The benefits of breastfeeding: the composition of breast milk, the necessary nutrients for the baby, the advice of pediatricians

After the birth of a baby in a natural way, important hormonal changes take place in a woman’s body, prolactin increases and the production of progesterone and purely female estrogens decreases. It is recommended that the baby be applied to the chest within 1 hour after birth. Then mother’s milk is actively produced and immediately protects the newborn from the effects of intestinal infections.

The benefits of breastfeeding for the baby are undeniable. But for maternal health, this natural process is also important.

The benefits of feeding. How much to breastfeed a baby?

Science cannot and is unlikely to ever be able to create artificially high-grade milk for babies. Natural feeding fully supplies the newborn up to 6 months with all the necessary substances and high-quality immune protection. After 6 months you can be fed with regular food.

Modern studies prove that mother's breast milk is extremely important for the survival and subsequent formation of the baby in society.

Here's what to say about the benefits of breastfeeding:

• Mom's milk is completely sterile and has the temperature necessary for absorption.
• Milk contains lactoferrin. It is a multifunctional protein that protects against enteric infections.
• Breast feeding is necessary for the development of the digestive tract. It has been established that those children who are forced to eat artificial mixtures are more likely to suffer from intestinal problems, since mother’s milk is better digested and prepares the intestines for full functioning, which are gradually colonized with the necessary bacteria.
• Breast milk fully provides the baby with energy resources in the form of fats and carbohydrates.

There is another reason to feed your child yourself. The undoubted benefit of breastfeeding for a child up to 6 months is that the baby has to make certain efforts each time to suck. In the newborn, the lower jaw is actively working at this time, due to these efforts, the correct bite is gradually formed.

Pediatricians recommend feeding the newborn every 2-3 hours in the afternoon. And always 3 times at night. However, after a year the regime is completely different.

What does it consist of

What can be said about the biological composition of human milk? The composition depends on the stage of its production:

1. First, on the first day after giving birth, the milk is still very thick. This concentrated viscous composition is not quite milk, it is colostrum. It consists mainly of proteins and immunoglobulin for the development of a child’s personal immune system.
2. After 5-7 days, a rush of milk occurs. This is the second stage. It is much thinner in consistency. In this transitional type of milk, the amount of protein decreases, but the amount of well-absorbed sugars and fats increases.
3. After 1-2 months, milk passes the next stage of development. It is already a liquid dairy substance that has a lot of sugars and little fat.

Many mothers finish milk production by 5–8 months. Therefore, the child is gradually preparing to switch to adult food in the form of cereals.

Why does a child need immunoglobulins?

In the last months of pregnancy, natural processes occur in the mammary glands that are responsible for the production of milk. The secretory immunoglobulin slgA is synthesized in milk. This is a protein involved in creating antibodies to microbes. From the first days of life, a child needs to confront a huge number of harmful microorganisms, and his mother’s milk protects him, while his personal immune system is slowly being established.

On the baby’s birthday, if the mother feels normal and has no reason for stress, colostrum should stand out. In colostrum, there are about 16 mg / ml of immunoglobulins - this is the maximum amount of antimicrobial proteins. Their concentration sharply decreases in mature milk.

Milk fat

In some periods, milk is thicker, more oily. This depends in part on the air temperature, but also affects fat content and nutrition. When is mom’s milk thicker?

Firstly, the "near" milk is always a little liquid and is designed to quench thirst. The real milk, saturated with the necessary proteins and fats, the child receives after 15 minutes, that is, at the end of feeding. When all the liquid milk is sucked out, the so-called "back" comes out. Therefore, do not change the chest.

Secondly, proper nutrition and water balance are necessary.

Note to mom say that the child does not need to give a dummy. He must have enough strength to suck out this rich “back” milk.

When are artificial blends needed?

No latest developments will make natural milk from an artificial mixture. Only with the mother’s milk, the child will receive the necessary proteins and prepared antibodies to viruses.

Artificial feeding has to be introduced only in exceptional cases. For example, if a nursing mother has the flu or another viral infection, then, of course, feeding should be stopped. If the woman herself did not give birth, and the baby was born using cesarean section, milk may not appear. Then you have to constantly give the newborn an artificial mixture, but the child’s health will suffer from this.

Benefits

The main advantage of breastfeeding is the complete protection of the baby from bacteria and viruses. Together with the immunoglobulin slgA, the baby receives lysozyme, ready-made antibodies, macrophages, lactoperoxidase and other necessary substances. According to studies, children who are breastfed for a year were less likely to have pneumonia than those who were fed an artificial mixture.

Nature provides that the benefits of breastfeeding for the mother and baby are mutual. If milk stagnation occurs in the breast, a woman can get serious inflammation, accompanied by fever, chest pain. This disease is called lactational mastitis. With this ailment, a woman is immediately taken to a hospital, and the child has to be fed with mixtures.

How is it produced?

Inside the woman’s mammary gland, there are special cells - alveoli. In them, under the influence of hormones, milk is formed. Through the ducts and sinuses, the food for the baby enters the areola of the nipple.

Milk production depends on the level of production of two hormones: oxytocin and prolactin. If there is little prolactin in the blood, there is either not enough milk, or there is none at all. Prolactin is produced in the anterior pituitary gland during each feeding. Up to 6 months after birth, its level can reach 2500 mU / L. Then the level of production is significantly reduced. But when the mother feeds the baby with artificial food, her prolactin is at around 500 mU / L.

To see if your baby has enough food, follow him. When there is very little milk, the child will cease to gain weight or even lose weight. His stool will be rather scarce, and when the mother tries to wean the baby, he will be worried, as he remained hungry. A well-fed baby usually calmly falls asleep right in the process of feeding.

Hypogalactia - a lack of milk

It should be noted that not all women immediately have enough milk. Some have a long time to set up normal feeding. If there were problems in childbirth or there was a planned cesarean section with anesthesia, then milk may come with a delay or not come at all. What is the reason for this? This is due to the stress that a woman suffered during delivery.

The stress hormone cortisol blocks normal lactation. To milk is actively produced, you need oxytocin - a hormone of happiness and satisfaction, produced in the pituitary gland. If the mother is nervous, constantly depressed, or simply did not sleep enough, oxytocin does not enter the bloodstream, therefore, the mammary alveoli do not push milk to the ducts.

It happens that after a cesarean, a woman does not receive milk or, over time, it begins to decrease. If you see that growth has stopped, you must still buy the mixture, and not allow your baby to lose weight or lose important elements.

The benefits of breastfeeding after a year

There is little research related to this topic, since breastfeeding is too personal a topic, and scientists can not conduct full-fledged experiments, interfere with the privacy of women. Therefore, medicine cannot say anything concrete about the benefits of breastfeeding after 1.5 years. However, psychologists working with young children argue that for the psyche of the child, benefits certainly exist.

Many mothers go against the instructions of a pediatrician, who recommends stopping feeding a year, and continue to feed until 2, 3, or even up to 4 years. Does that make sense? The benefit of breastfeeding after 2 years is that the baby is still in close emotional and physical contact with her mother. Immune protection against feeding is still there, but it is no longer so noticeable.

Such a baby is more likely to socialize in kindergarten and learn better. If a woman is not in a hurry to return to work, and she herself enjoys the process of breastfeeding, then she can continue to have hepatitis B until the moment when milk ceases to be produced. Or, sometimes, a child after a year refuses such feeding.

But there are also negative factors of long-term breastfeeding. The benefits and harms are considered in the context of the psychological dependence of the child on the mother. An adult child of three or four years old should already go to kindergarten, communicate with peers, and not be “chained” to mother.

Benefits for women

Is there any benefit to breastfeeding for mom? There are several advantages for women, which testify in favor of natural feeding, rather than artificial.

Here is some of them:

1. Mom copes with stress and fatigue more easily.
2. The uterus is better restored, since the hormone oxytocin is secreted during feeding.
3. Milk does not stagnate, the risk of mastitis is reduced.
4. Feeding cheers up a woman. Those who regularly feed on their own, without dry mixtures, are absolutely not afraid of postpartum depression.
5. The entire reproductive system of a woman during the period of feeding is resting. This is due to the fact that prolactin blocks ovulation.

The benefits of breastfeeding for mothers are also in reducing the risk of uterine cancer. The reasons for this effect are not yet completely clear to doctors, but, nevertheless, statistics say that breast-feeding women at least up to a year old are actually less likely to suffer from tumors of the female internal genital organs.

Lactation diet

The benefits of breastfeeding will be visible only when the composition of the milk meets all the needs of the newborn. It is difficult to overfeed a child on such feeding. While artificial nutrition is not so balanced. In addition, it does not have lactoferrin. Its absence is a huge minus of artificial mixtures.

But so that the fat content of human milk remains within the normal range, the mother must eat right. This does not mean that you need to overeat in order to produce milk. It is produced under the influence of hormones, as we have said, and not from an excess of food. But sitting on exhausting diets is also not recommended.

How to eat? To increase the fat content of milk, you need to consume more butter, salads with olive oil, sour cream. And, accordingly, when milk is too oily, these foods should be avoided in the diet. In addition to oil, which gives fats, a woman needs:

• about 100 grams per day of foods containing protein;
• apples and pomegranates to maintain good hemoglobin levels;
• fresh vegetables and fruits every day;
• for lactation, it is important to eat a little honey;
• about a liter of dairy and dairy products.

Greens and spices are also needed. With spices you need to be careful and watch the reaction of the child. It is undesirable to drink coffee during lactation. Better herbal teas, juices, ginger drink.

A nursing woman needs to eat cottage cheese, beans, more vegetables and those cereals that are most useful. This is buckwheat, rice, millet. And in semolina, for example, there is no benefit, only extra calories. Of vegetables, celery, broccoli are useful. If my mother has a lack of iodine, you need to eat sea kale - kelp. This is an excellent "supplier" of iodine necessary for the development of the nervous system.

Output

What can be summed up? The benefits of breastfeeding for both mom and baby are huge. Lactation is established gradually, and mature milk will appear no earlier than 2-3 weeks after birth. Panic due to the fact that milk does not come on the second day is not worth it.

Lactation is influenced by many factors. This is the state of health of the mother, her mood, nutrition. The medications that she may be using endanger normal feeding. But even if this is so, in the modern world you can use dry mixes.

Many believe that the benefits of breastfeeding are exaggerated, and the baby will be healthy and active on the artificial mixture, however, recent studies claim that lactoferrin, antigens and macrophages, which are not in the mixtures, are the only way to protect the baby from various infections and maintain good health. At least in the first year of life.