“My baby is 4 months old. Two weeks ago, I had to start giving him formula as he was not gaining enough weight. The first days were fine, but now he doesn’t want to breastfeed anymore. Every time I approach him to my breast, he gets angry and cries. I feel very bad, I am so sad. And when I talk about it to my family, nobody understands me.” When something like this happens, and it is unexpected, when a…
At the end of September, the scientific journal International Journal of Medical Informatics published an article on the evaluation of user usability and usefulness of LactApp. Here we summarize the article. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the usability and usefulness of LactApp as a mobile app to support breastfeeding. In addition, it also aimed to evaluate the satisfaction of breastfeeding mothers with the breastfeeding support received from health professionals, their families, and society. Methodology A prospective…
When you are breastfeeding, there seems to be a certain moment on the horizon that you are waiting for. It’s like passing stages in a videogame and wanting to arrive at the long-awaited moment when you are told (and start to believe) that the baby will supposedly breastfeed less and space out their feeds. So, is it true? Does a baby’s demand for breastfeeding decrease as they get older? Well, no, it doesn’t. Demand for breastfeeding does not decrease as…
In August 2023, the Cochrane Library published a literature review on the use of breastfeeding or expressed breast milk for pain relief in neonatal procedures. Within routine procedures of care in healthy newborns, as well as in pathological situations, it is quite common to have procedures that can be painful, such as performing heel prick tests or obtaining blood samples. On many occasions, different strategies are used to alleviate the newborn’s pain during the performance of these techniques. There are…
Is there an 8-month breastfeeding crisis? Your baby has grown a lot in the last months, not long before they reach their first birthday, and there are still many things they have yet to learn. When babies are 8-9 months old, many changes happen, which can surprise and worry us at the same time. Is this also one of those stages called a breastfeeding crisis? So what happens at this stage? The first thing that is usually noticed is that…
Authors Sofia Gaggiotti Marre, MD, PhDGynecologist and Obstetrician Specialist physician in fertility treatmentsPuigvert Foundation-Sant Pau HospitalFertty, Spain Beatriz Álvaro Mercadal, MD, PhDPhD in Gynecology and ObstetricsSpecialist physician in fertility treatmentsPuigvert Foundation-Sant Pau Hospital Introduction Many women who are breastfeeding and must undergo fertility treatment to conceive a second child find that healthcare professionals advise or even oblige them to stop breastfeeding in order tocarry out treatment. Just as there are professionals who still advise against laser hair removal, surgery, or…
Supplementing milk, whether with breast milk and/or commercial formula milk, is recommended in certain circumstances when milk transfer is poor or when the mother decides to do so. However, we often still find that healthcare professionals recommend supplementing without an appropriate reason, making it difficult for the mother to establish and maintain breastfeeding. What is supplementing milk? It is understood as administering a variable quantity of milk that is offered to the baby once or several times a day after…
“My baby actively breastfeeds and then seems to fall asleep. I think she stops eating and just uses me as a pacifier. Everyone tells me that I shouldn’t let her do this, and if she has already eaten, I must stop the feed. What should I do? It doesn’t hurt or bother me that she does this” As breastfeeding mothers, one of the things we are told the most is: your baby uses you as a pacifier. Apparently, this is…
Hypergalactia (oversupply) is defined as breast milk production (or supply) that exceeds the volume required to meet the nutritional needs of a healthy infant. Symptoms The referred symptoms are centered on the sensation of hyperproduction (or breastmilk oversupply). Derived from this, physical complications appear, such as breast discomfort and/or pain, obstructions of milk ducts, increased mastitis episodes, spontaneous milk leakage, or even a painful ejection reflex. There are also a number of signs and symptoms in the newborn, such as…
The second breastfeeding crisis comes between 6-7 weeks of your baby’s life. Again mothers may feel anxious about their baby’s behavior, and the comments from surrounding people do not help: your baby refuses the breast, it seems that she doesn’t want to nurse, maybe you don’t have enough milk… And all of this because when the baby feeds at the breast, they suddenly seem to be unhappy: What’s going on? It is obvious that your baby is uncomfortable and shows…