Breast Feeding - It's the best, but...

[KTC]

I am all for breastfeeding and its benefits. But we need to also be very careful to read the signs of our children's development both socially and emotionally and letting go is a part of that. I breastfed my child until he weaned himself at approx 11 months. I coul dhave robably continued for another 6-12 months but I recongnised that he wan't asking for it as much and over the course of about a week he ceased by his own motives.
I felt the disabandonement of a child all of a sudden not needing me so much but I knew that he had chosen what was best for his health without my having to impose. The signs were subtle but I was attuned to them as I am sure we all are if we choose.
My son is now 21 months old and with a husband who often spends 4 weeks away from home at a time, we often sleep together at night. But he also has his own room where he naps during the day so that when Daddy is home for a couple of weeks he is happy in his own space.
Maybe we are fortunate to have a son who is so pliable?? We have a very loving household, a live in grandmother and a healthy diet. I am certain that these attribute to the emotional stability of our son.

 

[Laura]

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/244250-How-Humans-Grew-Fruitful-by-Devouring-Meat-

How Humans Grew Fruitful by Devouring Meat
Jennifer Welsh
LiveScience
Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:00 CDT


When early humans became carnivores, their higher-quality diet allowed mothers to wean babies earlier and have more children, altering the course of human evolution.

Humans' meat-eating habits help separate them from other great apes, new research suggests. A meat-heavy diet lets people wean younger babies and have more offspring, which may have contributed to the population explosion, the researchers say.

Because human females wean their young so quickly, they "can potentially contribute a larger number of individuals to the human population during their reproductive years," study researcher Elia Psouni, an associate professor at Lund University in Sweden, told LiveScience. "We are suggesting that this has had a very big impact on the survival and spreading of the species and the way it happened."

Studies of "reproductively natural" populations (that is, societies that don't use birth control) showed that mothers stop giving breast milk to their baby when the baby reaches about 2 years and 4 months of age.

That surprised the researchers, since other great apes take about four times as long to wean their offspring (proportionate to their maximum lifespans).

These other apes have diets dominated by fruits, vegetables and other plant materials. Chimpanzees, humans' closest living ancestors, get only about 5 percent of their calories from meat, compared with about 20 percent for humans.

Weaning willingly

To find out if this dietary shift is important in determining weaning age, researchers compared the developmental characteristics of 67 different mammals. With computer models and other analyses, they found that, together, body size, brain size and diet accounted for about 90 percent of the reasons for time of weaning.

The young of all mammal species stop suckling when their brains reach a specific developmental stage, the researchers said, and this stage seems to come earlier in carnivores (species for which at least 20 percent of their calories come from meat).

"We are much more used to thinking of humans as aligned with other great apes in many aspects," Psouni said. In this instance, though, "the pattern is one where humans ought to be put together with tigers and killer whales - all these animals wean their offspring sooner."

More babies

It doesn't matter if meat is cooked or not, Psouni said, since the same early-weaning trend is seen in lions, tigers and killer whales. The confusion about humans weaning "early" really only comes about when you compare humans with other great apes, species that aren't carnivorous.

The researchers think this younger-age weaning could have helped humans spread throughout the world. A quicker age to weaning means a woman can have more children throughout her lifetime.

"The access to a diet that is rich with animal protein is what makes it possible for that species to [over many generations] shorten the time between births," Psouni said."You wean faster, you can become pregnant faster and give birth to more offspring."

The study was published today (April 18) in the journal PLoS ONE.

 

[hlat]

Today we carried our 11 month to the pediatrician (a new one) for general mededical check. The diagnosis he gave us was more than disturbing.

It seems that our baby has early anemia, aqcuired from her mother's milk. She suffers anemia since ten years ago or so, during the pregnancy was treated with Iron via serum and caps. Her conditioned improved, but while breast feeding relapsed. The baby was breast fed until two months ago when we started to give him food, and almond milk as a substitute.

The doctor said that we should have quit breast feeding since the baby was 5 or 6 monts old. The other pediatrician never detected any problem, just suggested that we should switch to formula milk. The new doctor suggested this also. We refuse because what we know about milk and diary products, and I know that this was and is for the better.

The other problem that was diagnosed today is even more worrying, according to this doctor my baby has a congenital condition called Hypospadias (is a birth defect of the urethra in the male that involves an abnormally placed urinary meatus) and a lot of procedures and a possible surgical intervention it will be needed. Of course we will ask for a second opinion. All this evening I've been researching about this condition and certainly I think that in the case that my baby actually suffers this condition (and still have many doubts) is not the more severe degree. He even suggest that we should seize the opportunity to do the circumcision wich annoyed me so much.

I am very upset with this of course, a lot of things going on my head. I am sure of just one thing, that this is a case of negligence first off by ourselves as parents. It's so difficult to admit that we have failed when we thought we were doing it ok. By the other hand this only reinforce my deep distrust towards most mediacal doctors. It makes me mad how one say one thing and the other one completely contradicts or refuses the first.

Finally, this already is causing a lot of tension within the family. This, some way or another from the point of view of several family members only proves that I am a complete and dangerous whacko. A couple of hours ago I had an argument with my mother who was very angry with us for being such a bad parents. She basically said the classic "I told you so, the baby needs real milk, real food, not that organic crap, now you start right away to behave as adults" etc. I lost my nerve and I said is none of her bussines and I am afraid I was even very rude. My wife's mother just phoned me some minutes ago in the same reproachful mode. I try to understand them anyway, I think that they genuinely care about the baby and us, and I accept that evidently we made some big mistakes, but their ways to try to help and their strong beliefs are difficult to overcome.

A very tense situation, though I know that now more than never I should control myself more than never and think clear for the sake of the baby wich is the most important to me. I don't want to let external pressure from family force me to make hasty decisions.

Thank you for reading.

I hope everything turned out fine.

I saw that you used almond milk. Was that a good experience? Do you remember what the research said about almond milk? Do you recommend it? Thanks.

 

[Laura]

A lot of people are sensitive to almonds and I wouldn't recommend it. If the baby needs supplemental milk, if it was me, I would say raw goat's milk would be best. But only as a supplement. A few more months of nursing are good. And hopefully the mother is eating plenty of good meat, fish and meat fat and butter and eliminating gluten and reducing carbs.

 

[hlat]

A lot of people are sensitive to almonds and I wouldn't recommend it. If the baby needs supplemental milk, if it was me, I would say raw goat's milk would be best. But only as a supplement. A few more months of nursing are good. And hopefully the mother is eating plenty of good meat, fish and meat fat and butter and eliminating gluten and reducing carbs.

That's for the input. The 13 month old didn't like the almond milk when we tried today. She's been done with breast milk for a couple weeks. I just don't know what to give her to drink now, since she is done nursing. Perhaps I should just give her water?

 

[hlat]

The 13 month old only drank half an ounce of the coconut milk, so it seems she doesn't like it that much. She drank a lot of water though.

 

[hlat]

The 13 month old only drank half an ounce of the coconut milk, so it seems she doesn't like it that much. She drank a lot of water though.

Much progress today. She drank a couple bottles of the coconut milk. I think we have a winner.

 

[Laura]

The 13 month old only drank half an ounce of the coconut milk, so it seems she doesn't like it that much. She drank a lot of water though.

Much progress today. She drank a couple bottles of the coconut milk. I think we have a winner.

Not sure that I would be going for coconut milk. I would, however, be making sure that my child had plenty of egg yolks, meat and fish. Bone broth too.

 

[hlat]

Not sure that I would be going for coconut milk. I would, however, be making sure that my child had plenty of egg yolks, meat and fish. Bone broth too.

Do I feed the bone broth room temperature, cold, or heated up?

She is doing really good eating pan cooked egg yolk and meat. She doesn't like hard boiled egg yolk; I don't blame her, I don't either.

 

[Hildegarda]

Do I feed the bone broth room temperature, cold, or heated up?

comfortably warm with plenty of salt tastes best. you might want to just let her try from your bowl with her own spoon. they are really curious for new foods at that age, especially your food as they begin to figure that grownups get the cool stuff. and then at about 18-20 months, as if a switch is flipped, they don't want to try anything unfamiliar at all. at least that has been my experience.

 

[Laura]

You can make a delicious egg yolk custard. My kids had it for breakfast every morning. I would put one egg yolk in a small oven proof cup, a bit of salt, 1/3 cup of goat milk. Mix thoroughly. Put cup in pan of boiling water (don't let the water get in the cup). Stir constantly until it thickens. Cool and serve. It's like an unsweetened pudding.

 

[hlat]

I bought a pound of beef femur bone, and I will put it in a crock pot with a two quarts of water and let it cook for 2 days. Is it that simple? Or am I missing something?

Thanks for all the tips!

 

[hlat]

What I did was buy a whole chicken (didn't come with head, feet) and put it in a crock pot with a gallon of water for 24 hours. The broth tasted great. We're going to make chicken pot pie with the meat, which had all the taste boiled out of it.

I've been having a difficult time getting the 13 month old to drink it. With a bottle, she takes a sip and refuses any more. This morning she did a lot better when I tried to spoon feed her the broth. A lot of it dribbled down, though the encouraging part was she took maybe 5 or so spoons of it before refusing any more. I will keep trying with the bottle and spoon. She had a similar experience with coconut milk in a bottle, at first refusing after a sip, but slowly drinking more as the days went by and for now the coconut milk has replaced formula or cow milk.

I ended up drinking most of the chicken broth myself, as I am sick the last several days. I am currently making a new batch of the chicken broth.

 

[Fluffy]

what about smoking and breastfeeding?
I quit smoking when I found out I was pregnant but at 35 weeks took it back up (organic rolling tobacco) and am breastfeeding my now 6 month old daughter. I did a bit of reading about health benefits from smoking tobacco but found very little objective info for pregnancy and nursing. What do others think about this? Do you think the health benefits from nicotine would be the same for bub or am I being totally selfish (and delightfully stinky ) ???

 

[Fluffy]

may be I put my last question in the wrong topic area??? Sorry, I'm new at this :P