MOUTH BREATHING
Is your baby a mouth breather?
Let’s talk mouth breathing:
If your baby is like mine was:
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"We nick-named him a mouth breather, not knowing that children should NEVER breathe through their mouths"
Noisy breather
He often lets the dummy fall out while he sleeps so that he can breathe through his mouth.
Never been attached to the dummy in the day, took it away in the day at 8 months when he started talking.
Started grinding his teeth in the day, but that has stopped. Not long after his got his teeth top and bottom, but worth mentioning
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My 7,5 month old baby - far too “busy” for a full feed…
And if you are anything like me, you’re confusing the nursing strike with weaning.
DON’T!!!
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My son was refusing to feed only one specific feed, at the same time each day, and my thought was that I had started solids, therefore he didn’t require that feed anymore as he was filling up sufficiently on solids. I was aware that weaning in a gradual process, therefore assumed that he would drop one feed at a time, and that this was the first feed he had dropped.
I was also replacing some milk feeds with solids, thinking that is how gradual weaning is supposed to work. Wrong. Not in the first year. “Food before one is just for fun” I did not take as literally as I should have!
Gradual weaning should only begin after the baby turns one.
How do you determine whether your baby is on a nursing strike and what to do about it? Read this article from Natural Child to find out. Here they describe in depth the different options for your baby being on a nursing strike.
3 TIPS I WISH I KNEW BACK THEN
Don't make the same mistakes I did
Babies DO NOT wean before 1 year, despite ANY advice you have ever received. Period. Yes all babies are different, but don't make the mistake of thinking your baby is weaning when in fact it could be a nursing strike.
Introducing solids is confusing. Start at 6 months, but DO NOT replace any milk feeds with solids.
Continue to breastfeed your baby every 3 hours up until 1 year. Solids are over and above those feeds, in between all the milk feeds, as and when baby is interested.
MORE INFO
Highly recommended professional advice:
The link between breastfeeding and brain development, and how the breastmilk enhances brain growth.
Here is some great information from Kelly Mom to help you get started with solids.
I highly recommend Kelly Mom for all your breastfeeding information.
For any breastfeeding related queries, the La Leche League Facebook Page is fantastic, and the leaders provide excellent advice!