There are many myths about breast milk that have been solved as time passes and there are many who, although we now have more information than ever, are still alive and continue to spread with word of mouth. One of the most difficult to eliminate is the myth that says that the chest must be given looking at the clock, that is, controlling the shots (usually 10 minutes of each breast) and the time between shots (usually say 3 hours between shots).
The most advisable thing is that a baby sucks on demand, whenever he wants, however many professionals and many non-professionals (mothers, grandmothers, mothers-in-law, neighbors, one that nobody asked, etc.) keep saying that babies cannot always eat they want, but they have to do it following a schedule.
In fact, there are even those who say such absurd things as "on demand, but every two hours," that that is no longer on demand, but with a schedule of "minimum that two hours pass." There are also those who continue to screw up the groin, who, far from asking for two hours, dares with three, as they said very old: "Three hours, ma'am, give him every three hours or he will do his son a great evil."
What is hunger for?
Let's start by applying common sense (not Mr. Estivill's, but true common sense). They tell us that babies have to eat every 2-3 hours and that they cannot eat before that time because it will happen to you to know what. If they can't eat, why do they ask? Because they are hungry? It's more, What is hunger then?
I thought that hunger was a sensation that caused the body when I needed energy: “Soon I will start to lack energy, I will ask this individual to start putting food in the body to have energy again to continue living, moving and growing."
How often do adults eat?
We continue with common sense, if someone asked us how often we eat we would probably say something like "I don't know, it depends, every three or four hours." Then they would ask us “yes, but if one day you get fed up with food, will you eat again at three or four hours?”, And we would all answer that it would probably be six hours quietly.
Finally they would tell us, what if one day you eat a plate, and at that moment the neighbor calls you at the door because it has a problem and it takes you an hour to return to the table, do you still eat or wait for the three or four hours to pass? ? To which we would all respond, sure, that we would heat the rest of the food again and eat it at that time.
Well, children have to be able to do the same
Well, babies have to be able to eat just like adults, that is, when they are hungry. Some shots will make them a lot and may hold two or three hours without eating, others will make them shorter, as if a neighbor cut the "roll" and in half an hour they will want to eat again and others, then go know what they will do
The important is that they can breastfeed when they need to, not when a pediatrician or nurse says they have to, because they (pediatrician and nurse) know when they are hungry, but not when they have all the babies they visit.
What's more, breast milk is digested in about 90 minutes. This means that a child who crammed into breast milk at 90 minutes will no longer have milk in the stomach, so every minute that passes from that moment is “giving away”. I say giving away because when a mother asks me “won't she go hungry? It is that I breastfeed very often, he asks me every two hours… ”, I answer:“ I could still ask you more often ”.
If common sense says one thing, why has it always been said that you have to give them every three hours?
Surely after reading the common sense you think good, yes, but something will have meant that for so many years the food has been limited to babies, and it is true, there is something.
That something is the false belief that you cannot feed a baby if you have not digested what you have in your stomach. This belief comes from the world of premature babies, where many babies, because they are so immature, are unable to correctly digest the food they are given by tube. This makes it necessary to wait until they have digested what they have been given previously and see if there is still something in the stomach, just in case.
But this is something that happens in a newborn unit, with very premature babies, not at home with children who are born at term and who digest the food without any problem.
So, if babies digest well, it is not necessary to wait until it is finished digesting anything, because it is assumed that the body is able to receive food without finishing a digestion (As we adults do when we eat a plate and in half an hour we eat another) and because it is understood that if a baby is hungry, it is for something.
Hunger does not reach the baby with the goal of bothering the mother, or of contradicting the pediatrician's words. Hunger comes because it is an alarm signal that the body will need glucose in a short space of time. It's like when the “Reserve” jumps in the car: you can still drive a few kilometers, but it is not a hurry plan or you will be thrown away.
Conclusion
The clearest recommendation is: forget the clock, do not look at the time or to know when it starts or to know when it ends, unless you suspect that it is breastfeeding for too long.
Leave control to your baby, who knows better than anyone (better than you and better than the pediatrician and the nurse, especially) when he has to eat and when not. In this way the milk production does not suffer, because the more they suck the more milk there is, and if we limit drinking we are making it difficult for us to increase milk production.
So, if we leave the baby free and, as we say, milk production is left in the hands of the baby, breastfeeding is much more likely to move on past weeks and months.
