 Dr.
Jane Morton,
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School
of Medicine, is an expert on nursing premature infants as well
as a
member of the Breastfeeding.com medical advisory board. Dr.
Morton has answered many of your questions on getting started
breastfeeding and overcoming nursing obstacles.
Dr. Morton works one-on-one with new mothers at the
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University,
teaching moms how to breastfeed successfully. In 1997, Focus
Magazine named Dr. Morton one of the "Best Doctors in the
Bay Area," and she was again selected by her peers as one
of "Silicon Valley's Best Physicians" as reported in
The Sane Jose Magazine in 1999.
 What can I do for my colicky
baby?
| NAME: |
Kelly |
| BABY'S NAME: |
Isaiah |
| BABY'S AGE: |
2 months |
I
gave my son a pacifier because he's going through colic and it
seems the only thing he'll take. He wants to suck but when I
offer him the breast he starts to cry and wriggle up his belly.
This only happens during the night. During the day I don't use
the pacifier at all. But I'm worried he might refuse the breast
all together if I keep using the pacifier. I just don't know
what else to do for him at night, he takes the pacy just fine
and usually falls asleep. Sometimes he'll put the breast in his
mouth and suck for a half a minute, but then he turns away and
starts to cry. Help, please tell me what to do.
Usually, I think that pacifiers are a bad idea. In the
first two weeks after birth, a pacifier takes away the only cue a
baby can give to tell his mother that he needs more to eat.
Pharmaceutical companies that produce formula used to give gift
packages to new breastfeeding mothers in the hospital that
included pacifiers. There are very good studies to show how
this interfered with lactogenesis (the development of copious milk production).
Studies in older babies also suggest that the regular use of
pacifiers result in abbreviated breastfeeding experiences.
Having said this, I believe that what you are doing is probably
just fine. Colicky babies are legitimately uncomfortable, and
babies this age seem to think that if they eat they will feel
better. Often, they will overeat and spit up (you are probably
familiar with this). The maneuvers that tend to keep these
babies more comfortable, aside from over feeding them, include
allowing them to suck on your finger, an empty breast, or as you
are doing, a pacifier. Other comforting measures include heat,
pressure on the abdomen, and motion. But you are using the
pacifier only at night, and usually just to put your son to
sleep. I would suggest removing the pacifier when he is
comfortably asleep, and see if you can get rid of it altogether
after his colic passes, before or at least by the time he is
three months old.
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