Colostrum also activates things in the baby’s gut that then goes on to make the thymus grow. The thymus is part of the immune system. Growing your thymus is important. Breast milk = big thymus, good immune system. Colostrum also has a bunch of something called Secretory Immunoglobulin A (SIgA). SIgA is made in the first few days of life and is infection protection specifically from mum. Cells in mum’s gut watch what’s coming through and if there’s an infectious cell, a special cell in mum’s gut called a plasma cell heads to the breast and helps the breast make SIgA in the milk to protect the baby. If mum and baby are together, like on mum’s chest, then the baby is protected from what the two of them may be exposed to. Babies should be with mum.
And the tigers. What about them? Define “tiger” however you want. But if you are baby with no skills in self-protection, staying with mum, having a grasp reflex, and a startle reflex that helps you grab onto your mum, especially if she’s hairy, makes sense. Babies know the difference between a bassinette and a human chest. When infants are separated from their mothers, they have a “despair-withdrawal” response. The despair part comes when they alone, separated. The kids are vocally expressing their desire not to be tiger food. When they are picked up, they stop crying. They are protected, warm and safe. If that despair cry is not answered, they withdraw. They get cold, have massive amounts of stress hormones released, drop their heart rate and get quiet. That’s not a good baby. That’s one who, well, is beyond despair. Normal babies want to be held, all the time.
Babies know the difference between a bassinette and a human chest. When infants are separated from their mothers, they have a “despair-withdrawal” response. The despair part comes when they alone, separated. The kids are vocally expressing their desire not to be tiger food. When they are picked up, they stop crying.
And when do tigers hunt? At night. It makes no sense at all for our kids to sleep at night. They may be eaten. There’s nothing really all that great about kids sleeping through the night. They should wake up and find their bodyguard. Daytime, well, not so many threats. They sleep better during the day. (Think about our response to our tigers — sleep problems are a huge part of stress, depression, anxiety).
I go on and on about sleep on this site, so maybe I’ll gloss over it here. But everybody sleeps with their kids – whether they choose to or not and whether they admit to it or not. It’s silly of us as healthcare providers to say “don’t sleep with your baby” because we all do it. Sometimes accidentally. Sometimes intentionally. The kids are snuggly, it feels right and you are tired. So, normal babies breastfeed, stay at the breast, want to be held and sleep better when they are with their parents. Seems normal to me. But there is a difference between a normal baby and one that isn’t. Safe sleep means that we are sober, in bed and not a couch or a recliner, breastfeeding, not smoking… being normal. If the circumstances are not normal, then sleeping with the baby is not safe.
That chest-to-chest contact is also brain development. Our kids had as many brain cells as they were ever going to have at 28 weeks of gestation. It’s a jungle of waiting-to-be-connected cells. What we do as humans is create too much and then get rid of what we aren’t using. We have like eight nipples, a tail and webbed hands in the womb. If all goes well, we don’t have those at birth. Create too much – get rid of what you aren’t using. So, as you are snuggling, your child is hooking up happy brain cells and hopefully getting rid of the “eeeek” brain cells. Breastfeeding, skin-to-skin, is brain wiring. Not food.
Why go on and on about this? Because more and more mothers are choosing to breastfeed. But most women don’t believe that the body that created that beautiful baby is capable of feeding that same child and we are supplementing more and more with infant formulas designed to be food. Why don’t we trust our bodies post-partum? I don’t know. But I hear over and over that the formula is because “I am just not satisfying him.” Of course you are. Babies don’t need to “eat” all the time – they need to be with you all the time – that’s the ultimate satisfaction.
A baby at the breast is getting their immune system developed, activating their thymus, staying warm, feeling safe from predators, having normal sleep patterns and wiring their brain, and (oh by the way) getting some food in the process. They are not “hungry” — they are obeying instinct. The instinct that allows us to survive and make more of us.
Originally published HERE.
By Jenny Thomas, MD, MPH, IBCLC, FAAP, FABM, from Dr. Jen 4 Kids. You can also find her on Facebook at @DrjenBFMed and @Drjen4kids.
.
