LG is nearly 3 months old now and so called "settled". His feeding and sleep routines are a lot established now than what it was during the past 2 months. Which naturally means the trip to the pediatrician has gone down drastically - from once in 4 days to once a month now. On all our earlier trips to the Doc, the only comforting factor was his increasing weight that said he was normal and crying was because he was a colic baby. Our concern if he was getting enough milk would be set to rest as soon as the Doc would weigh him and he would have sometimes gained more than his due. Here is brief weight chart :
18/12/06 At birth - 3.2 Kgs
3/1/07 - 3.2
12/1/07 - 3.6
18/1/07 - 3.8
22/1/07 - 3.96
31/1/07 - 4.28
8/2/07 - 4.54
12/2/07 - 4.76
16/2/07 - 4.9
23/02/07 - 5.46
As you can see, Pranav was weighed frequently. Curiosity got the better of me and in every trip I would guess how much he would have gained. From experience I'm telling you its not such a good thing to weigh your baby so frequently. I read that the ideal interval to weigh your baby is once a month. If your baby is happy, getting enough and active, then there is no reason to weigh.
According to Dr. Spocks, an average baby weighs 3.2 Kg at birth, gains 900 gm a month (225 gms a week)for the first three months. By six months, the average weight gain is down to 425 g a month. In the last quarter of the year, the average weight gain is down to 285 g a year.
How often should you weigh your baby?LG's weight chart
Yay! - Undisturbed sleep for 6 hours the first time in 3 months
Pranav slept last night undisturbed, without waking up for a feed the first time in 3 months. Until I read Dr. Spocks I didn't realise he doesn't need a feed as he is a older baby now. I kept waking him up and feeding him as when he was newborn. I put him on a diaper and didn't disturb him through the night and he slept like a baby :) and so did I.
Vaccination/Immunization Schedule for infants in India
Following is the widely followed Immunization schedule for infants in India. If you cannot make it on the exact date, I'm told it can also be given 3-4 days prior to the actual date.
- BCG/ o Polio
- HB Vaccine - I
At Birth
- DPT/OPV - I
- HB Vaccine - II
- HIB Vaccine - I
45 Days
- DPT/OPV - II
- HIB Vaccine - II
75 days
- DPT/OPV - III
- HIB Vaccine - III
105 days
- HB Vaccine III / Polio
6 months
- Measles / Polio
9 months
- MMR
15 months
- 1 Booster DPT / Polio
1.5 years
- II Booster DT / Polio
4 years
There are vaccines available these days that do not cause fever which I believe is slightly expensive and is not available everywhere. Usually, the day you give vaccine, kids tend to be a little cranky and sometimes get fever that lasts up to 2/3 days or no fever at all. As a precaution, Doctors advise to give 10 drops of crocin 2 times on the day the vaccine is given.
Home remedy and medication to treat colic babies
When Pranav was about 5 weeks old, he would start crying in late evenings usually at about 6:30 p.m. and this would go on until 11:30 p.m. or sometimes even later. Nothing worked to stop his crying - comforting him on shoulders/lap, rocking/swaying, singing to him, feeding. He would stop crying only for the duration of feeding and start all over again. The crying was usually accompanied by beating of his hands, legs and sucking on his hand even if he has fed for a hour just then. This went on for about a week when I was tired of feeding him continuously for hours on end. That's when Vivek found that such babies are colic.
After describing the patter of his crying to Pranav's Doc, Doc said he was a colic baby and prescribed him Coliccaid syrup to be given before feeding him every evening. In truth, nothing works for a colic baby. It just helps for sometime but starts all over again. With Pranav it stayed for about 4 weeks and then gradually came down. You could probably try giving water boiled with fennel seeds or apply vasaambu over his tummy if it is colic pain. It is no guarantee that it will work though.
There is one thing I have learned. The crying in no way affects the baby though the sound can be quite frustrating and you might feel absolutely helpless about not being able to soothe your baby. Weight gain is normal and the feeding will be adequate. He has been a healthy baby despite all that crying.
Is it time to ask for supplement or is your baby getting enough?
I caved into the pressure from everyone at home that my baby was not getting enough milk. He would cry within an hour after every feed which made everyone think milk wasn't sufficient. Doctor insisted and reassured me for over a month that he was getting sufficient looking at his above-average weight gain. "Crying is normal for a baby. He might be crying for reasons other than huger. So comfort him.", he would say. But we persisted for him to recommend a supplement and he did when I couldn't continue feeding after soreness. My advice is you are the best judge to decide whether your baby is getting enough or not. I always felt my baby was getting adequate supply and regret getting into the habit of feeding him formula 2 times a day.
Once you switch to formula your baby would feel satisfied for hours and wouldn't feed so often from you. This is because formula takes longer to digest than breast milk. It might be a relief for you initially but that would also cut down your milk production. So my suggestion is even if he breastfeeds often, please do so. Do not think you don't have sufficient milk and that's why he is feeding often. It just means he is healthy and growing ad is digesting your milk soon enough. The only two factors that should count are if he is wetting more than 7 times a day and if he is gaining weight. In my case he was wetting around 20 times a day when breastfed and gaining about 350 gms a week.
In this whole process there is only one thing that you need in abundance and that is PATIENCE. There is nothing that is as good as breastfed milk for your baby.
This is a great article on Low Milk Supply. Wish I had read this earlier.
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Is your baby getting enough milk?
