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Infant Stomach Bowel Disorders: When Breastfeeding
from: Maxx Family LifeDisorders of the stomach and bowels are one of the most common sources of diseases in infants.
There are several causes, many of which depend on the mother's system, as well as the infant. Each one, to a great extent, can be prevented or remedied. Thus it's important for a mother to learn about these affilictions. We'll mainly deal with prevention here.
When Breatfeeding Your Infant
An infant's stomach and bowels can become deranged from breast-milk becoming unwholesome, which can happen if the mother's health should deteriorate. There are many general causes to which this may originate, but the most frequent is undue lactation, and this effects both mother and child.
If the mother experiences anxiety, she could cause her milk to become unhealthy in its character, and deficient in quantity, giving rise to flatulence, griping, and sometimes even convulsions in the infant. A fit of passion in the nursing mother will often be followed by a fit of bowel complain in the child. This cause is temporary, and when the stress is removed, the milk becomes a healthy again for the child. However, a sudden and great mental disturbance will occasionally drive away the milk altogether.
An unwholesome diet will affect the mother's milk, and derange the infant's bowels. In the same way, medicine taken by the mother will act on the child's bowels, through the effect which it produces upon her milk. This, however, isn't the case with all kinds of purgative medicine, nor does the same purgative produce a like effect on all children. It's well, therefore, for a parent to notice what aperient acts thus through her system upon her child, and what doesn't, and when an aperient becomes necessary for herself, unless she desires that the infant's bowels be moved, to avoid the latter -- if otherwise, she may take the former with good effect.
The return of the monthly periods when the mother is nursing always affects the properties of the milk, more or less, deranging the stomach and bowels of the infant. It will thus frequently happen, that a few days before the mother is going to be unwell, the infant will become fretful and uneasy; its stomach will throw up the milk, and its motions will be frequent, watery, and greenish.
When the period is over, the milk will cease to purge. It's mainly during the early months, however, that the infant seems to be affected by this circumstance, for it will be generally found that although the milk is certainly impaired, being less abundant and nutritious, after the third or fourth month it ceases to affect the infant.
Should the mother, since her monthly period have returned after delivery, give up nursing? Certainly not, unless the infant's health is seriously affected, she'll generally find that, as the periods arrive, by keeping the infant from the breast during its continuance, and feeding artificial food, she'll prevent disorders of the child's health and be able, in the intervals, to nurse her infant with advantage. However, a wet-nurse is to be resorted to rather than any risk of injuring the child's health, and that, in every case, partial feeding will be necessary at a much earlier period than when a mother isn't thus affected.
The milk may also be rendered less nutritious, and diminished in quantity, by the mother becoming pregnant again. In this case, however, the parent's health will mainly be the one to suffer if she continues nursing. This, however, will again work against the child. It's therefore wise, if a new pregnancy should occur and the milk disagrees with the infant to put the child on a suitable artificial diet.
An infant constantly at the breast will always be suffering, more or less, from flatulence, griping, looseness of the bowels, and vomiting. This is caused by a sufficient interval not being allowed between the meals for digestion. The milk, therefore, passes on from the stomach into the bowels undigested, and these effects will follow. Time must not only be given for the proper digestion of the milk, but the stomach itself must be allowed a time for repose. This must be avoided most carefully by the mother, strictly adhering to those rules for nursing.
The bowels of an infant at the breast, as well as after it's weaned, are generally affected by teething. It's fortunate this is the case, for it prevents more serious afflictions. Indeed, the diarrhoea that occurs during dentition, unless it's violent, must not be subdued. If, however, this is the case, attention must be paid to it. It will generally be found to be accompanied by a swollen gum; the freely lancing of which will sometimes alone put a stop to the looseness. Additional medical aid may, however, be necessary.
Children's Health Care News
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