Breastfeeding – Other questions

I decided to answer a couple of the common questions about breastfeeding. These questions are great for my readers who don’t read the comments:

1-      If your baby is just playing at the breast instead of nursing:

This usually happens when your baby is about 3 months old and when (s)he can see better and chooses to observe his or her surrounding instead of getting fed.  (S)he might not want the cover you use while nursing your baby outside. At home, he or she might unlatch from the nipple and just look around. It is really puzzling that the baby who was crying for milk 3 minutes ago now is just looking around instead of drinking milk because there are more interesting things to look at.

If this happens with your baby and you are concerned whether (s)he is well fed, nurse in a quite room with curtains closed without items that might attract his/her attention. At home, you can use a  blanket hanging down from your shoulders. This is to make sure (s) is focused on nothing else but the breast.

The second point is now that your baby is bigger and is better at sucking the milk, he or she might take less time nursing the same amount of milk.  His stomach gets bigger too so as the need for more milk.

2-      If your baby bites your nipple:

This happens between 6 months to 12 months. For the first time, you should unlatch him/her and express verbally and with facial expressions that biting is not okay. He or she should understand that biting the nipple equals to no breastfeeding.  No matter how cute they are with their irresistible grin, do not smile back at your baby.  Try not to  scare him/her off with a sudden scream, even though you will hurt like hell. After two three times of biting and getting the same response from you, they will understand that biting means no milk.  If you, in anyway, seem okay this behavior and take it lightly (s)he will think it is okay to bite.  According to what I read, (s)he might bite other parts your body or even other people.

3- If you do not nurse your baby or pump your milk  at normal nursing times, what will happen?

Since the body works according to the supply and demand, when you have set a schedule for nursing and nurse every three hours then tomorrow the body will keep on producing milk at the same time.  Let’s say you missed three scheduled times for nursing, after the first three hours your breast will be filled with milk and ready for breastfeeding. After the 4 hour, it will start leaking, after the 5th hour, it will be so full, it could explode. Next day you will see reduction in your milk production.  If you only missed a day, you can always manage to go back on track.

Let’s say you have to go back to work and during the 2 or 3 of the scheduled nursing times, you have to be  in the office.  If you pump at the same times, your body will continue to produce at the same rate and with same intervals.  If you don’t pump, for the first couple of days, your breast will get engorged with milk and then milk production will decrease and end up not producing at all. There will be milk once in the morning and once at night only when you continue to nurse the baby.  If you want to stop nursing at certain times you used to, pump the milk a little bit at those times to prevent your breast from pain.

Pump is not as strong as your baby’s suction.  If you though decide to measure the amount of the milk your baby drinks by pumping, you will get less that what your baby can nurse. Don’t worry about this.

4– Is it okay to swim in the sea or the pool when nursing? Could it cause an infection?

If you have open sores or cracks around your nipples, you might always have a risk of getting infected.  There is more risk of getting an infection such as ear infection, infection of the nipples, urinary track infections in the pool than it is in the open sea.  Make sure to use pools where people take showers and dip their feet in special medicated feet baths before entering the pool.

Breastfeeding Series:
Breastfeeding 101 – Amazing Mother’s Milk
Breastfeeding 102 – First experience after birth
Breastfeeding 103 – Tips for correct breastfeeding techniques
Breastfeeding 104 – Comfortable and healthy nursing positions
Breastfeeding 105 – Increasing mother’s milk supply
Breastfeeding 106 – Troubleshooting for nursing problem
Breastfeeding 107 – Storing breast milk
Breastfeeding 108 – Why does refrigerated breast milk smells sour
Breastfeeding – Other questions