bowl of porridge. Welcome World Breastfeeding Support Tea is made by a specialist birth and herbal healing company. The tea comes in a packet that has enough for 40 servings and there is a a free advice line to call if you have any concerns.

If you are still worried about your milk supply there are lots of free breastfeeding helplines who can give telephone advice or tell you about the nearest breastfeeding support group.

The human species has been breastfeeding for nearly half a million years. It’s only in the last 60 years that we have begun to give babies the highly processed convenience food called ‘formula’. The health consequences - twice the risk of dying in the fi rst six weeks of life, five times the risk of gastroenteritis, twice the risk of developing eczema and diabetes and up to eight times the risk of developing lymphatic cancer – are staggering.

With UK formula manufacturers spending around £20 per baby promoting this ‘baby junk food’, compared to the paltry 14 pence per baby the government spends promoting breastfeeding, can we ever hope to reverse the trend Pat Thomas uncovers a world where predatory baby milk manufacturers, negligent health professionals and an ignorant, unsympathetic public all conspire to keep babies of the breast and on the bottle.

To read the full article - click here.

Date:01/04/2006 Author:Pat Thomas

The Breastfeeding Manifesto was produced in 2006 in consultation with over twenty UK organisations working to improve awareness of the health benefits of breastfeeding and its role in reducing health inequalities.

This Manifesto has been launched for the following reasons:

• Several key organisations, including breastfeeding charities and professional bodies, were lobbying government for neccessary changes in policy and approach with regards to brestfeeding in the UK, but there was no cohesive message, no unified call to the UK Government for action.
• Despite signficant amounts of lobbying, the Department of Health still brought to an end the role of a National Infant Feeding Coordinator even though our Government in 2002 signed up to the Global Stratergy for Infant and Young Child Health which calls for a National Coordinator.
• NICE was soon to publish two key documents that could act as the back-bone of a National Breastfeeding Stratergy and it was imperative that we ensured that these action plans gained the support and resources they needed to be fully implemented.

The Breastfeeding Manifesto is being championed by David Kidney MP, Annette Brooke MP and Julie Kirkbride MP and a strong coalition of breastfeeding charities, breastfeeding co-ordinators, professional bodies, Royal Colleges etc. The Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalitions’ objective is to achieve widespread cross-party support for this document. We aim to ensure that its principles are reflected in government policy and legislation.

You can find out more and sign the manifesto at the Breastfeeding Manifesto site.

Mothers urged to sleep close to baby to encourage breastfeeding

Mothers of new babies should sleep close to them to encourage breastfeeding,
according to research published today.

A two-year clinical trial by Durham University’s Sleep Lab showed that unhindered mother and infant contact can have beneficial effects on the initiation of breast-feeding in the days after birth.

Babies who had "unhindered access" to their mothers at night were able to feed twice as often as those kept separate, the study of new-borns found.

The benefits of early suckling and skin-to-skin contact have already been well documented, but this study went further and showed how important it is for mothers to be physically close to their babies in the first few days after the birth.

The trial, conducted in collaboration with the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, compared the overnight breastfeeding frequency of babies in three different sleeping positions. It looked at babies sleeping in bed with their mothers; in a side-car crib that attaches to her bed and in a stand alone cot.

The results showed that babies sleeping in the bed and in the side-car crib made significantly more attempts to feed - both successful and unsuccessful - and showed more feeding effort than babies in the cot.

Dr Helen Ball, who led the research for Durham University, said the side-car crib was the "best compromise" for mothers, as they offer the closeness to encourage breastfeeding, while alleviating fears that the mother may suffocate her child while sleeping.

She said: "The study shows that mothers were feeding their babies more than twice as frequently if they had unhindered access rather than being in the next bed. Getting breastfeeding started and established successfully can lead to effective long-term breastfeeding.

"The results of this clinical trial would suggest that if a woman is keen to breastfeed her baby then maintaining unhindered contact throughout the night will aid the process. This unrestricted contact between mothers and their babies allows spontaneous feeding which is also important in order for mothers to understand their babies’ signals and to respond to those."

The research was being presented at the Unicef Baby Friendly Conference in Cardiff today, and appears in the December issue of the publication Archives of Disease in Childhood. The study considered the risks to the baby, from suffocation and falling, as well as the benefits.

It found that although there was more potential risk to the baby’s breathing when they slept in the bed than in the crib or the cot, there was still some danger in a cot due to the risk of airways being covered through swaddling.

Taken from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=
419367&in_page_id=1770

Breastbottle® nursers are the ideal solution for working mums who want to continue breast-feeding. The patented bubble-free design and low-flow adjustable nipple minimise confusion between breast and bottle. Breastbottle nursers are ideal for feeding breast milk.

• Soft and comforting.
• Designed to be more like breast-feeding than any other bottle.
• Bubble-free delivery to minimize related colic.
• Patented Adiri™ nipple offers three flow rates.
• Readily accepted by most babies.
• Can simulate let-down.
• Ideal for switching between bottle and breast.
• Capacity based on maximum breast supply.
• Easily filled without spills.
• No bottle brush required.
• Dishwasher safe, on top rack.
• Childproof closure system.

After months of trying and spending a fortune on teats and bottles this was a life saver. My son refused all bottles and I was amazed that he took the nurser first time without any fuss. It was a relief as I am going back to work soon and obviously needed him to be on a bottle so thank you very much! Ruth G.

You can find out more about the Nurser from the manufacturer’s website or purchase it from The Natural Nursery.

6th Aug, 2006, Dr Stephen Sears, Morning Sentinel, Maine Today.com

According to a recent study from researchers at the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento and the University of Rochester NY breastfeeding for the first six months makes a difference in the baby’s ability to resist infection. In this study the parents of 2,277 children, between six and 24 months of age, answered questions about whether their baby’s breastfed, for how long; and how often their babies had respiratory infections or symptoms including ear infections, colds, flu, and pneumonia or wheezing.

Babies who were fed only breast milk for the longest span of time, six months or more, had lower rates of pneumonia and ear infections. Stopping breast feeding between four and six months of age doubled the odds that the infant would experience three or more ear infections in the first year of life.

Read the full article.

By Lisa Ryckman, Rocky Mountain News
August 8, 2006

We’ve created a nation of fat babies, and it all starts with the first thing put in their mouths.

A Harvard Medical School study of 120,000 kids that spanned 22 years shows that babies and toddlers are more likely to be overweight now than ever before. The study found that the biggest jump came in the number of overweight infants, which increased by 74 percent.

The number of babies at risk of becoming overweight rose by nearly 60 percent. One of the best ways to change the numbers: breast-feeding, says Dr. Matthew Gillman, the study’s senior author.

A recent German study of 9,000 babies found that the longer children breast-feed, the less likely they are to be obese at age 6. Babies nursed for 3-5 months were 33 percent less likely to be obese; those breast-fed for more than a year were 72 percent less likely to become obese.

Researchers have found that human milk keeps insulin levels lower than formula and contains proteins that are easier to metabolize, both factors in fat storage.

The Harvard study results came during World Breast-feeding Week (Aug. 1-7), which celebrated the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes, which has existed for more than 20 years. The code provides guidelines for marketing infant formula and bottle-feeding products and challenges communities to support nursing moms and babies.

Jennifer Dellaport, chair of the Colorado Breastfeeding Task Force, says formula marketing can discourage breast-feeding by playing on new mothers’ concerns about milk production - a worry that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"Most women make plenty of milk, and replacing feedings with even small amounts of formula will cause a woman’s body to begin producing less milk," she says.

"Families have a right to know about the benefits of breast-feeding and to be supported if they choose to feed their babies this way."

Colorado has one of the highest breast-feeding rates in the nation: 82 percent of babies are breast-fed at birth, and more than half are still being nursed at six months, although less than 20 percent are being exclusively breast-fed at six months.

Last year, 21 states reached the national Healthy People 2010 objective of 75 percent of mothers initiating breast-feeding, but only Oregon achieved an exclusive breast-feeding rate of at least 25 percent through 6 months, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

For breast-feeding info: Colorado Breastfeeding Task Force, www.coloradobreastfeedingtaskforce.org or 303-869-1888; La Leche League, www.lalecheleague.org or 303-779-6722; the National Breastfeeding Helpline, 1-800-994-9662.

The excellent MooMum has just produced a new batch of lovely pro-breastfeeding bags.  Made from strong cotton, these re-usable bags mean you never have to use another plastic bag and you can spread the word about the benefits of breastfeeding at the same time.

The bags cost £4 each plus £1 p&p and can be purchased from The Mothers Milk Marketing Board.