One of the things that should be solved with relative urgency is that of maternity leave for women, which in Spain is only 16 weeks. A very short time if we consider that the current recommendations say that it is best for babies to be exclusively breastfed during the first 6 months of life.
In fact, even if the permit was 6 months, it would be short, because that's when babies start trying new foods, and during the first weeks they tend to continue drinking a lot of milk and eating few foods.
Perhaps for this reason, because maternity leave ends too soon, there are many babies who remain in the care of the couple, grandparents or other people, and end up even refusing to eat: when mom goes to work and the baby doesn't eat until she comes back.
Testing with all possible alternatives
It usually happens that four months after the baby, mom starts working and, as I say, is in the hands of someone who can't keep breastfeeding him. Being still very small, he still needs breast milk and is still waiting to receive it in the same way as always.
However, after a shot in which the mother tries to leave him "very full" to endure the better, just before saying goodbye, when the hunger returns, it turns out that mom is gone, and then the person who is with him has to do what he can to eat something: milk that has been extracted from his mother, artificial milk or some pureed foods that, despite being recommended after 6 months, go ahead precisely for me to eat something in those hours.
And this is where conflict often appears. There are babies who adapt to the new situation and more or less eat something (or enough) and there are others who do not adapt so well and they refuse to eat anything Don't come inside one of mom's breasts.
Then comes that situation in which all possible alternatives are tested: with the syringe, with a glass, with the bottle, with the bottle, with a spoon, etc., in order to have minimal success to stay all calmer and, above all, to make the mother more calm when I call asking if he has eaten anything.
When he really doesn't eat anything
But nothing. Nothing is nothing. That does not even open his mouth. That you approach anything and close it, and turn your face away. And he is hungry, because it is impossible not to be hungry, but it is as if he refused: that stubborn baby who does not want to know anything about anyone who tries to put anything in his mouth, and come to throw milk.
And it can take many hours, that she err that she err, that she does not eat, and that is expected, that when mom comes, she waits for her at the door if it is necessary to cry until she takes it and recover lost time, time for food and love.
And nothing happens ?, you will ask. And the answer is no. Nothing happens if you don't eat during those hours because it is more important for the baby to be with his mother than to eat, and it is as if he went on strike to get to be with her: "If I eat now, it's as if it shows that I don't need it, but I do."
Or it may not be so complex and it is simply a matter of habit: you don't know that bottle, that spoon or that glass can help you to calm your hunger and thirst, and since you also don't know how to use them, you refuse to be put on that in the mouth, because what you need is mom's breast, which is the only food she knows.
After all, there are babies (not many, but there are), who are able to fall asleep at eleven at night and wake up at 7 or 8 in the morning, which are eight or nine hours of sleep, without eating, and nobody puts his hands to his head. Well, these babies are doing that, precisely, do not eat for eight or nine hours, and the rest of the hours of the day "recover", making all the shots they need.
Even when?
A few days, a few weeks, a few months. As mom leaves every day and realizes that the situation will not change, that you have alternatives and you can make use of them, and as you learn how to eat without mom's tit, you will agree to do so.
So, after a while, the phone call with the question "How are you doing? Have you eaten something?", You will begin to receive a response "Yes, he has finally eaten a little", which will soon become a "Yes, it has been testing some things", when it is six months old and can already enter the exciting world of complementary food, with all its colors and flavors.
And it is that as it is usually said, when talking about children: everything happens. Even the time when you thought you would starve for not eating, and it turned out that you only spent a few days without eating anything, did not get sick, and then one day he started to open his mouth like nothing.
