Saturday, May 16, 2009

Breast feeding

All the babies regardless of the type of delivery must be given early and exclusive breast feeding upto 6 months of age. Exclusive breast feeding means giving nothing orally other than colostrums and breast milk. Breast milk has an ideal composition for easy digestion .Proteins in the form of lactalbumin and lactglobulin is easily digestible. The mineral contents are balanced and do not overload the infants kidney as compared to the artificial milk. Vitamin D in it prevents occurrence of rickets.

Breast milk is readily available and in commercial terms we can say that it is directly available to the consumer from the producer. One important benefit of breast feeding which we cannot forget is breast feeding acts as a natural contraceptive.

There are many advantages of breast feeding other than these. It has a laxative action, no risk of allergy, establishes a baby and mother bonding. Initially babies may need to be fed every 2 to 3 hours and babies must always be fed on demand and not by the clock. If the baby is happy, sleeps between feeds and at night, does not vomit and passes urine at least 6 times in 24 hours it means that the baby is feeding properly.
HIV positive mothers are counseled as regards the risks and benefits and are helped to make an informed choice.

Some causes of inability to breast feed are low birth weight baby, temporary illness like respiratory tract infection, over distention of the stomach with swallowed air and congenital malformations like cleft palate etc.