Continuing with the topic started last week to understand why breastfeeding should be on demand We will explain today other concepts and theories that were explained long ago (and that unfortunately are still explained in some places) that have been outdated.
Why eliminate the 10 minute rule in each chest?
Some time ago it was said that, in addition to breastfeeding every three hours, the shots should be limited in each chest, adducing that after ten minutes they no longer take advantage of what they eat and that there is a danger of cracks.
There is even a theory that says that after ten minutes the milk is over and the baby only swallows air. Taking into account that babies seal their lips with their mother's breast without leaving fissures through which air can enter, the only possible source of air would be the same breast. As there is no woman in the world who has air in her breasts this theory is not valid.
On the cracks, it must be taken into account that the nipples are prepared for breastfeeding. It is not true that for breastfeeding often, or for taking long shots, cracks have to appear. The cracks are due to a bad position.
Regarding the use or not after ten minutes, it was discovered that milk composition is different during the same dose.
The milk from the beginning of the intake is more watery but contains most of the proteins and sugars. The end of the shot is less abundant and denser because it has a higher content of fat and vitamins, that is, it has more calories.
Some babies are able to finish a shot in ten minutes and this rule would have no impact on their feeding, however, others take longer to make the complete intake and limit the time to ten minutes could mean stopping the shot when they are going to start the intake of the fat part.
If at that time the breast is changed, the baby will start a new take on the other breast by drinking the milk from the beginning and thus filling his stomach without having satiated.
I explain it better with an example:
We have to eat two plates of soup of letters, with broth and with the pasta letters in the background. We start the first course by taking the broth and some letters. Little by little we are getting more and more letters.
After about ten minutes, when we are about to finish the broth-letters mix and we are about to eat only letters (which will give us the maximum calories) someone removes the plate and changes it to us for the other soup plate without starting.
As we are hungry we return to take the broth with some letters that float. After a few minutes we must stop because our stomach is full of broth with some letters and we have no more food. However, after an hour, we need to eat again, because despite having filled the stomach, we have not ingested the calories we needed and we are hungry again.
This is why babies are allowed to breastfeed from one breast until they finish. They are the only ones who know when that time comes and they will let us know when they leave the chest with the face of “uff, how good I have stayed, now to rest”.
Should we give him one breast or both?
Well, continuing with the general tone, it depends on what the baby wants, request.
Some children have enough to take a breast, and other children need, in addition to finishing the first, take a little of the second.
If they have enough with one breast, in the next shot they should take the other. If instead after finishing a shot in one breast they take a little of another, in the next shot they should suck from the one that they have not "finished" (between the quill because the milk really does not end, because the production is continuous and sometimes those that end are babies, leaving milk in the chest).
This rule ceases to be followed if, despite having breastfed from one breast, in the next shot that same breast is more "loaded" than the other. In this case it is better to take that chest to empty it a little and avoid engorgements that can lead to mastitis.
In a few days we continue with the subject (as you see it goes a long way), delving a little deeper into the changes that occur in milk and how babies, authentic culinary engineers, control those changes.
Photos | Flickr, Flickr (maessive) On Babies and more | Why it is said that breastfeeding is on demand (I), Keys to successful breastfeeding
