So I keep reading about how every woman’s breastmilk is somehow nutrionally tailored to her child’s exact individual needs. Not just in quantity, but also in fat/ water content, protein, vitamins, etc. Also I hear the content will change overnight as your kid’s needs change.
How does the body get this information? Pheromones? Some sort of interaction chemically when the baby nurses? Are my breasts somehow psychic? Do breasts still work their mojo like this if you pump? Obviously, quantity= demand, but what about the rest of it?
Especially when you can’t fit the “Across” clues with the “Down” clues.
The hormonal system that controls lactation evolved over many millions of years and an infant who wasn’t getting the necessary nutritional requirements wouldn’t survive to reproduce, so just by natural selection mammals weeded out everything that didn’t work.
I for one am pretty skeptical of the claim that the milk can change in direct response to the kid’s needs changing (beyond quantity). Did you hear of this from a reputable source?
Certainly human breast milk is designed for human infants, and is superior to any other sort of milk or formula for babies. But there’s no such “perfect match” between mother and child. In fact, many women don’t produce enough milk, or enough good quality milk, to optimally feed their kids.
Since the nipple is mucous membrane, and the infant does soak it in saliva while suckling, there is a theoretical route for chemical messengers to cause changes in the mother’s milk in direct response to the infants body chemistry. That said, I have never heard of such a feedback system being studied, or found to be effective.
That’s good to know from another source, since I’m not feeding Jimmy enough quality (although there’s sufficient volume for a child his age, based on pumping; 30 ounces per day). I’ve had to begun supplementing with formula. The Boob Nazis in a “support” group have attacked me and told me I’m lying, that there is no way I can produce less than perfect, shining, golden-hued breast milk, food of the gods themselves, produced in my wonderful earth-mother breasts (hack 'scuse me, hairball).
Three generations of women in my mother’s family have been unable to nurse their children. My sister did not gain weight, so I was put directly onto formula. My eldest was never sated, so he went on formula. I was delighted when it appeared I would be able to nurse James. He eats the proper volume, but is gaining at about half the speed of children his age, and is in the 20th percentile for weight. Ergo, we supplement about 10 ounces a day, after he nurses.
And before anyone tells me I’m doing wrong, try to look at your baby not growing, then get back to me.
My apologies for the non GQ-ness of this response.
Ah, yes, the Boob Nazis. Sorry you had a run-in with them. They do ardently believe that breast feeding is the only way to feed an infant, for all infants, for all time. No Matter What. And that failure to successfully breast feed is either due to lazy, shiftless mothers, the medical-pharmaceutical establishment, or men in general.
I’m all for breast feeding. But the goal of giving birth is to have a healthy, growing, thriving child. And that may require doing something other than feeding only breastmilk.
Isn’t it funny that Dr. Dad-in-law, Pediatrician, knew exactly who I meant when I said that? And apparently, so did you. I’m grateful for their help and suggestions, but I’m really surprised that their militancy hasn’t scared off more women. Or maybe it has, but those women just don’t talk about it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where the OP is hearing this claim from, as well. Those people think breasts are some kind of magical device in which the whole of Infant Good Health and Happiness can be found, and only there. It certainly sounds like something they’d have on their websites.