feeding a new born

[ruffiny89]

i need help my son is coming home from the hospital soon and his mother has basically lost all her milk production  because she put a birth control rod in her arm and the Doctor said it would not hurt her milk at all and well it did and i am not sure of what i should feed him. AV says to mix liver cows milk and a little honey . i was thinking of using goats milk and liver sense i am allergic to cows milk . BTW he is a pre me born at 27 weeks and is now nine weeks old and is on the horrible pre me infameal formula that gives him a rash, diarrhea, spitting up . i am not feeding my son this crap its horrible for him . i want feed him raw like his daddy. also donor milk is not an option because the hospital pasteurizes the donor milk before they give it to the baby and the  wont let him even have it .  please help me give my son the best start in life.

The doctors are complete morons here the dietitian told me how good their formula was because it has corn syrup in it
 

[joej627]

This is very important but don't stress too much.  Here are a few good links.


http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/feeding-babies

http://healthybabycode.com/signup

I have heard good things about the healthy baby code but honestly it is probably very similar to weston price/sally fallon guidelines as well.  Just make sure easily digestible food, probably no raw veggies, rich in nutrition.  I will say though that I do not have children and have never looked into this but that is what my gut says.  Hopefully this helps.

-Joe

[Suiren]

What did they put in her arm? A birth control implant?

All sorts of hormonal Bc's harm a mothers milk supply! The doctor really sounds like a complete idiot. She should have it removed, also because hormone free is better for her health as well. There is so many horrible side effects to birth control pills...ask the tumor in my head haha...

Okay now but seriously...If she wants to she can probably get her milk back. It only needs some determination. It is called "relactation".

 As of right now she should take action.

1. Call La Leche League for advice on relactation and on your situation.

2. Rent an electric pump from the hospital

or if you lack money for this on the long run...
2b. Get in contact with WIC (are you in the US?) and tell them you NEED an electric pump so your wife can relactate for your preemie who is NOT doing well on formula. They only give out electric pumps for emergencies and you have to be persistent.

3. Make an appointment with a doctor that can prescribe your wife domperidone, medication to aid lactation (She should only need it to get started).
I am thinking OB GYN or Pedi might be able to help you, I was gonna go down this road but my supply went up again with Fenugreek.

4. She can take Fenugreek capsules. It can take 2 weeks to work at the highest dose though. It worked wonders for me, my supply was low because of a nipple shield. We were able to avoid supplementing thanks to FG.

5. Your wife should pump every two hours on both sides. Even if she does not get anything, keep going and with all the other helpers she should eventually get milk.

6. Make sure she is hydrated and well rested through all of this.

7. Most importantly - she should do skin to skin as often as possible, co-sleep if she can and try to nurse as often as your baby is interested. His natural instincts need to get back on track.
If he does not seem interested at first, she should just keep him by the breast, he should eventually try to suck, just don't push him. Your baby is the best stimulant for her milk.
You can try to offer the breast before every formula feed, be sure to try different positions. My son prefers side lying very much, to the point where he sometimes does not want to nurse any other way.

Especially a preemie NEEDS breastmilk. I am sorry to say there is no next best thing like formula feeding moms like to think, more like finding something not harmful..
Breastmilk was naturally designed for babies and is perfect in every way.
They can live with only BM for much longer than "babycenter" and other websites will tell you. My son is 10 months old and only eats breastmilk still, his weight is in the 97th percentile.
I would not even advise goats milk at this point, unless nothing works for you. But just keep at it, so many women have done it, even mothers who adopted.
BF can be hard, so be sure to get help from a good Lactation Consultant too. Mot all are persistent enough in my experience. I ran into a TON of BF problems but just kept at it and would not take "no" for an answer. Try to get your son to nurse by the breast only eventually. Some parents get comfortable on pumping, bottles and nipple shields, only to find that the supply drops again later on (not the best stimulation).
Plus, the baby gets way more benefits from nursing than just nutrition. My son really needs the security and comfort, I can tell every day. But you might already know that , just making sure.

Solids - can not be properly digested before 6 months of age, but even then the digestive system is only 60% ready.
We do want to raise our son with the right foods once he is able to eat on his own.

I am hoping it all works out for you and this will help! Any more questions just ask!

[goodsamaritan]

Great German advice!

You can also look for a wet nurse.  A friend did this.

To make more of your own mother's milk, the supplement Filipinos take is Malunggay... powder in pills is effective... probably available in your Filipino store.  It's roughly paleo, the leaves are powdered and put in capsules.  My wife took these Malunggay pills and it just damn level upped her milk.

And my grandma used to say that when the baby is too weak to stimulate milk sucking action... it's the husband's duty to do so.

[SaintAndScholar]

infants should not be fed honey of any kind.That is a well known.

Pastured eggs are very good.

check out Doctor Mercolas advice

[Haai]

infants should not be fed honey of any kind.That is a well known.

It is also well known that human beings should thoroughly cook their meat....

[PaleoPhil]

Ah, I find it hard to resist trying to help a baby. Dorothy will probably tease me over this. LOL I've never raised a child, but I've noticed that my "Paleo" nephews are much better behaved and have fewer colds, flus, asthma, etc. than my "junk food" nephews. Here are some links that I hope will help:

Chris Kresser's Healthy Baby Code: http://healthybabycode.com

Dave Asprey: http://www.bulletproofexec.com: http://www.betterbabybook.com/

Stephan Guyenet on Activator X (vitamin K2), including the effect pregnant or reproductive-age women: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/06/activator-x.html

http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/recipes-for-homemade-baby-formula
http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/vitamins-for-fetal-development-conception-to-birth
http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/modern-baby-books
http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/healthy-baby-photo-gallery-page-2007-2008
http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/vitamin-d-in-the-infant
http://www.westonaprice.org/mentalemotional-health/nutrition-and-mental-development
http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/why-broth-is-beautiful

.... http://healthybabycode.com/signup

Yeah, I've found Chris Kresser to be one of the better cooked-Paleo-dude bloggers.

AV says to mix liver cows milk and a little honey . i was thinking of using goats milk and liver sense i am allergic to cows milk .

I experiment, measure and find what works best for me. Of cow, goat and sheep dairy I have found sheep dairy (cheese and yogurt is all that's available to me) to be most tolerable for me, but I have found raw Paleo to be even more tolerable for me, and eat some sheep cheese and yogurt mainly for the taste and digestability and possibly for theoretical dental benefits some day as well--(none yet, we'll see). As always, YMMV

[afroza]

I would go with goatmilk and organic liver, some eggyolks, mix it good and strain it. Raw cream in the mix would be good. Mothers milk is about half fat, caloriewise so you should try to copy that. A baby can not swallow any solid bits for the first 4-5 months, and everything you feed should be body temperature.  If the mother is interested in getting her milk back she should definitely go for that, it is possible even after a long time, but it needs persistence. And it is also very important that the mother eats very nutritious foods while lactating otherwise the milk will be lacking in nutrients. I would use Green Pastures fermented codliver oil and butter oil in small quantities, too. I give it to my kids and it's wonderful. After being a vegetarian for 10 years, I breastfed my first son for 2 years and 3 months until his teeth where rotting in his mouth, because the milk lacked lots of nutrients. RAF and codliver oil saved his health and he is now one of the healthiest kids around.
I have to stress the fact that the baby needs constant body contact, as Suiren pointed out earlier. Specially a preemie. Skin contact and a sling is the best to get a baby to grow and develop properly. They need much more physical contact then what is normally adviced, there is no upper limit, really, and you as a Dad can give that as well as the mother. Try to find a safe way to co-sleep. We slept on big, not too soft, mattresses on the floor when the kids where small. No risk of rolling on you baby if the bed is not too soft, and no risk of falling out of bed.
My second child started to eat bits of RAF when he was about 6 months, just taking bits from our plates, usually minced meat or chicken and butter. He kept on breastfeeding for 2 and a half years.
Best wishes to you and your family!

[Suiren]

infants should not be fed honey of any kind.That is a well known.

Pastured eggs are very good.

check out Doctor Mercolas advice

The above child is a newborn and can  not eat anything else than milk anyway

And it is best to wait AT LEAST 6 months before starting solids for the baby's health.

[Suiren]

Great German advice!

You can also look for a wet nurse.  A friend did this.

To make more of your own mother's milk, the supplement Filipinos take is Malunggay... powder in pills is effective... probably available in your Filipino store.  It's roughly paleo, the leaves are powdered and put in capsules.  My wife took these Malunggay pills and it just damn level upped her milk.

And my grandma used to say that when the baby is too weak to stimulate milk sucking action... it's the husband's duty to do so.

I think Malunggay is somewhat like Fenugreek, which is just the powdered seeds in capsules.
I am still taking Fenugreek to this day because my supply needs a little boost and am happy about the results.

I actually learned all things breastfeeding in the US from la leche league, mothering forums, kellymom, naomi aldort etc., but thank you!

Germans seem to have forgotten how to breastfeed! When I was little I saw women breastfeeding all the time, now all I see is bottles, often with juice  .

[goodsamaritan]

Malunggay capsules contain powdered leaves.

http://stuartxchange.com/Malunggay.html

[SaintAndScholar]

http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/healthy-baby-photo-gallery-page-2007-2008

Check out those amazing babies ! ......truly healthful .

Some of them seem to have adult-like facial emotions.

[PaleoPhil]

The above child is a newborn and can  not eat anything else than milk anyway

Weston Price and Aajonus put other stuff in their baby formulas. I've never personally seen them used, though, but I've seen reports on the Internet that they had good results. YMMV

http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/recipes-for-homemade-baby-formula

Aajonus' Formula for a Healthy Baby

[raw]

I would keep off baby from liver and honey. If the baby is just new born, then try only sheep milk (if mother's milk is not there) and try to little ferment the sheep milk. And don't forget to have some best quality of lean meat and paste them (complete raw and thin) and add that couple of drops into sheep milk. As baby gets older, increase the meat paste and decrease the milk amount. By the time when the baby will be 5/6 months old, baby will take mostly the raw meat paste and mineral water. After that you can give the baby some highly concentrated vit C contained tree riped fresh seasonal berries, next choice should be any good quality fruits with seed on it. Please, from birth to entire 1st one year, keep the baby under the natural sun (that would be the finest natural food for the baby). I would like to introduce some wild green juice (probably one tea spoon) after one year later couple of times in a month. But don't forget to give baby the taste of raw liver, kidney, heart and brain when the baby is only six or seven months old. The baby likes to bite on them just for the taste. At last, fruits like babana, apple, mangoes...etc. give them after the baby becomes 2/3 yrs old. Usually by that time, they don't like any sugar loaded food if you train them on truly high quality food.

Bath the baby in room tep. water and summer time, even colder water. Purify the water with wheat grass juice or any type of wild green grass putting on the water. If the baby is out of mother's milk, then baby has high possibility for common cold. To avoid that cold, collect baby's urine, put a drop of urine in baby's drinking water. Put baby's urine on baby to massage and hold the warm pee near baby's nose. That will cure all cold. Please, try egg yolk when the baby is nearly one year old, 'cause fats can give the baby little trouble.  Best of luck.

[raw]

I am also against of putting the baby in tight clothing. Make sure that baby's body gets enough air passing in it's skin and that's called air therapy. So to keep up a good health is not only feeding the baby well, but pay attention on entire environment. No need any kind of formula for human baby. Mother's milk is great only cause it has rare medicinal value for baby's (if mom eats cooked paleo or traditional meal) and it is the best exercise for baby. Ofcourse, if mother consumes all raw paleo , that would be the best food for the baby. These are the two most important things of mother's milk. But if u want to build a truely raw paleo baby, you can feed the baby always liquid paste of raw meat from birth, even one drop on new born's mouth...

[RawZi]

also donor milk is not an option because the hospital pasteurizes the donor milk before they give it to the baby and the  wont let him even have it . 

You can also look for a wet nurse.  A friend did this.

And my grandma used to say that when the baby is too weak to stimulate milk sucking action... it's the husband's duty to do so.

    Get in a natural foods playgroup. The mothers meet with the babies regularly, usually all are breastfed babies.  One or two mothers can go run errands, and if the babies they left with the other mothers need feeding, there you go!  The milk is unpasteurized and straight from the source.

    GS, in La Leche they recommend readying the nipples for feeding by rubbing them with a coarse towel and exposing them to the sun.  These are my experiences.

    Baby spending time on your or his mother's bare chest and stomach should help entrain him to to your heartbeat and breathing. Babies need this.

    Yes, get that rod out of her arm, if she will agree. Suiren is right, those hormones prevent breastmilk. Medical doctors in my experience are ignorant that breast milk exists, they seem to think it's a fairy tale about something that has never been since the dawn of time.

    Unheated honey has not only been tolerated well by small infants, but it has been helpful.  I would think the same think women have done for millenia would help, putting honey on the nipples to atrract the new baby to nurse, who doesn't know how etc trouble latching on.  Touch the nipple to the baby's cheek. He will turn to nurse. This is an infantile reflex.

[Suiren]

Weston Price and Aajonus put other stuff in their baby formulas. I've never personally seen them used, though, but I've seen reports on the Internet that they had good results. YMMV

http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/recipes-for-homemade-baby-formula

That seems very interesting, and I am sure it is by far better than other formula and a good choice if no mothers milk is available.

I am just really hoping the mother will be able to re-lactate, because that is the only truly natural food to babies, designed by nature, can't outsmart nature

But, like I said, relactation is very possible, just takes time and discipline.
If she is on a good raw diet on top of that, perfect!

No need any kind of formula for human baby. Mother's milk is great only cause it has rare medicinal value for baby's (if mom eats cooked paleo or traditional meal) and it is the best exercise for baby. Ofcourse, if mother consumes all raw paleo , that would be the best food for the baby. These are the two most important things of mother's milk.

Oh....I misread this at first, thinking you said that the "'only' reason mothers milk is good is because of medicinal value". But you are saying mothers milk only, nothing else needed.
I have always wondered about mothers milk from mothers that are on a SAD diet and how bad it is? I was on a regular diet in pregnancy and after birth still.

RawZi:
 

Medical doctors in my experience are ignorant that breast milk exists, they seem to think it's a fairy tale about something that has never been since the dawn of time.

And they seem to think you can keep up your supply and establish a good nursing habit by adding bottles and supplementing with formula, and that simply does not work for many.

[raw]

Only reason I am against of honey to a new born , 'cause that baby might be liking of sweet taste and might reject other kinds of taste. We should introduce baby the taste of sweet later on life , not beginning. I do agree with Rawzi about the good effect of honey.
Liver is also good if baby likes to eat it, just like my 7 months old daughter likes to bite on it. But I'd love to give her the taste of raw organs now. Liver has copper in it. So we need to measure the quantity. Try some basic like only raw meat in the beginning...this is a risk free thing beside the mother's milk.

[raw]

No matter what  mother eats, still mother's milk is good . If mom on junk diet, then I will push the baby on more other food , but of course, couple of time s in a day  baby will drink mom's milk. Mom milk has divine thing that is good for protection of common cold and other unknown objects.

[ruffiny89]

thank you all very much for the help i cant wait to get my son home and eating decent food.

[Suiren]

Have you figured out any way to feed him?
Did your wife read up about relactation?

[ruffiny89]

yeah i think i am gonna try liquidfid food and maybe some sort of animals milk with some meat mixed in . and she is gonna try relactaion once she gets the birth control out her arm

[Ferocious]

yeah i think i am gonna try liquidfid food and maybe some sort of animals milk with some meat mixed in . and she is gonna try relactaion once she gets the birth control out her arm

Yeah, I think you should definitely get her re-lactated ASAP, even if it takes medication. Human breast milk will be the best for your baby!

[PaleoPhil]

Ruffiny, if you're in the USA or certain other countries, there are also milk banks that provide human breast milk for babies of mothers that cannot provide enough. I'm <headsmack>ing myself for not thinking of this earlier, as one of the charities I donate to tries to enable more of this sort of thing (instead of crappy manufactured formula):

Find A Milk Bank or Milk Donation Program
http://www.milkbanking.net/findamilkbank.php

As the proverb goes, charity begins at home, and you're someone in my broader "community" or sphere of influence that I could actually directly help with this, but until now I dropped the ball on this--not cool.

One potential downside is you don't know for sure what the woman who provided the breastmilk ate, though I think I read somewhere that you can request some specifications, though there aren't likely to be many raw Paleo dieting women doing it, of course.

[RawZi]

    One problem possibly, PaleoPhil.. A raw milk farm, an organ donation or a blood donation are not like a milk bank http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_milk_banking_in_North_America , as milk banks both freeze twice and pasteurize at 132.8 ºF.  The women donors are non smokers, but they can eat and drink almost anything I think.  Yes, it is good that it wouldn't be made of preservatives, plain vegetable oil and who knows what, I don't know. 

    She should go to La Leche http://www.llli.org/faq/prempump.html (if she doesn't choose raw milk/ground meat) or if you find another equivalent group and hang out with breastfeeding mothers and learn and share there, if she's inclined. 

    Milk bank may be the best in this situation, but I don't see myself doing it.  Each time I heard my baby cry http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/09/prweb2865544.htm, my milk "let down" (started flowing).  This will help her relactate.  I felt good hearing my baby cry knowing the resultant milk letdown was the best food out of billions, totally individual.

    She should pump milk looking at the baby or something like that.  Lactating helps certain mother child bonding and mood and health for mother too  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1036151/Breast-feeding-DOES-help-mothers-bond-babies--releases-love-hormone.html , not just baby.