Attn: Amanda...Failure to Thrive -

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

I am hoping some of the information that I am sending will help in

some way. Feel free to contact me personally if you need to. )

 

First off, this is not your fault or your failure to feed your baby

by breastfeeding. You are doing the best thing by breastfeeding.

That said, I am very worried about you baby. One of the problems I

feel is that she isn't getting enough of the " hind-milk " when

breastfeeding. Especially since you are having trouble keeping her

awake. She needs to really nurse a long time to get past the " skim "

foremilk to get to the " whole " hind milk which is full of fat. They

need this to grow, gain and for brain developement. Have you tried

nursing her on just one breast at a time instead of switching between

them? As hard as it is, you also have to keep wiggling her and

nudging her to keep her awake. Some babies are just more sleepy and

this can be a challenge. Keep trying to find things that work. Her

fussiness is classic also to the " failure to thrive " , so it probably

isn't your diet or even colic causing the problem. Do make sure you

are eating a well balanced diet and drinking plenty of fluids. I

woul also recommend wearing your baby in a sling and keep her close

all the time. This has been known to help a lot.

 

I am going to post some info now from the Dr. Sears website for you

to read through. I hope it helps! ~Amanda

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SHUTDOWN SYNDROME

Throughout our 30 years of working with parents and babies, we have

grown to appreciate the correlation between how well children thrive

(emotionally and physically) and the style of parenting they receive.

 

" You're spoiling that baby! " First-time parents Linda and Norm

brought their four-month-old high-need baby, Heather, into my office

for consultation because Heather had stopped growing. Heather had

previously been a happy baby, thriving on a full dose of attachment

parenting. She was carried many hours a day in a baby sling, her

cries were given a prompt and nurturant response, she was breastfed

on cue, and she was literally in physical touch with one of her

parents most of the day. The whole family was thriving and this style

of parenting was working for them. Well-meaning friends convinced

these parents that they were spoiling their baby, that she was

manipulating them, and that Heather would grow up to be a clingy,

dependent child.

 

Parents lost trust. Like many first-time parents, Norm and Linda lost

confidence in what they were doing and yielded to the peer pressure

of adopting a more restrained and distant style of parenting. They

let Heather cry herself to sleep, scheduled her feedings, and for

fear of spoiling, they didn't carry her as much. Over the next two

months Heather went from being happy and interactive to sad and

withdrawn. Her weight leveled off, and she went from the top of the

growth chart to the bottom. Heather was no longer thriving, and

neither were her parents.

 

Baby lost trust. After two months of no growth, Heather was labeled

by her doctor " failure to thrive " failure to thrive and was about to

undergo an extensive medical workshop. When the parents consulted me,

I diagnosed the shutdown syndrome. I explained that Heather had been

thriving because of their responsive style of parenting. Because of

their parenting, Heather had trusted that her needs would be met and

her overall physiology had been organized. In thinking they were

doing the best for their infant, these parents let themselves be

persuaded into another style of parenting. They unknowingly pulled

the attachment plug on Heather, and the connection that had caused

her to thrive was gone. A sort of baby depression resulted, and her

physiologic systems slowed down. I advised the parents to return to

their previous high-touch, attachment style of parenting to carry her

a lot, breastfeed her on cue, and respond sensitively to her cries by

day and night. Within a month Heather was again thriving.

 

Babies thrive when nurtured. We believe every baby has a critical

level of need for touch and nurturing in order to thrive. (Thriving

means not just getting bigger, but growing to one's potential,

physically and emotionally.) We believe that babies have the ability

to teach their parents what level of parenting they need. It's up to

the parents to listen, and it's up to professionals to support the

parents' confidence and not undermine it by advising a more distant

style of parenting, such as " let your baby cry it out " or " you've got

to put him down more. " Only the baby knows his or her level of need;

and the parents are the ones that are best able to read their baby's

language.

 

Babies who are " trained " not to express their needs may appear to be

docile, compliant, or " good " babies. Yet these babies could be

depressed babies who are shutting down the expression of their needs,

and they may become children who don't ever speak up to get their

needs met and eventually become the highest-need adults.

 

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/10/t131200.asp

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[Guest guest]

See, I wasn't thinking about the hind milk...

5 or 45 minutes...as long as they get the hind milk...

Thank you Amanda.

Angel

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