Meet Jo Middleton - GreenKiddie's Baby and Toddler Nurtition Expert
Jo Middleton is a freelance writer, mummy blogger and breastfeeding counsellor. She lives in Somerset with her two daughters and an age-defying, eight year old goldfish.
You can read Jo's popular parenting blog, capturing the highs and lows of single parenting, at www.slummysinglemummy.wordpress.com
Here at GreenKiddie, Jo dispenses her unique brand of wit and wisdom on baby and small children diet and nutrition.
Have Baby, Will Travel
Travelling with a baby or small child can often be stressful and many parents worry about how they will manage holidays and long journeys with a young family. Here, Jo Middleton explains why breastmilk makes the perfect food on the go.
The beauty of breastfeeding is that it provides a constant for your baby – no matter where you go or how strange your surroundings, your breasts are a familiar and secure source of comfort.
Journeying with a breastfed baby is so simple and convenient in fact that many women consciously decide to keep breastfeeding if they know they have holidays or long journeys coming up. There are a few things it is worth bearing in mind when thinking about breastfeeding on the move:
Before you leave
The great thing about breastfeeding is that it takes such a lot of the pressure off – no need to fret about water quality, how you are going to make up bottles or how to carry all the supplies you will need. Your baby’s meals are always readily available and unaffected by climate, surrounding or issues of hygiene.
If you are going somewhere where you need vaccinations it is a good idea to talk to your GP about the fact that you are breastfeeding. Most guidance suggests that both live and inactivated vaccines are safe to have while breastfeeding but do discuss this with a health professional.
On the move
Before you go, think about how you are going to transport your baby and consider how you will deal with the practicalities of getting about. If you don’t already have one it might be worth considering investing in a sling.
Travelling with your baby in a sling can make navigating airports, train stations or unfamiliar places much simpler and calmer. You can even position your baby in a sling so they are able to breastfeed at the same time, meaning you are hands free to check in your luggage, deal with older children or find your way across a strange city.
Air travel
Being able to breastfeed your baby during a flight is so useful, as it is a great way to keep your baby calm and help them sleep. It is particularly helpful during take off and landing as it can help to alleviate the ear pain associated with changes in cabin pressure.
Some airlines are more family friendly than others so do try and get recommendations from friends and family if you can, or talk to your travel agent or the airline directly about the support and facilities they will be able to offer you and your family.
Milk supply
It is useful to bear in mind that you may experience some temporary drop in milk supply when travelling. This may be caused by dehydration due to long flights or illness and is nothing to worry about. Keep yourself topped up with plenty of fluids, breastfeed regularly and milk levels will soon settle back to normal levels.
If you experience any kind of serious illness while you are travelling this doesn’t have to mean an end to breastfeeding. So long as you keep up your fluids to maintain a good supply you should be able to continue to nurse as usual.
When in Rome…
Be culturally sensitive when travelling abroad. Some countries have different attitudes towards breastfeeding in public and it is wise to find out beforehand what is locally acceptable. Check with the tourist board or your travel agent before you leave so you can be prepared to feed discreetly or in private if necessary. If you out and about and are unsure of what to do you can always diplomatically ask a local mother.
Do I need to supplement?
For exclusively breastfed babies there is no need to supplement. Even in very hot climates there is no need to give extra drinks of water as breastmilk is designed to satisfy thirst as well as hunger. In hot weather you will probably notice your baby taking more of a ‘little and often’ approach as they will need to have frequent short drinks. Do make sure you drink plenty of fluids yourself to avoid dehydration.
Travelling stories
For Nicky, a 30 year old mum of one, being able to breastfeed her daughter Megan in Greece was a godsend. “Megan was just under 18 months when we took her to Greece and I purposely continued to breastfeed until then because I knew how useful it would be while travelling. It was great to be able to breastfeed her in the plane, especially during take off when she became unsettled. I don’t know how I would have kept her occupied during the flight if I hadn’t been breastfeeding!
“While we were in Greece it was reassuring to be able to breastfeed when we weren’t sure about water quality. We went up from our usual two feeds a day to four a day. It was such an easy thing to do – there were lots of women topless on the beach anyway so no one was looking at me at all and Megan was very happy with it! I always fed her after lunch and she would then sleep in her pushchair on the beach for an hour or so, giving me chance to have a nice rest on my sun lounger and read a book!”
Lucy, mum to Ella, 6, and Josie, 3, had a similar experience when travelling to Spain. “I deliberately didn’t wean Josie until she was about 18 months old because we were going to Spain to stay with family. Breastfeeding was the only way I knew to guarantee to get her to sleep and I wouldn’t have been able to manage the flight without it! As it was I breastfed on take off and she slept all through the flight. Perfect!”
Parents Call for Junk Food Ban in Nurseries
The Government must act now to improve nursery food and combat the rise in pre-school obesity, according to a survey of 1,000 parents conducted by Mumsnet for the [www.nurseryfood.org] Better Nursery Food Now campaign. The campaign, run by [http://www.soilassociation.org] The Soil Association and funded by [http://www.organix.com] Organix, launches a report today calling for the introduction of mandatory standards to ensure high quality food is served in all nurseries.
In England and Wales, there are over 600,000 children at nursery for up to ten hours a day. In many cases, nurseries are responsible for the majority of a child’s daily food during the working week. Almost one in four children (22.8%) starts school already overweight or obese, which means they are more likely to suffer serious health problems like heart disease and cancer later in life. Despite this, there are no clear nutritional standards in place for the food served in nurseries.
According to the Better Nursery Food Now survey of parents with children at nursery, nine out of ten (89 per cent) parents want to see legally enforceable rules for the nutritional standards of food in nurseries.
-
Eight out of ten parents (82 per cent) want foods like chips, sweets and chocolate, which are banned or restricted in primary and secondary schools, also banned in nurseries.
-
Almost all parents (95 per cent) want to ban additives that are linked to behavioural problems or other health issues in nursery food.
-
Almost all parents (94 per cent) want to see compulsory nutrition and cookery training for nursery staff preparing and serving food.
-
Nine out of ten parents (88 per cent) want government funding available to help nurseries improve food provision.
-
More than two thirds of parents (69 per cent) want to see a government department made responsible for monitoring the quality of food provided.
The survey found that only a third (34 per cent) of parents said they were happy with the food at their nursery. Around one in six (16 per cent) complained that the standard of food at their child’s nursery was poor, with children being given junk food, too many convenience foods and not enough fruit and vegetables.
Pamela Brunton, Soil Association policy manager says,“The younger the child, the more vulnerable their health is to the effects of poor quality nutrition. The government’s own research shows that a quarter of our opportunities to prevent obesity occur when a child is at nursery. It is vital that the government put regulation for nursery food at the top of their agenda, to ensure that every child gets the start in life that they deserve.”
Most of us like to believe that we are confident, determined women who don’t let other people’s opinions dent our sense of self-belief. And most of the time we are. However, although we may not like to admit it, having a new baby makes you vulnerable.
This is normal - nothing can prepare you for becoming a parent. No amount of reading and studying before hand can possibly give you a sense of what it feels like to suddenly be responsible, quite literally, for keeping another small, helpless person alive. It is natural therefore to desperately seek all the advice and information you can in the early stages and it is very easy to be influenced by well meaning advice from friends and families.
Never is this more evident than in the case of breastfeeding. The experiences of, and the support you receive from your close friends and family, especially mothers or mothers-in-law, can easily make or break your breastfeeding relationship with your baby. If the people around you create an environment that encourages and supports breastfeeding, your chances of success are significantly increased.
You can help yourself establish a support network by talking to your friends and family in advance about breastfeeding. Let people know that you are planning to breastfeed, explain the benefits and why it is important to you and crucially, ask for support if you need it. If people are prepared in advance to support you, you eliminate that awkward moment of having to feed in front of someone for the first time, not knowing how they will react!
Read up in advance about the benefits of breastfeeding, not just for your baby, but also for your own health and for the environment. If anybody asks about your motivations, or questions the importance of breastfeeding, you will be well armed to explain exactly why it is important to you.
Partners can often be concerned about breastfeeding, and may worry about how feeding will impact on your relationship and your sex life. Again, talking in advance about it is important. New fathers can easily feel left out of breastfeeding, so offer as much reassurance as you can that their support will be crucial.
As well as impacting a new mum’s initial feeding choices, the continued support and encouragement by friends and family is very important. As a new mum, we become very emotionally vulnerable, and often well-meaning comments, normally along the lines of “are you still feeding that child?” can be hard to take. It is important at this time to try, if possible, to build up (or ideally have in place already) a group of like-minded mums who can offer lots of that much needed peer support.
Breastfeeding support groups, playgroups and online forums can all be a valuable source of support.
So what can you do if you are on the end of any ‘well-meant’ criticism or comments? The trouble with friends and family is that...well…they are your friends and family, which means you don’t want to upset them or disagree with them. This can be particularly hard if it is a parent/mother-in law or friend who has bottle-fed their children as it can seem that you are questioning their own parenting choices.
How exactly do you pursue the argument that breast is best without implying that they gave their child less than the best? With older relatives it may be easier, as you can explain that nowadays, science has discovered so much about the constituents of breastmilk and its beneficial properties that we have so much more information than was previously not available.
With other friends and family, it is important to emphasis that feeding method is a personal choice. Your decision to breastfeed is a personal one, perhaps related to a specific health concern or environmental belief, and doesn’t mean you disapprove of other people’s parenting styles. Don’t judge other people’s choices and hopefully they won’t judge yours.
If you are feeding an older child and are worried about criticism, you could think about creating special places and/or times for breastfeeding so that your older child is not always asking to feed at awkward moments. Remember too that your breastfeeding relationship with your child is a personal thing. It is, quite frankly, nobody else’s business how long you want to breastfeed for and if it comes to the crunch, nobody outside your closest family need even know.
Information is usually the best form of defence, so make sure you are clued up about all the benefits. You may also want to try and keep a sense of humour about it all. Next time someone asks that dreaded question ‘are you still feeding that baby?’ you could always answer ‘yes, but he’ll probably only have another five minutes or so on this side’…
Breastfeeding and Allergies
If you or a member of your family have ever experienced any kind of allergy or allergic reaction you’ll know just how distressing it can be, and obviously you will want to protect your baby from having to go through the same thing.
Food allergies and intolerances, asthma and other allergies seem to be becoming more and more common. Skin conditions such as eczema can also be triggered by allergic reactions. So is there anything you can do to protect your baby from developing allergic reactions?
The quick answer is yes! Most health professionals agree that exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, followed by continued breastfeeding alongside complementary foods is one of the single most positive things you can do for your baby’s health and that it can have a protective effect on the development of allergies.
It is true that research into the effect of breastfeeding on conditions such as asthma and eczema is a little patchy. It can also be difficult to evaluate as it is often based on individual observations and therefore potentially subjective and difficult to quantify.
However, there have been several recent studies that have shown a significant protective effect from breastfeeding. The link is certainly highly plausible - breastmilk contains a complex range of immunological agents and antibodies, and as such provides a direct line of defence against infections and allergens, compensating for your baby’s immature immune system.
Protection against asthma
5.4million people in the UK are currently receiving treatment for asthma, including 1.1million children. Asthma can be triggered by a whole range of environmental factors and is also more likely if you have a family history of asthma, eczema or allergies.
A recent study in Holland of over 3000 children looked at the prevalence of asthma at ages 3-8 and looked at whether or not each child had been breastfed. The results showed that the risk of having asthma was significantly lower in the children who had been breastfed for at least 16 weeks compared to those who had not.
Asthma UK, the charity with the mission of ‘improving the health and well-being of people with asthma by building and sharing expertise about asthma', supports the Department of Health recommendations on exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months.
Food allergies
If you are breastfeeding, it is possible, though uncommon, for your baby to have a reaction to foods in your diet. Food sensitivities can show themselves as increased general fussiness, vomiting, gassiness or skin irritations such as eczema. Cow’s milk is the most common irritant, and excluding a possible problem food from your diet for 2-3 weeks should eliminate any problem.
Try not to get hung up on your own diet though while breastfeeding. It is rare for babies to react to food in your diet and there is certainly no list of ‘foods to avoid’. If you have any concerns, you can call the National Breastfeeding Helpline and talk to a trained counsellor on 0300 100 0212, or try one of the other breastfeeding helplines.
If you have a history of food allergies or sensitivities in your family, breastfeeding is a really useful way to offer some protection, as it is perfectly designed to meet your babies, needs, is easily digestible and contains lots of immunological protection. Exclusive breastfeeding for six months, followed by a delayed introduction of potential allergens for the first year is recommended by health professionals. The Food Standards Agency offers advice on weaning and avoiding allergies.
According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, six foods account for 90% of food allergies in children: cow's milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, soy and tree nuts (walnuts, pecans, etc.).
Protective health effects of breastfeeding are valued by mothers
I recently conducted a survey of over 500 women from all over the world about their experiences of and motivations fro breastfeeding. The results showed that many women felt very strongly about the protective health effects of breastfeeding, particularly where there was an existing family history of allergies.
For Mary Anne, a 48 year old mother of three from Maryland, USA, breastfeeding plays an important role in promoting her family’s health. “All three of my children had health issues at birth,” she explains. “Two were premature and one had major surgery at three months old. In addition, there is a strong family history of allergies on both sides of the family. I believe that breastfeeding kept my children healthier, helped their immune systems and helped prevent allergies.”
Helen, 26 from Kent, echoed this, valuing breastmilk for the protective health effects it offered her children. “My family are all dairy intolerant – breastfeeding means I worry less about my children’s health and them developing further allergies or intolerances.”
And finally, why drinking breastmilk may not be the only way your baby can benefit…
You may already be aware that because of the antibodies and vitamin E contained in breastmilk, it can make a very effective treatment for sore and cracked nipples – simply express some milk onto your nipples after a feed and allowing it to air dry. You may not realise however that breastmilk can also be used as a soothing treatment for specific skin conditions such as acne, eczema and nappy rash. Working on the same principal as for sore nipples, apply to clean skin and allow to air dry.
Breastmilk has long been instinctively recognised for its natural healing properties, long before we were able to identify its antibacterial and antiviral components. Around the world today, breastmilk is still traditionally used to treat a wide variety of common ailments such as conjunctivitis. Just as breastmilk provides your baby with the antibodies necessary to fight off infection, it can also kill bacteria and viruses when applied topically.
