Debunking the Myths of Breastfeeding

By Cindy McDonnell

“My baby eats ALL THE TIME! I must not be producing enough milk”

Unfortunately, our breasts do not come equipped with gauges to tell us how many ounces our baby is getting per feed. It’s so easy to get caught up in numbers whether it is number of ounces, time between feeding or time spent at the breast. Forget the numbers. All of them. Don’t watch the clock and don’t time your baby. Learn to read his cues and he will tell you if he’s happy or not.

Remember, a newborn baby’s belly is only the size of a cherry. It doesn’t take much to fill that void and it doesn’t take much to use up what’s in their. Because breastmilk is so perfectly designed for our babies, it has EXACTLY what your baby needs and therefore, it gets used up quickly. The reason why formula fed babies tend to stay “satisfied” longer is mainly an indigestion issue. Formula has a lot of additives that take babies longer to break down so the stomach seems fuller and baby doesn’t feel hungry. You wouldn’t want to eat anytime soon if you had a big ball of gloop sitting in the bottom of your belly either! I always make the comparison of Burger King to gourmet meals. You can go to Burger King and get a value meal and wolf it down and feel full (and probably pretty crappy) for a long time as opposed to going to a sit down filet mignon dinner with a huge salad where you eat your fill but find yourself wanting more fairly soon after.

Then of course there are growth spurts (usually happening at 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 1 year) where your baby needs to eat more often so that you will produce more milk (the whole supply and demand deal). The WORST thing you can do during a growth spurt is take the unwarranted advice of well meaning friends and relatives who tell you that you need to give formula or introduce solids because your baby is obviously not getting enough. By doing this, you will essentially create a self fulfilling prophecy. Baby wants more milk, baby will eat more often, more milk will be produced. If you interrupt that cycle, you might not make enough. Babies are smart little creatures and they know how to get their food!

“You need to give that baby a bottle or they will never wean!”

While child led weaning and extended nursing is not for everyone, you child does not need to take a bottle to learn how to accept spoons and sippy cups later on. If you should so choose, you could pump your milk and get your baby to take it in a bottle for when you need to be away from your child or if someone else wants to feed the baby. However, not all babies will accept a bottle (my daughter, for example!) and some babies will prefer a bottle over the breast because they don’t have to work as hard to get their milk. Not only are babies smart, but they are lazy too! If they can get the same goodness faster and easier, they just might prefer that way over directly from the tap.

This brings me to the next myth…

“Fathers of breastfed babies have a more difficult time bonding with their child”

More false words were never uttered! Bonding with your baby does not solely come from feeding. There are a whole HOST of other ways to bond with your baby that Dad can do no problem. Have Dad take over bath time or diaper duty, do some belly to belly (baby on Dad’s bare chest) time, take baby for a walk, play with baby, sing to baby, read to baby or, if your man is like my husband…become the professional burper. My husband is the burp KING! Dad can also help you out too by helping you get comfortable, bringing you water, handing you the TV remote, helping out around the house or helping you get baby latched on in those first couple of days (my husband was my son’s “lip flipper”). We also used to break up the night time routine…my husband would go in and get the baby when he/she woke and change the diapers and bring the baby to me to feed. When they were done, he’d burp them and put them back to bed. Some nights I didn’t even have to get out of bed!

“Never let your baby fall asleep at the breast. They will never learn to self soothe or put themselves to sleep!”

What better way to fall asleep than snuggled in warm and cozy to your favourite person in the entire world with your favourite food readily available. I don’t know about you, but I’m drifting off to “La La Land” just thinking about it! Breastfeeding doesn’t just provide optimal nutrition for your baby…it’s also their major comfort mechanism. Babies don’t just nurse for food; they will often nurse for comfort when they just want to be close to you, when they are tired or when they are sick, upset or hurting. Trust me, boobs fix EVERYTHING! There is nothing wrong with putting your baby to sleep on the breast, so go ahead!

“Breastmilk holds no nutritional value after 6 months”

WRONG! If that was the case, why would W.H.O, UNICEF, AAP and the Canadian board of paediatricians recommend exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months and to continue on until at LEAST a year (some even recommend beyond 2 years)? Part of the magic of breastmilk is that it changes to fit your baby’s needs. It can contain more or less of just about any nutrient and vary as often as from feed to feed.

“You have to feed x number of minutes per side x number of times per day”

Nope. Babies don’t understand the concept of a schedule. All they know is they want what they want when they want it. Feed on demand and follow your baby’s guide and it will be smooth sailing for you. And, you just might find they put themselves into a fairly predictable routine after a while.

“I can only pump x number of ounces per session but my baby drinks twice that! I’m not making enough milk to keep up!”

Along with being smart and lazy, babies are also amazingly efficient. Some feeds they can drain a breast in 5 minutes, other feeds they like to hang around for 45. Both are perfectly fine. Your pump will never be as efficient as your baby is. Why? Hormones. You are hard wired to respond to your baby’s scent, sounds and touch…not a pump’s. Some women find having an article of clothing their baby has worn recently on hand or a picture of their baby close by while they are pumping helps trigger that hormonal let down and they can get more milk per pumping session. Pumping is hard work, ladies! You almost have to be MORE diligent and determined to keep up with your baby by pumping than by actually breastfeeding.

“I’m breastfeeding so I can’t have a drink of alcohol, take this medication or have x-rays or dental work done”

More often than not, this is not the case. A fantastic and brilliant physician by the name of Dr Hale has put out an entire manual on the safety of virtually every medication for breastfeeding. It’s broken down into categories similar to the categories of safety of medications while pregnant. Or, ask your pharmacist. They know everything. Seriously. Alcohol is not forbidden, but getting totally inebriated is not such a good idea if you’re breastfeeding. The general rule is 1 drink, 2 hours. That is it takes about 2 hours for 1 drink to pass through your system before it is safe to feed your baby again. Sometimes some alcohol is actually recommended…Guinness beer (or any other really dark, stout beer) can boost your supply because of the high concentration of brewer’s yeast. Pretty neat, huh? X-rays and dental work are also totally safe to have done. As is surgery and most other medical tests. But, as with anything, be sure to inform your doctor that you are breastfeeding before taking any new medications or having any kind of tests done.

“Breastfeeding hurts!”

If you are doing it right, it shouldn’t hurt. It’s really important to make sure your baby is latched on perfectly ever time and to take really good care of your breasts and nipples. Initially, you may experience some discomfort as the baby stretches your nipple back into his mouth, but it shouldn’t hurt. Cracks, blisters and bleeding are all signs of a poor latch and should be rectified immediately.

“I heard you have to toughen up your nipples before you start breastfeeding”

Not true. It was once thought that women had to do this but in actual fact, methods of “toughening up your nipples” might actually do more harm than good. I don’t know about you, but vigorously rubbing my nipples with a rough cloth doesn’t sound like such a fun thing to do!

That’s about all the popular myths I tend to hear but if you have any others that you’ve heard and want to learn more about please check out Dr Sear’s, Dr Jack Newman’s or kellymom’s websites.