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Why babies cry in the first three months, how to tell them apart, and what to do

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Re: Why babies cry in the first three months, how to tell them apart, and what to do

#51

Post by fipar »

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #4
cocothem wrote: post #3

not sure how it works with twins quantity wise, but I see "bottle" being mentioned for the 3 mo babies - afaik best to get mother's milk as much as possible in the first 6 months

Negative. There is very little good scientific evidence that it is important to breastfeed. But even if we stipulate that mothers must breastfeed, many working women pump milk during the day if they don't have unlimited paid time off after birth. In such cases bottles must obviously be used. And many women cannot produce enough breastmilk, and must supplement with formula. And many other possible reasons why bottles…

I’m only replying on the Internet, I’ve never given anyone baby advice (or any other, for that matter) I wasn’t asked for.

That said, breastfeeding is the only way babies were fed for almost all of our species time here. IMHO, if anything needs scientific evidence in its favor before I believe it’s good are alternatives to breastfeeding.

Re: Why babies cry in the first three months, how to tell them apart, and what to do

#52

Post by cocothem »

jordanpg wrote: post #32
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Negative. There is very little good scientific evidence that it is important to breastfeed. But even if we stipulate that mothers must breastfeed, many working women pump milk during the day if they don't have unlimited paid time off after birth. In such cases bottles must obviously be used. And many women cannot produce enough breastmilk, and must supplement with formula. And many other possible reasons why bottles…

Quoted post unavailable.

thanks for pointing this out. I feel like I have uncovered yet another landmine that could get me in trouble in the US. There are many.

Re: Why babies cry in the first three months, how to tell them apart, and what to do

#53

Post by notshift »

rtlfe wrote: post #24
notshift wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a source for the claim that breastfeeding is no better than formula? I don't have a study to the contrary off hand, but everything I've read/studied has agreed conclusively that breastfeeding is the preferred option and has tangible developmental effects. Multiple books and a couple of college courses on early human development. The conclusion that formula is for sure just as good as breast milk would als…

This article links to some studies. https://www.vox.com/2016/1/11/10729946/breastfeeding-truth Edit: this one somebody else linked is better. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/everybody-calm-down-abo...

The second article you linked cites several studies. I looked at each of them and pretty much all of them conclude that breastfeeding is better than bottle, except the childhood obesity one, which found no effect (I wouldn't expect breastfeeding vs bottle to have an effect on weight or height).

The first study cited only looked at height, weight, and blood pressure after breastfeeding, which are not the variables I would expect to see gaps in for breast fed vs bottle fed (other metrics are much more important, in my opinion)

The second study cited concluded that breastfeeding "had a significant reduction in the risk of 1 or more gastrointestinal tract infections (9.1% vs 13.2%; adjusted OR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.40-0.91) and of atopic eczema (3.3% vs 6.3%; adjusted OR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.31-0.95), but no significant reduction in respiratory tract infection (intervention group, 39.2%; control group, 39.4%; adjusted OR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.59-1.28).".

The third study had similar results: "Our experimental intervention increased the duration and degree (exclusivity) of breastfeeding and decreased the risk of gastrointestinal tract infection and atopic eczema in the first year of life."

The fourth linked study on IQ concludes: "These results, based on the largest randomized trial ever conducted in the area of human lactation, provide strong evidence that prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding improves children's cognitive development."

If these are the best studies that an article whose goal is to debunk the breastfeeding narrative can find, it looks like a clear win for breastfeeding to me.

Re: Why babies cry in the first three months, how to tell them apart, and what to do

#54

Post by Ovah »

mulmen wrote: post #49
Ovah wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is very little good scientific evidence that it is important to breastfeed. I wish you would back up such a strong statement. In medical school we were taught the complete opposite. From my notes: - there's a x36 decreased risk of Sudden infant death syndrome if the child has been breast fed a single(!) time compared to no breast feeding. - no breast feeding vs only breast feeding: x15 risk of pneumonia, x11…

Correlation doesn’t imply causation. Can you speak to the causal link that would make any of these statements compelling?

I'm neither an obstetrician nor a researcher in that field. But if I had to guess, this Wikipedia paragraph sumarizes things nicely regarding infection: "Passive immunity is also provided through colostrum and breast milk, which contain IgA antibodies that are transferred to the gut of the infant, providing local protection against disease causing bacteria and viruses until the newborn can synthesize its own antibodies." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_immunity

I'd have to read up to even speculate about the SIDS risk.

Re: Why babies cry in the first three months, how to tell them apart, and what to do

#55

Post by jl2718 »

I found this to be quite accurate based on my experience, and I have written things very close to this to my personal contacts that are entering this phase.

The most important thing to internalize, is that the baby is crying for a reason, and your life will go a lot better if you figure out how to solve their problem immediately, rather than ignore or get upset about it yourself. I can’t tell you how many people have told me that that their babies cry all night, expecting to find common ground in the complaint.

And to add to both the tired cry, and the witching hour, I would say that the baby wants to sleep, but needs to ascertain safety/physical comfort first, which usually means being held, and some kind of movement.

Think about evolution. Humans are migratory. The greatest danger to a primordial infant is being left behind. The solution to this is to cry until someone picks them up and carries them along the path. This crying for attention has to be more advantageous than the obvious danger of alerting predators.

Re: Why babies cry in the first three months, how to tell them apart, and what to do

#57

Post by elzbardico »

notshift wrote: post #15
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Negative. There is very little good scientific evidence that it is important to breastfeed. But even if we stipulate that mothers must breastfeed, many working women pump milk during the day if they don't have unlimited paid time off after birth. In such cases bottles must obviously be used. And many women cannot produce enough breastmilk, and must supplement with formula. And many other possible reasons why bottles…

Do you have a source for the claim that breastfeeding is no better than formula? I don't have a study to the contrary off hand, but everything I've read/studied has agreed conclusively that breastfeeding is the preferred option and has tangible developmental effects. Multiple books and a couple of college courses on early human development. The conclusion that formula is for sure just as good as breast milk would als…

Given the lack of adequate maternity leave (along with the lack of other worker protection stuff common in civilized countries) it is understandable that a ideology of the bottle would be very popular in the good old US.

Re: Why babies cry in the first three months, how to tell them apart, and what to do

#58

Post by senectus1 »

duxup wrote: post #12
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #2

Great if it works for you, but for those who are dealing with babies, I wouldn't beat myself up if this advice doesn't apply. The parenting advice world is chock full of people who found something that worked for them and who then made the unwarranted conclusion that it is universal truth. For example, their techniques that "always work" definitely do not always work. Maybe they always worked for their particular bab…

Yeah babies are different. My kids didn’t scream or cry much at all. Friends whose kids screamed all the time were astonished and tried everything to figure it out. But we had opposite experiences with kids sleeping through a the night, I’m tired just thinking of it.

yup.my son slept through at 6 weeks, but refused to sleep at all during the day. My daughter slept happily during the day and didn't start to even attempt to sleep through the night till after week 9... never consistently sill after week 12

Re: Why babies cry in the first three months, how to tell them apart, and what to do

#59

Post by elzbardico »

jordanpg wrote: post #45
ghostpepper wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be both simultaneously true that breast milk is better than formula, but that formula is also fine. This is obviously traumatic to hear if you are a woman who cannot breastfeed, but that doesn't make it less true.

My point is that folks should consider their tone and words carefully on this topic. There are a great many women out there who would like to be breastfeeding, but can't, for various reasons. And the amount of guilt and shame experienced by many in this group, because of the glib culture surrounding breastfeeding, is doing severe and lasting damage to many parents' mental health. While not optimal, formula is a healt…

People should grow and care less about what others think

Re: Why babies cry in the first three months, how to tell them apart, and what to do

#60

Post by krupan »

elzbardico wrote: post #56

Just out of curiosity: is it common for Americans not to breastfeed? It may seem funny but for me mentions of bottles for newborns sound so strange

It is relatively common to bottle feed here, either with pumped breast milk or formula.
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