| Breast Feeding Your Clubfoot Baby |
What is it like breast feeding your clubfoot baby?
Well, I think there are as many answers to that as there are mothers breast
feeding their infants.
Although I understand your feeding choice is a personal one, I am of the
opinion that "Breast is Best", and as I mentioned in the section about Baby
Wearing - children born with complications or birth defects that require
treatment could use being "worn" and breast fed more than babies without
any issues.
The reason being, these babies need more love and comfort offered to them
in the ways of natural motherhood to help them thrive through their treatment
processes. Babies instinctively know something is up - that it's not natural to
go get these long, hard plaster casts put on their legs once a week, that's it's
not right to have legs that don't bend like the child knows they should, not
natural to wear the boots on a bar (foot abduction brace)...
New mothers should understand that as natural as it is to nurse your baby -
it doesn't always come easy and natural. I believe many mothers who
would have breast fed didn't because of issues at the beginning when she
and her new baby didn't ease in to the process as smoothly as she thought
they should.
Like driving a car, painting a portrait or playing piano - just about anyone
can learn how, but it comes easier to some than others. Not everyone is
born to be Dale Earnhardt or Mozart. Not every woman is born
knowing how to nurse her baby. During my first pregnancy, my midwife
told me straight up she did not believe I would be able to nurse my baby
successfully. I hadn't noticed anything unusual about my breasts, but
evidently she did and said my baby would not be able to latch on.
He did though. I nursed Brian for over a year; Everett a year and a half, and
currently am nursing my 3rd son who is now 17 months old and showing no
signs of being self-motivated to quit! My only point is to say that just
because a doctor, nurse, midwife, or other person doubts you can
doesn't mean it will be impossible.
While your clubfoot baby wears his casts, nursing is about as simple as
nursing a non-clubfooted baby. Swaddle him tight, hold him close and let
him eat while you put your feet up for a few minutes.
Once the child moves in to his FAB however, holding the baby can seem...
well? Weird. Suddenly the baby's legs are splayed out in a "V" shape -
how do you cuddle with that?
My own solutions were pretty non-technical: for the tiny babies in their
FAB's , I would usually loop my arm though the "V" and hold them like that.
Typically your arm would go under both legs, but with the brace on,
compromise to just hold your arm under the top let through the V-shape.
Other times, I would put a bed pillow over my lap and lay the baby flat on
the pillow, where his mouth would be up even with my breast, allowing him
to lay down to eat.
And my third best way to breast feed my clubfoot babies was to lay down
with them on the sofa or bed, with the baby on his side facing me, one leg of
the "V" up in the air but leaned over against my body.
When your baby's appetite increases, he is going to nurse a lot more often
and it will seem as if you do not have enough milk for him. You don't. At
least not yet. Milk is produced according to Supply and Demand - the
more he eats, the more your body will produce, so do not fall in to the
temptation to supplement him now with a bottle of non-breast milk! Let him
nurse as often and as much as he wants so your body can get the message to
produce high quantities. Given a day or two, your milk supply will meet his
new demand naturally.
Because our babies have a birth defect that is being treated by wearing an
external piece of hardware on their feet, when the baby changes his routine,
we immediately assume the change has something to do with the clubfoot
brace, ignoring other factors that would change his eating or behaviors.
Growth, seasonal changes, stress in the home, vacations, visitors, starting on
solid foods, rearranging the furniture in the home, learning new skills..... all
of those things can and possibly will change the behavior of your baby and
his eating habits.
The key is to just go with the flow. He will level out again and stick with a
new normal routine again for a while. As a new mother you will quickly
discover that every time you think your baby has gotten himself in to a
routine you can rely on, he'll change his routine.
You may laugh at this (or say "Eewww!") but my family had a milk cow
much of the years I was growing up. At the age of 16 I went to work on
commercial dairy farms and worked under the job title of "Head Milker" on
several farms in Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas.
The first thing I learned from a cow is that if you enter the milk barn and
attempt to milk her while you are in a bad mood, she will promptly kick that
bad mood right out of you. This rule applies to babies, as well. They feel
your emotion and react accordingly.
The second thing I learned from a cow (who is, after all, a professional
milk-maker by birth) is that a nervous cow can hold on to her milk, and
will. This is true of women, also.
As with dairy cattle, in humans our milk production is dictated by Supply &
Demand. The more you take out of a cow, the more she will make for
tomorrow. If you take less than she has to offer, her metabolism is going to
say, "Oh you don't need that much so I won't make that much anymore."
Again: the same is true of women. A woman who is nervous about
breast feeding is going to have a difficult time "letting down" her milk for the
infant to drink. The infant is going to become frustrated that he's sucking
and hungry but there is little milk to be had! He's going to fuss about this,
loudly, which is going to make the mother more nervous which is going to
reduce her ability to let down her milk further.
After a couple days of this vicious cycle, her body is going to say, "Heck if
you aren't going to use all this milk I'm producing, I'll just start producing
less." When the baby does get to drink, there is less than he needs, so he
will empty your breast and cry because he's still hungry.
If you find this scenario fits your situation, the first thing you need to do is
reeeeeeeelllllllllllx. Relax...... when it's time to feed, confine yourself to your
bedroom, get comfortable. Turn on your TV or some nice music. Open
your shirt, open your bra, remove anything that will be a pain in the butt to
work around - snuggle that baby up to you and when he latches on, take
yourself a good long breath. Exhale slowly...repeat that a few times. Pet
the baby, marvel at the baby, relax yourself and the child. If it helps, and I
think it will, visualize your milk gushing down to feed him. Welcome
that hardening sensation in your breasts that signals the let-down is
happening. Don't talk to anyone, don't answer the phone, don't let anyone in
the room. Ignore the doorbell.. Just you and the kid - alone with no one to
make your nervous or distracted. Give yourself gentle pep-talks, tell
yourself your body is making the food that both God and Mother Natured
intended for your newborn baby to eat. Think about how the antibodies in
your milk are protecting your infant from sickness. Think about how nobody
else in the world can do this for your child but you and oh what a privilege it
is! Think about the time you save not washing baby bottles or mixing
artificial milk; think about the money you save not buying, washing or making
artificial milk. Think about how plump and perfect your milk will make your
baby and how proud you can be of yourself!
A few days of this and you will probably have your confidence built up a lot
so breast feeding elsewhere will become easier for you.
Nurse often to re-build a milk supply that may have tapered off - or
use your breast pump to take more milk than the baby is drinking to
also help increase your supply.
Speaking of breast pumps, I recommend every mother buy at least a cheap
electric model (around $40) and immediately begin to pump and store an
emergency supply of breast milk to keep on hand. Should Mom need to
take a medication her baby cannot ingest, she has a few days of milk in the
freezer to use. If Mom has an accident and is hospitalized, there is a few
days of milk in the freezer to use. Should Mom have to stop breast feeding
for any reason - you have a few days of breast milk stocked up to help the
child transition to the non-mother-made milk.
Also, when the baby is old enough to begin eating solids, having milk frozen
in the freezer is handy to mix with the cereal.
At first you may need to help your baby latch on. Remember this: The
Lower Lip Flip. Many newborns latch on with their lower lip tucked in to
their mouth. Use your finger and gently flip it out. His mouth needs to be
in a pucker with both lips out, not pulled in to his mouth. As he gets bigger
and better at nursing you won't have to do the lower lip flip, but at first, be
aware of it at every feeding and help him if he needs it.
A newborn might also have trouble getting his little mouth over a large,
engorged breast. In this case, you might pinch your nipple down smaller to
help him latch on.
To make nursing your baby easier in the beginning, if you don't have to leave
the house, simply wear a loose shirt with no bra. This way you can just sit
down and lift your shirt easily with out fighting through snaps, buttons or
buckles.
To feed your baby out in public, I found it better to wear a shirt I would pull
up from the bottom rather than one I had to unbutton from the top. Pulling a
shirt up from the bottom to expose the breast to the child helped keep me
covered. Opening a shirt from the top seemed to expose a lot more skin
that I wanted fellow-shoppers to see. Covering with a blanket can help, but
older babies want to grab the blanket and toss it around for fun while they
eat.
How long you choose to breast feed your baby is up to you. Some mothers
need to, or want to, return to work. Some wean the child from the breast at
this time, while others use breast pumps to handle the situation. I say breast
feed as long as you can, especially during those first weeks of life when your
body will produce natural disease fighting antibodies for your baby to
consume.
Remember, if you want to nurse your baby, you probably can!
Well, I think there are as many answers to that as there are mothers breast
feeding their infants.
- The short answer is say that having
the clubfoot birth defect should in
no way interfer with breast feeding
your new baby.
Although I understand your feeding choice is a personal one, I am of the
opinion that "Breast is Best", and as I mentioned in the section about Baby
Wearing - children born with complications or birth defects that require
treatment could use being "worn" and breast fed more than babies without
any issues.
The reason being, these babies need more love and comfort offered to them
in the ways of natural motherhood to help them thrive through their treatment
processes. Babies instinctively know something is up - that it's not natural to
go get these long, hard plaster casts put on their legs once a week, that's it's
not right to have legs that don't bend like the child knows they should, not
natural to wear the boots on a bar (foot abduction brace)...
- I'm of the opinion that when so much of a new
baby's world is un-natural, the parents should
make the rest of it as natural as they can
through various means including (but not
limited to) breast feeding, baby wearing, and
co-sleeping.
New mothers should understand that as natural as it is to nurse your baby -
it doesn't always come easy and natural. I believe many mothers who
would have breast fed didn't because of issues at the beginning when she
and her new baby didn't ease in to the process as smoothly as she thought
they should.
To be honest, although lactation
might come natural, breast feeding
is actually a learned skill.
Like driving a car, painting a portrait or playing piano - just about anyone
can learn how, but it comes easier to some than others. Not everyone is
born to be Dale Earnhardt or Mozart. Not every woman is born
knowing how to nurse her baby. During my first pregnancy, my midwife
told me straight up she did not believe I would be able to nurse my baby
successfully. I hadn't noticed anything unusual about my breasts, but
evidently she did and said my baby would not be able to latch on.
He did though. I nursed Brian for over a year; Everett a year and a half, and
currently am nursing my 3rd son who is now 17 months old and showing no
signs of being self-motivated to quit! My only point is to say that just
because a doctor, nurse, midwife, or other person doubts you can
doesn't mean it will be impossible.
While your clubfoot baby wears his casts, nursing is about as simple as
nursing a non-clubfooted baby. Swaddle him tight, hold him close and let
him eat while you put your feet up for a few minutes.
Once the child moves in to his FAB however, holding the baby can seem...
well? Weird. Suddenly the baby's legs are splayed out in a "V" shape -
how do you cuddle with that?
My own solutions were pretty non-technical: for the tiny babies in their
FAB's , I would usually loop my arm though the "V" and hold them like that.
Typically your arm would go under both legs, but with the brace on,
compromise to just hold your arm under the top let through the V-shape.
Other times, I would put a bed pillow over my lap and lay the baby flat on
the pillow, where his mouth would be up even with my breast, allowing him
to lay down to eat.
And my third best way to breast feed my clubfoot babies was to lay down
with them on the sofa or bed, with the baby on his side facing me, one leg of
the "V" up in the air but leaned over against my body.
- As infants move through their Ponseti Method
treatment steps, keep in mind that they are
also moving through their natural
developmental steps at the same time. Your
baby will hit the typical growth spurts at 2 months, 4 months,
etc., that will change his appetite and eating patterns. He will
also be learning new physical skills, such as rolling over,
sitting up, crawling, etc., and these land marks will also
change a child's eating routine.
When your baby's appetite increases, he is going to nurse a lot more often
and it will seem as if you do not have enough milk for him. You don't. At
least not yet. Milk is produced according to Supply and Demand - the
more he eats, the more your body will produce, so do not fall in to the
temptation to supplement him now with a bottle of non-breast milk! Let him
nurse as often and as much as he wants so your body can get the message to
produce high quantities. Given a day or two, your milk supply will meet his
new demand naturally.
Because our babies have a birth defect that is being treated by wearing an
external piece of hardware on their feet, when the baby changes his routine,
we immediately assume the change has something to do with the clubfoot
brace, ignoring other factors that would change his eating or behaviors.
Growth, seasonal changes, stress in the home, vacations, visitors, starting on
solid foods, rearranging the furniture in the home, learning new skills..... all
of those things can and possibly will change the behavior of your baby and
his eating habits.
The key is to just go with the flow. He will level out again and stick with a
new normal routine again for a while. As a new mother you will quickly
discover that every time you think your baby has gotten himself in to a
routine you can rely on, he'll change his routine.
- Another thing I think a lot of new
mothers don't realize is how they can
hold up their own milk production, and
milk let-down process. The main
culprit is being nervous.
You may laugh at this (or say "Eewww!") but my family had a milk cow
much of the years I was growing up. At the age of 16 I went to work on
commercial dairy farms and worked under the job title of "Head Milker" on
several farms in Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas.
The first thing I learned from a cow is that if you enter the milk barn and
attempt to milk her while you are in a bad mood, she will promptly kick that
bad mood right out of you. This rule applies to babies, as well. They feel
your emotion and react accordingly.
The second thing I learned from a cow (who is, after all, a professional
milk-maker by birth) is that a nervous cow can hold on to her milk, and
will. This is true of women, also.
As with dairy cattle, in humans our milk production is dictated by Supply &
Demand. The more you take out of a cow, the more she will make for
tomorrow. If you take less than she has to offer, her metabolism is going to
say, "Oh you don't need that much so I won't make that much anymore."
Again: the same is true of women. A woman who is nervous about
breast feeding is going to have a difficult time "letting down" her milk for the
infant to drink. The infant is going to become frustrated that he's sucking
and hungry but there is little milk to be had! He's going to fuss about this,
loudly, which is going to make the mother more nervous which is going to
reduce her ability to let down her milk further.
After a couple days of this vicious cycle, her body is going to say, "Heck if
you aren't going to use all this milk I'm producing, I'll just start producing
less." When the baby does get to drink, there is less than he needs, so he
will empty your breast and cry because he's still hungry.
- This is where so many women give up and
switch to using artificial milk with the false
assumption they cannot breast feed with
success.
If you find this scenario fits your situation, the first thing you need to do is
reeeeeeeelllllllllllx. Relax...... when it's time to feed, confine yourself to your
bedroom, get comfortable. Turn on your TV or some nice music. Open
your shirt, open your bra, remove anything that will be a pain in the butt to
work around - snuggle that baby up to you and when he latches on, take
yourself a good long breath. Exhale slowly...repeat that a few times. Pet
the baby, marvel at the baby, relax yourself and the child. If it helps, and I
think it will, visualize your milk gushing down to feed him. Welcome
that hardening sensation in your breasts that signals the let-down is
happening. Don't talk to anyone, don't answer the phone, don't let anyone in
the room. Ignore the doorbell.. Just you and the kid - alone with no one to
make your nervous or distracted. Give yourself gentle pep-talks, tell
yourself your body is making the food that both God and Mother Natured
intended for your newborn baby to eat. Think about how the antibodies in
your milk are protecting your infant from sickness. Think about how nobody
else in the world can do this for your child but you and oh what a privilege it
is! Think about the time you save not washing baby bottles or mixing
artificial milk; think about the money you save not buying, washing or making
artificial milk. Think about how plump and perfect your milk will make your
baby and how proud you can be of yourself!
A few days of this and you will probably have your confidence built up a lot
so breast feeding elsewhere will become easier for you.
Nurse often to re-build a milk supply that may have tapered off - or
use your breast pump to take more milk than the baby is drinking to
also help increase your supply.
Speaking of breast pumps, I recommend every mother buy at least a cheap
electric model (around $40) and immediately begin to pump and store an
emergency supply of breast milk to keep on hand. Should Mom need to
take a medication her baby cannot ingest, she has a few days of milk in the
freezer to use. If Mom has an accident and is hospitalized, there is a few
days of milk in the freezer to use. Should Mom have to stop breast feeding
for any reason - you have a few days of breast milk stocked up to help the
child transition to the non-mother-made milk.
Also, when the baby is old enough to begin eating solids, having milk frozen
in the freezer is handy to mix with the cereal.
At first you may need to help your baby latch on. Remember this: The
Lower Lip Flip. Many newborns latch on with their lower lip tucked in to
their mouth. Use your finger and gently flip it out. His mouth needs to be
in a pucker with both lips out, not pulled in to his mouth. As he gets bigger
and better at nursing you won't have to do the lower lip flip, but at first, be
aware of it at every feeding and help him if he needs it.
A newborn might also have trouble getting his little mouth over a large,
engorged breast. In this case, you might pinch your nipple down smaller to
help him latch on.
To make nursing your baby easier in the beginning, if you don't have to leave
the house, simply wear a loose shirt with no bra. This way you can just sit
down and lift your shirt easily with out fighting through snaps, buttons or
buckles.
To feed your baby out in public, I found it better to wear a shirt I would pull
up from the bottom rather than one I had to unbutton from the top. Pulling a
shirt up from the bottom to expose the breast to the child helped keep me
covered. Opening a shirt from the top seemed to expose a lot more skin
that I wanted fellow-shoppers to see. Covering with a blanket can help, but
older babies want to grab the blanket and toss it around for fun while they
eat.
How long you choose to breast feed your baby is up to you. Some mothers
need to, or want to, return to work. Some wean the child from the breast at
this time, while others use breast pumps to handle the situation. I say breast
feed as long as you can, especially during those first weeks of life when your
body will produce natural disease fighting antibodies for your baby to
consume.
Remember, if you want to nurse your baby, you probably can!
- Relax
- Visualize
- Tell yourself why it's right and good
- Forget everyone else's expectations
- Forget the nay-sayers
- Understand breast feeding is a "Learned Skill" you might
take some practice to get good at. - Do the Lower Lip Flip
- Seek support from supporting individuals
- Don't beat yourself up if, in the end, you cannot breast feed
your baby. Know you tried hard, that is a reward in itself.
- Tongue Tied Babies
Find It Hard To Nurse:
When Everett was first born, he
was what is commonly called
"Tongue Tied." This is where the
flap of skin under the tongue is too
short, not allowing the tongue to
extend past the lower teeth (or
gum line). Because of this,
Everett had a very difficult time
nursing. His little tongue and
mouth became exhausted too
soon; he wasn't able to fill up.
This created so many problems!
First, he was always hungry since
he could never get enough to eat
at one sitting. I was literally
nursing this child every fifteen to
thirty minutes 24 hours a day for
the first four months of his life,
while he screamed and cried fairly
non stop from his constant state of
hunger. Needing to eat so often
also interrupted his ability to rest,
so he was also screaming and
crying from exhaustion.
My husband kept switching him
over to a bottle, thinking he could
eat better that way - which started
the vicious cycle of declining milk
production, and also started
teaching the child to want the
bottle instead of the nipple (bottles
use less muscle power to drink
from). Now I had a starving,
exhausted baby who fought me
over breast feeding because he
wanted the bottle. I began to
pump, but I've never been good at
that and could only get milk to
pump out if I had the baby latched
on to the other side....that didn't
work so well either.
One day when I was home alone I
threw away all the bottles and
formula (which we only had on
hand because the hospital gave it
to us as a parting gift). I was
determined I would nurse this
baby - so removing all the road
blocks was the first necessary
step!
Doctor after doctor agreed he
was tongue tied and agreed it
would interfere with his ability to
nurse, but none would clip the flap
of skin loose. Three told us it was
a surgical procdure and he had to
wait until he was older to survive
the operation. How insane was
that? Others told us it would not
bother him when it plainly did.
Some doctors said it would not
interfere with his ability to talk,
although being tongue tied does
lead to speech impediments
requireing Speech Therapy at a
later age.
Finally I found a doctor across
the state line when Everett was
already four months old. He
looked in Everett's mouth, said,
"Yep, he's tongue tied." sprayed
some numbing agent in, clipped
the flap and sent us on our way.
Ten minutes and $300.00 was all
it took.
I nursed him in the car before our
long drive home. He ate. And
ate! And ATE! I could not
believe how long he nursed from
me after just having his tongue
clipped but he was finally free to
eat his fill.
That was the day we finally got
our baby. The previous four
months had been nothing but a
deep, dark blur of crying from all
of us. After his tongue was
clipped free to move naturally,
Everett became a new child.
If your baby has trouble nursing,
look in his mouth, he too could be
tongue tied. Clipping the flap of
skin is very simple and does not
require any kind of surgery, just a
spray of numbing agent and a
small snip from scissors.
- Pumping and Storing
Breast Milk for Freezing:
Some baby bottles use a plastic liner
that you fill, use, and throw way.
These little bags make excellent
storage bags for breast milk and are
easily obtained in the Baby-Section
of most retail stores in boxes of
hundreds.
Pump your milk using the breast
pump of your choice.
Fill the bag with 2 ounces of milk,
twist the top tight, and seal with a
rubber band wrapped tightly around
the twist.
Mark the bag with both the total
ounces it contains, and the DATE.
Do not toss this bag loose in your
freezer - put it in to a large gallon
size freezer bag or other freezer
container to prevent any cross
contamination from packages of
meat (or other food items). This
also prevents the bag from being
lost, and eventually wasted.
Use one main container for each
month - for example all of the frozen
bags of breast milk from July will be
in a gallon size bag marked "July
2007". Rotate your stock, using
oldest to newest.
Breast milk can last in a deep freezer
for about six months. In the freezer
of your refrigerator, only about 3
months. Once opened, breast milk
should be used immediately with any
extra thrown away (which is why
you only freeze 2 ounce bags, to
eliminate wasted milk).
You will notice that the "cream" will
separate from the milk in the bag.
This is normal, just mix it well before
you use it.
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- Breast Feeding
On Car Trips:
As you might imagine,
having three sons born
with bilateral clubfeet, we
traveled to Iowa City,
Iowa to see Dr. Ponseti
for correction.
From Oklahoma that was
about 700 miles one way -
and we were traveling with
infants on those trips who
were being exclusively
breast-fed.
I admit this probably
breaks the law in all 50
states and at least four
territories, but I found I
could nurse my babies with
out ever taking them out of
the car seat.
I'd climb in to the back
seat and silly as it sounds,
just lean my breast over
where the baby could
reach and suck.
I don't advocate doing this
on a regular basis, but
when you have a LOT of
miles to cover with kids in
the car, sometimes you
have to adopt the attitude
of "Making Hay While The
Sun Shines", or in our
case, putting miles behind
us while the sun shined.
Risking your own life to
ride with out a seat belt is
one thing you can choose
to do - but NEVER
NEVER EVER take the
child out of his infant
restraint seat while your
vehicle is moving!!! Not
to feed him, change him,
burp him, hold him.... If
your baby requires an
action that he needs to
come out of his seat for,
park the car safely first!!!
Incidentally, a woman can
also pump milk while
riding in the car (but you
might want to let your
husband drive while you
do this!).
When it does come time to
pull over to take the child
out to nurse him, many
male drivers do not think
ahead far enough to pull
around to the dark side of
the gas station for you
before they park,
expecting you to nurse
pulled right up at the front
door of some busy
convenience store.
Um, just gently ask your
male-driver, as he pulls in
the drive way, to please
park around back so you
can nurse with out being
on public display.
Read more about:
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