Nisarga

Category: Child

  • Bonnisan works miracles with gassy infant!!!

    Of course I did a whole load of searching on Bonnisan, and then tasted it myself before even showing baby the bottle….

    I’d read all kinds of nice things about it, which kind of reassured me, and the taste is nice – similar to gripe water, so initially I didn’t know what the doctor’s big deal about the whole thing was.

    I found out for myself within our first day on the medicine. Two doses in, and the gas pains were audibly lower. Baby was sleeping better, more cheerful and eating more.

    We are now into our second day and WOW!!! Nisarg is back to the sweet tempered baby he was before this gas nightmare began. He hasn’t pooped all day today after every day since birth being an experience of a constantly pooping bottom. He still has gas, but its much less and he can pass it without going through agony for every fart or spraying poop along with it. His body just seems so limp and relaxed after feedings.

    I’d reached the end of my rope with this gas thing, and desperately needed a miracle. Looks like I got one.

    If I add my experience with this medicine, with the research I read, I don’t know why doctors don’t simply prescribe this off the bat, or at least at the first sign of trouble. Its a digestive tonic that does so many things. Just Google it. No point having to suffer through my half baked jargon.

  • Tips to increase intake and weight gain of breastfed baby

    My son, as you all know is underweight and breastfed. Like any concerned mother, I want to see him put on weight consistently. This led me to really look for ways to up his intake and make the best of what he will eat. These insights were priceless and difficult to find on the net – took a lot of careful observation and experimenting.

    1. The milk you feed him. Excess of foremilk and not enough hindmilk will cause gassiness. We know that – lactose overload or foremilk hindmilk imbalance. But why does getting enough hindmilk resolve this? Because hindmilk contains fats in addition to all that the regular stuff in the foremilk and the more the breast is empty, the more fats the milk will contain, making it travel slower through the intestines and get more time to be digested. So, if you have a good milk supply, pump off foremilk and then put the baby to breast. This way, what little quantity the baby drinks will have more calories in it, in addition to saving energy spent in gas pain, fussiness, etc.
    2. Feed at first cues of hunger. Okay, so we can’t always recognize them… Really, when in doubt, offer. When your baby starts following you with his eyes, offer. When baby has been awake for a while since previous feed, offer. If its hot weather and he could be thirsty…. Whatever. Offer. I was really surprised to see how much more than “every two hours” my baby would want to eat. If you catch the hunger before it reaches desperation and fussiness levels, your baby will be that much calmer and eat more.
    3. Don’t stop feeding when your baby takes a break. Often my son will stop drinking because he wants to burp or poop or pee. Getting that done will see him drinking again, if I offer, but he’s not hungry enough to fuss. (He will look at me constantly or stare at my breast though). After burping always offer to continue feeding if baby wants. If you miss this, he’ll just end up asking that much sooner, or god forbid, if you are a time table mom or don’t figure out he’s hungry, he’ll go partially hungry.
    4. Sometimes the baby plays with the nipple, rubs head against breast, arches back alternating with mouthing the nipple, cries, etc. He is NOT refusing milk. He is hungry, but is uncomfortable and can’t focus on it. Most of the time, burping will do the trick, or try calming him, waiting for a poop, helping him release gas. Whether it works to resolve the discomfort or not, sometimes you manage to help enough that he can now drink comfortably.
    5. Don’t soothe a hungry baby when you could feed him. Won’t work for long anyway, and aren’t you trying to increase his growth? Hunger is an opportunity. Even if it means he is eating all the time. If he is constantly asking to feed, obviously he is constantly feeling hungry. Don’t analyse it – “how could he be hungry again so fast?” etc – obviously he is. How doesn’t matter. Could be because he didn’t feed enough last time, or burped after that and now has more space or a growth spurt, or whim/weather…? Sometimes Nisarg will eat almost all the time, and when he settles again, his meals will have increased in size – a growth spurt in appetite?

    These tips together probably doubled my son’s intake within a couple of weeks and kept the good doctor beaming in approval though his weight is still off the charts low.

  • 6week doctor's appointment

    We had our third doctor’s appointment today. Ever since I started surfing the net and discovered that my baby was “near-term” and “underweight” I’ve been obsessing about getting him on the charts. So much for accepting the baby how it is.

    On some level, I think its good for Nisarg that I’m obsessing over his weight, because it makes me extra attentive to his needs. So maybe the mothering instinct is not completely absent when faced with charts….

    Anyway, this time, his weight was 4.35kg, which is a gain of 831 grams since the last visit a month ago. Good. He is still off the charts low though. I was thrilled to know that regular charts don’t represent normal breastfed babies and are too high, but unfortunately, he is still low on the WHO charts for breastfed babies. His height is in the third percentile though.

    Anyway, the other thing I was obsessing about was vaccinations. We could get them done for free in the government facilities (which I’ve heard are very good), but the darling would get 4 injections instead of the combined vaccine and Hepatitis-B which is only two with the pediatritian. Plus, they are supposed to be painful and cause swelling and fever. I’m terrified of injections myself, and no way would I let my love suffer from a single prick that could be avoided. Plus, the government vaccines won’t do HiB, which protects from pneumonia, influenza and whatnots. Thus, I talked myself out of the cheapest option.

    Then the doctor had two options a cheaper one (not really) that was still painful, and a more expensive one which would be “hardly noticed”. Not an easy choice considering how the better one cost twice the other. At Rs.1300/- and 2500/- neither were exactly cheap. Hmm… so I see this baby thing is not going to be a moneysaver.

    Anyway, we went, celebrated our weight gain, and got our vaccines with no pain other than that to my wallet.

    Considering how Nisarg has been suffering from a loose bowel since birth, I was determined to not leave without some answers. The reading on lactose intolerance had helped, but he was still gassy and still passed motions continuously through the day, though not in as much pain as before.

    This time, I talked about the neo-peptin and the gripe water. When I brought up the gripe water, the doctor said to not give it (again) and with a sigh scribbled out a prescription for something called Bonnisan.

    Thus armed, we have come home. Hopefully, the direction to travel is greater comfort, joy, love and all that.

  • Supporting an infant's neck

    You look at that fragile little thing and your heart flutters with fear for its safety. You are so scared of jerking that flimsy neck supporting that big head, that you take a full minute before the baby transfers from the bed to your arms.

    Well…. Life has a way of enforcing efficiency, as has confidence and observation. Trust me, I learned, and then had conversations with the doctor, other experienced people….

    The first sign you get that you may be being too careful with the infant’s nect is when you want to snatch your baby back from the doctor when s/he handles him. Fact is, most infants are able to take movement of the neck comfortably. What you want is to avoid jerks, head dropping from gravity, and such horrible things.

    Most of the time, if you are picking up your baby with a hand under its head, you are already doing things right. If you are supporting it in the crook of your arm, that works too, as do many other ways.

    Most people will advise you to be super careful, under the belief that better safe than sorry. However, it doesn’t help if you fear damaging your child for life each time you pick him or her up. Babies will move their heads at will and often correct uncomfortable head positions themselves. Sometimes they will nod their heads to angles beyond what they are able to control, and the head will suddenly flop.

    My technique is to keep my arm/hand or other body part or soft surface loosely and attentively ready to “catch” the head if it tries to go more than the baby’s usual range of movement. However, I don’t see the sense in immobilizing my son so much that he strengthens his neck through fighting restraints rather than attempting normal movement. This has gotten me grief from my mother-in-law who always holds him like he’s strapped to a splint. However, it hasn’t even earned me a whimper of discomfort from my son.

    I don’t think nature ever intended us to keep our offspring unnaturally rigid till some predecided date when they miraculously started not needing support. Nisarg learns to hold his neck every day and keeps getting better at it. He can now raise his head easily when sleeping on his tummy, turns to look in every direction, and will often rub his forehead on my chest or bang his head on my breast himself. He doesn’t seem to have suffered from the wear and tear.

    If you are still trying to figure out how and how much to support your infant’s neck:

    • provide support under neck and head for all horizontal positions, but it is not necessary to restrict any voluntary movement.
    • Provide support underneath for diagonal positions and be attentive for baby’s movements moving head to positions he can’t control or recover from and and situations where gravity could tax the neck muscles and cause the head to drop. This includes pulling into sitting positions for example
    • When holding baby upright, there is no real need to keep holding head, though positioning him so that he can rest on your chest or shoulder and keeping one hand on is a good idea. Don’t “hold”, just keep it there for comfort and readiness.

  • Travel tips to India

    While searching for diaper rash because I wanted to know what its like, I came across a page with the stupidest information for visitors traveling to India with infants. Not only is it factually incorrect, it stinks of pseudo superiority.

    I have a lot of friends who are foreigners (as in non-Indians). Many of them have kids. Some bring their kids here, a few have given birth in India. The top three things I hear from parents of infants about their India experience are:

    • The tradition of post-partum massage in India totally rocks. Its the ultimate in pampering, and the stomach binding methods really help new moms get back into shape.
    • India is a place to be experienced anew through the wonder of a young child.
    • If you want to potty train your kid, bring him to India, and let a few of the grannies at him/her. Quick, painless and blessed freedom from marathon diapering.

    I also know quite a few Indians who have settled abroad. These people seem to have lost touch with their sense of wonder in their need for looking down at the very things they grew up and flourished on. Take for example this article with its snobbish approach.

    • Number one problem in India is mosquitoes! Wow!!! And what problems Harish faces with them. Mosquito nets are too hot, coils are a bad idea (I agree). odomos is unsafe for children, and to bring electronic repellents before entering India. This guy has seriously lost touch with what India has become. Whatever happened to the liquid repellents like All out? Odomos works fine on kids as young as you like as long as you don’t apply it on areas babies suck – hands. I don’t even know that it does harm if applied to hands.
    • Water is a big problem. Sure – in some places, but bringing a kettle from US of A to boil it? The smallest roadside dhaba will give you all the boiled water in a clean utensil you want for free. Never mind the relatives you have come to meet.
    • Infant formula can be found in one store in Mumbai? Is this guy nuts or totally clueless about shopping for babies? Its more like one store every  5 minutes in any direction.
    • Not to bring babies under 2 years, one year etc. And here I was, an idiot for thinking that breastfed babies would have better immunity as well as make water problems irrelevant. Though if the guy has “psuedo-civilized” enough, he probably thinks breastfeeding is something the primitive Indians do and real babies thrive on formula.

    Oh, I could go on and on and on…. but one thing leaps to my mind. Cheerful parents make cheerful babies and fussy parents make fussy babies. What wonder is it if the baby keep suffering because that seems to be all the parent can see?

    While I hate to stereotype, this is such a glaring pattern, that I’d be lying if I’d de-nationalized it.

    The British have left India, but the hangover of inferiority remains. For many people in India, reaching a place where they are better than other Indians imprisons them from appreciating what is, in their hunt for what’s wrong. They can relocate, but the mind remains in their prison of insecurities. There are two ways to be higher my friend. One is to life life to our best. The other is to push everything near us down. Guess which is easier, and which is more satisfying.

    On the other hand, non-Indians enter India with a desire for discovery, prepared fully to enjoy their visit, and they find an enriching experience and adventure in the same land with the same number of shops and availability of products.

    We can choose to win or whine. Remember, we will soon have echoes of our words coming out of our children’s mouths. What is the world we want them to discover? What is the attitude we want to encourage?

  • Baby's first real smile

    Okay guys, Today, I’m on top of the world.

    I woke up to see Nisarg already awake and quiet next to me and wanted to spend some quiet time with him. I picked up a rattle and showed it to him, cooing “Good morning!” and some random nonsense. Nisarg stared quietly and very seriously at the rattle, as he licked his left little finger and suddenly bestowed a thousand watt beaming smile complete with toothless gums all the way!. Then he looked at me, gave another brilliant smile and looked back at the rattle.

    He’s been smiling on and off when he’s drowsy, but this is the first “intelligent” smile. He went all out with it. What a way to begin smiling, and what a glorious way to begin my day!!!

    I wish I had a camera handy to capture this incredible bit of sunshine for today.

    BTW, if you are trying to make your little one smile, here is what I did if it helps. Not that it helped when I tried it a couple of hours later…

    • I came into the picture, when he was receptive
    • I was quiet and didn’t overwhelm him
    • I showed him something (interesting is a matter of perspective in this case, I think)
    • I paid attention and was appropriately delighted with his first smile.

     I think, it was basically more about him being ready to smile – his age, state and stimulus.

    • He’s five weeks, so its about the right time for him to begin smiling.
    • He was in a quiet mood, when he didn’t have to worry about hunger or poo or pee or discomfort
    • His favourite person (at least the one he is most used to) was paying him undivided attention and showing something that was interesting without making too loud a noise that worries him (shaking a rattle makes him look, but not much else)

    If you’ve found this post because you’re trying to get your little one to smile, good luck!

    If you are an experienced parent, do share your ideas for coaxing more smiles….

  • Tips for infant gas pain

    We had gas pain again last night.

    This time around, I was able to comfort him in an hour…. which is too long for my baby to be in pain…

    What worked was:

    • Playing his favourite music
    • Cuddling to comfort him
    • Breastfeeding to comfort him
    • Patting and stroking his back while cuddling to help him burp
    • Raising his legs like for a diaper change to help him fart
    • Doing leg exercises like cycling, pressing knees to stomach, etc

    Feeling troubled about giving gripe water when the doctor said not to, I gave it anyway and discovered that burping him immediately after the gripe water provided greater relief than just giving it to him. He burped at least two times, maybe five (couldn’t be sure if those were burps).

  • Gas trouble for my baby

    We had our first horrible night.

    Nisarg just cried and cried and cried for 3 hours. We felt so helpless.

    He woke up screaming bloody murder. Poor baby had gas. Every little while, a pain built and he screamed and squirmed and kicked out with his tiny feet in agony, and all we could do was look on helplessly as all our comfort methods failed. If there was ever a moment parents could be fired for failing their babies, it was this one….

    I tried everything I could. Rocking, singing, talking, cuddling, massaging, feeding at the breast, bottle, moving his feet to help expel the gas. Everything worked for a minute or so, and the poor tyke was back to yelling. I have never felt so helpless or under prepared. The doctor had given us some drops and they helped, but it was about an hour after he had started crying that we thought to give them….

    He had cried so hard that he was still having tiny sobs after he finally drank milk and slept. The morning brought some relief, but it was back to the same screaming inconsolably a while later.

    Am at my wits end. Called the doctor, and she simply said that these things happen and to comfort him how we could.

    Mother in law says to give him gripe water everyday, but the doctor shot down the idea earlier. She repeated it again, and again, and again, till we got some and gave it to him. Not much of a difference though he does like the taste.

    On an internet expedition to find out what I can do to help him.

  • Milk coma in infants?

    I learned a new term today – milk coma.

    Apparently it is the state of the baby after it has fed well, and can barely keep his eyes open. Like this:

    Talk about drunk
    That’s it – not a drop more!

    I used to call it Niarg getting tipsy on milk and then blackout, but “milk coma” describes it good too….

  • How to play with a newborn

    I read a lot about the importance of play in the growth and development of a baby. However, there was little I found on when to begin and how to go about it with a newborn baby.

    Of course, like any other parent, I was eager to “test drive” my brand new son. Unfortunately, said son had other ideas. He was hopelessly unable to smile, make interesting sounds or move in any way that could lead to playing. Now what. Here are some tips fom experience and what little information I could find.

    • Forget about “training” baby to do anything. Doesn’t work. The idea is to train yourself to do stuff he can relate with or find interesting.
    • Singing: This guy knows my voice and he loves to listen to it. Singing makes him look intently at me if I’m close, or in my direction if he can’t focus on me.
    • Chatter: Talk to him. Doesn’t matter what. Stocks will work, as will romance or fairy tales and chemistry equations. Just keep your tone relaxed and go on.
    • Cuddle: You will love this and so will your loved one.
    • Don’t expect enjoyment to mean smiles. If it ain’t crying or avoiding looking at you, its good with what you’re at.
    • Hand holding: Give him a finger to hold… or not. Whatever. Don’t expect too much every time your finger is offered.
    • Be brief: Conclude while its good. Everything is new to the baby, so your efforts could just end up tiring it out. begin when he seeks eye contact, and stop after a while (particularly with talking while looking at his eyes). No limits to cuddling though.