Transcript:
*We apologize for any typos, misspellings or incorrect grammar. Our transcript is auto-generated by software that’s trying its best, just like all of us.*
Welcome to the Milk Minute Podcast, everybody. We have the episode you’ve all been waiting for. You’ve been at home being keyboard warriors, little Google superstars trying to figure out what’s going on with your baby and if you need to get them checked out and, and, and, and it never ends.
And, and, and we welcome you to another sleepover edition of the Milk Minute Podcast. We are in Heather’s basement. And today we are going to go over the top five most Googled questions about your babies. By the way, Maureen’s sleeping at my house because she’s working at my clinic one or two days a week.
So many sleepovers. In the middle of the week. It’s like, mom, it’s a school night. It is. Yes. So I we actually, this is kind of cool. We got this grant from the state. Mm hmm. Feds, actually. Oh, from the feds, sorry. We got this grant from the feds, which was A pain in the butt to get, and we got it to basically pay for me to attempt to complete my IBCLC training.
Yeah, they’re reimbursing me for half of her hourly rate so she can train to actually sit for her IBCLC. So, it’s a win, win, win, win, win all around. It’s really great, but now we’re having lots of sleepovers, and we’ve just decided that we liked that last Sleepover episode, like it was cutesy. It was, it was demure.
It was mindful. And it also, it’s like the only time we have to record now. So live from every Tuesday night now, anyway, I’ll see you next Tuesday for a little bit, but yeah, we, we just decided to pick the top five, most Google questions about your babies. I typed in is my baby. Yeah. And we pulled the top five because honestly, a lot of them do have to do with feeding.
Totally. All of them actually. And also parents, like at the end of the visit with me, it’s, I’m always like, is there anything else I can do for you? And they’re like, yeah, real quick. And it’s always one of these top five. The doorknob questions. They are. So that is what we call questions that people ask us when their hand is literally on the doorknob of our office and they turn back and we’re like, okay, bye.
And they’re like, actually, one more thing. I know this isn’t in your wheelhouse, but honestly, it’s usually that question where I’m like, that was the thing, the problem the whole time. So. Let’s address them. Okay. Tell me what number one is. Well, before we get into it, I’m too excited. Do we have another question?
It’s all questions today. Yeah, we do. We have so many. We have a question from Julianne Watson from two months ago in Patreon. Julianne. We are, sorry, we have a long backlog on Patreon. We are catching up. We’re sucking. And by sucking, I mean we’re doing the absolute very best we can. With every waking minute of every day being tied up with something.
And tomorrow I’m going to go through and I’m going to answer all of these questions personally, but this one’s going out to you. Julianne Watson would like to know, can you get a tattoo while breastfeeding? I’ve read mixed things and my lactation consultant is on maternity leave now. Just been there.
Just curious if you’ve looked into that slash what you recommend. Yeah, I’ve looked into it cause I love tattoos. I get them all the time. Here’s the thing. This is one of those. Answers where it’s like we don’t have enough information. So you shouldn’t do it. That’s the official answer Yeah, just in case people are getting tattoos in prison or like house parties or and you know There’s some speculation about like, oh, you know, yes some ink does end up in your bloodstream Does it end up in your milk?
It’s a very small amount of ink, there’s speculation on whether or not the ink particles are like literally too big to cross the barrier into milk making cells. You know, probably, objectively when we look at it, it’s probably okay, but it’s one of those things where We have to just kind of stay on the conservative side and say, maybe wait until you’ve weaned.
Yeah, it’s one of those like blanket recommendations where it’s like, you know what, just don’t do it. Because if we say you can do it, then people are going to do it in a way that’s possibly not sterile, possibly homemade. And that’s the bigger concern. We don’t want HIV. Is that when we’re You know, inserting needles into our skin over and over and over and over.
We have like a higher likelihood of infection, communicable diseases, whatever. Now granted, licensed tattoo facilities are very clean and they use needles one time. In the United States. Sometimes that’s not the case in other places, but really most places in the world, this will be true. However, even if you were like, I’m not gonna play it safe, I’m gonna go get one.
If you check on the form that you’re breastfeeding, they’re probably not gonna give you a tattoo. Probably not, and they don’t know why, but just because You know, that’s the blanket recommendation. Now I will say, I will say, I got two tattoos while breastfeeding Lyra, but after she was two. Yeah. So I was just like feeding her for like three minutes every other night.
I mean really very minimally feeding and I felt like that was okay because I went to a trusted artist whose hygienic standards I felt like were very high, possibly higher than they needed to be. And, you know, that was my choice. Right. Because also if you get cellulitis or something from an unclean situation, then you have to do antibiotics, which can set you up for Other issues with feeding.
And I waited until she was a toddler so that I was like, Hey, if something did go wrong and I had to wean suddenly, like this is not a problem for me. Yeah. Or her. Yeah. I think there’s worse things to get involved with. Yeah. So ultimately it is your decision. The official recommendation is no. We’re not, we’re not telling you not to check that box.
We are telling you to make your own educated decision. Okay. And if you get a sweet cat, please send us a picture. All right, let’s move on to our questions that are themed for today. Number one, please. Number one, is my baby sleeping too much? Dun, dun, dun. Okay. So how old’s your baby first of all, but if it’s a brand new baby, which it probably Is, yeah, I would say I, I think for this one we will, because it is different per age.
Let’s focus on the first couple weeks, first couple weeks. So babies often sleep about 18 hours a day total. I, I think the real key is like. Okay, let’s, let’s set sleep aside. Are they feeding enough? Are they gaining weight? And do they have kind of the minimum appropriate wake windows for their age, right?
If they’re like two weeks old, they might just have one time a day that they’re awake and alert and the rest, they’re sort of like just barely awake enough to eat. Yeah. And, you know, time doesn’t necessarily equal volume. Yeah. So if you have boobs that spray like a fire hose, your baby really might be done eating in under 10 minutes.
And then fall asleep immediately. Whereas if you are unsure, if you are not sure if your milk ever really came in, you don’t have leaking, you don’t see spraying. Then if your baby’s eating only five minutes, And honestly for this one, like, I’ll remind y’all that our last episode we did, or maybe it was one before that, we, we talked a lot about this, like when to trust your baby and when they’re sleeping.
You know, it really does come down to the whole picture because some babies will Be awake a little bit more than others. Some babies are literally just gonna sleep all day and you’re like you’re boring Do you ever do anything? Yeah, and I think often people that are just finished being pregnant who had the worst pregnancy ever that are suddenly not pregnant They’re like reinvigorated with all the stuff They’re ready to do stuff.
And then their baby’s just asleep. And they’re like, okay, what can I do with my baby? I had that question today. So like, what should I be doing with the baby? And I’m like, just how much time do we have to pack the baby around and do whatever you want to do? I’m going to carry her of some sort and just go.
I’m like, you’re going to have a lot of time. In this kid’s life, where you have to do things with it, maybe this should just be about you. So as long as you’re feeding, in general, it’s like 8 to 10 times a day. Could be 14, could be 7. As long as they are eating enough, they are waking on their own to eat.
You know, I think that one’s really key for wedding. Minimum six diapers. And it’s a diaper that you could drop from shoulder height and it makes a noise on the ground. That was my wet diaper. Sound like, do you have a ghost in your laundry room? We just heard it. It’s probably a rat. I think we have mice in the ceiling.
God, we, our house has stuff like that going on all the time. And it’s just something new every month. I’m like, is it a squirrel in the attic? Fantastic. One time there was a snake in the wall. Nope. No. Nope. Not just a little one, like a giant one. No, get out of the woods. You know, guys Brief hiatus here.
Maureen got stung by yellow jackets again. Again. Can I tell you also, sorry, we’re taking a real left turn here. It was also like the most stressful day I’d had in a long time. So I decided we were done with big livestock and I was bringing the rest of our sheep to the butcher. Okay. However, so hard. We don’t have a livestock trailer right now.
So I literally like took our, like, you put them in the RAV4. No, no, I thought about it. I thought about putting them in the trunk of the Tahoe, but they wouldn’t fit. I, we have this like lower trailer with like these little sides on it. And I made like a cage out of pallets, which took like all day.
And then, and then I was like, it was one of those days. Ivan and I just argued about everything. He’s listening and he’s like, yes, it was. He did a lot of the palette. We did it equally together anyway. And I was like, I think we need to back. The trailer all the way up to the field. Like I really haven’t been as good about like doing stuff with the sheep recently.
They’re not super well trained. I’m going to open the gate and they’re just going to go wherever the fuck they want and not where I want them to go. And he was like, I don’t want to do that. It’s really hard to do. And I was like, fine. So we literally wasted like two hours trying to do it his way that I had already told him wasn’t going to work.
That sounds right. Yeah. Shocker, it didn’t work. And then we had to do it the other way that I had wanted to do initially, where he backed the trailer like all the way across our giant yard, up the hill, across the field, like right up to the barn. And I was like, I can get them in the barn, no problem. And Let me tell you what, I knew that there are often hornet’s nests in the barn.
And so I even went and looked and I was like, I don’t see one. Okay, because we’ve had them there before and I was like, man, I don’t hear one. Whatever. The problem is they’re the same color as the wood because they use the wood there to build them. So I didn’t see it. And so we got everything set up literally Like, the sheep were inches from getting in the trailer, and I got stung.
And I Immediate panic attack. Yeah, she’s allergic to bees. I’m allergic to bees. And I just started screaming and running. And of course, Ivan, standing right next to me, does not get stung. Yeah. They’re like, that bitch is the problem. I got stung like eight times. They followed me across the yard. I like, like running, like swatting at myself.
You know, classic. Very classic. Yeah. Lovely moment. Oh, man. And it was fine, I’m fine, took a lot of medication, it’s okay. Yeah, don’t, don’t go to the woods, guys. Don’t live there, there’s snakes. And I guess what had happened is when I chased the sheep into the barn, one of them like kicked the wall where this nest was and like pissed them off.
You know or something because they were like panicking because I was pissed off and chased them into the barn really angrily You know as you do. Anyway, I’d actually to compound this story. I just picked up the meat Yesterday. Yeah yesterday And I was like it was a Monday Okay, Mondays are stressful for me.
I stay home with the kids and do all their extracurricular BS and errands and whatever, and in the middle of the day, like, the butcher calls and is like, come get this meat now, and they let me. Honestly, kind of, yeah, like, they’re really busy and they don’t have a lot of storage space, so they’re like, get it now.
So I go and get it in the RAV4. Cause I was like, well, I’ll put a couple cooler bags in. It’ll be fine. I forgot that I asked them for the bones. I wanted them for like soup and the dogs and stuff. But Ivan dropped off the sheep and didn’t specify like how we wanted the bones prepared. Guys, get ready.
This is some shit that’s never going to happen to you. If you live in the burbs. They. You know, I pack these coolers full of meat, which I already, turns out, the sheep were really fat, and there was a lot of meat, and I didn’t have enough cooler space anyway, so I was a little stressed. And then they’re like, wait, there’s one more thing, and they bring out this big cardboard box, just with like, giant pieces of carcasses in it.
That was the bones. It was like, not cut up at all, just like, half a rib cage in there, legs, like, you know, with most of the meat stripped off, so it’s just bones. But, like, it was frozen, but I was like, I don’t, like, my plan was to leave this stuff in coolers in my car while I went about my day, but now I just have to go home, I have two spare hours in my day, it’s a half an hour drive home.
I drive home, cause I’m like, the bones are gonna spoil in a minute, I can’t use them She gets out a tarp and her Dexter apron, and she has to saw the bones. I go outside, and I actually use loppers, like tree loppers, oh my god, and I chop all these bones up. Into like six inch lengths and put them in Ziploc bags and like Lyra keeps being like, what are you doing mom?
Meanwhile, the grant lady from for my business is calling me all day trying to see why Maureen hasn’t given her the paperwork And she’s like I’m dropping off a sheep carcass And like Lyra keeps bothering me and she’s like where did the bones come from? Which by the way I lied to my children about this one.
Okay, usually I tell them What’s going on? I’m like, we’re eating the animals. I couldn’t deal with it this time. I was like, the sheep are going to a new farm because we don’t have enough pasture for the winter for them. Okay. And they were like, okay, what’s up? And then we just mystery bought some meat from the butcher.
Wow. And they didn’t question it. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I will never have sheep carcasses in my raw four. It was just one of those things where I could see the absurdity and how this would be funny later. Here’s the difference between me and you. You took the box. I did. I would have been like, nope.
I still wanted it. And incidentally, I had done an arm workout already that day. I was like, I do this thing like every day, every other day where I dance with weights for like 15 minutes. And it’s, it’s a great workout. Is it a Rita Moreno tape? Cause I used to do that one from the 80s. No, I don’t watch anything.
I just, I, I asked Alexa to play it. Sorry. That just activated all your Alexa’s. No, we’re not in a smart house, dumb house. But I asked it to play music, I just like, usually dance to like 3 or 4 songs, that’s like 15, you know, 10 15 minutes. And I just like, go wild with it. And it’s a great workout, honestly, and it’s fun.
And so I had already done that, and I was like, my arms hurt, okay? My arms hurt. And now, I’m chopping up fucking bones in my front yard, and this is hard, and my arms are already hurting. I hope you really enjoy that bone broth. I am gonna, you’re gonna be so healthy. I’m gonna be so healthy. And I just gave up at a certain point and gave the rest to the dogs.
And I was like, I hope this doesn’t kill my diabetic dog. I think she’ll be fine. She’s fine. She was fine. And then I took the kids to gymnastics. Okay. Yeah. For those of you that have babies right now and you’re like, what should I do with them? Not that, let me say again, don’t worry. There’s going to be plenty of stuff that you can do with them later.
Like give them, hand them some loppers and have them chop up a deer carcass or sheep carcass deer in my house. Yeah. Yeah, for real. Anyway, after my misadventures, let’s move on to the next question. Number two. It’s important that you guys heard that though. It is. In case you’re new here, Maureen loves all the fun.
wondering why it takes so long to get back to your messages. It’s because every day is like that. After number two, I’ll tell you about my day. No, I’m kidding. The second most asked question on Google is, is my baby teething? Okay, so here’s the answer. Yeah, of course your baby’s teething. Until the first, until the first tooth pops through, your baby’s teething.
It’s like, the answer is yes, they’re basically teething forever until they get all their teeth. But also, in my book, I was like, they’re not teething until I prove that they are. Like, I’m gonna, you know, until I see, like, a red lump on their gum, Yeah. Or, A little nub. Yeah, like, something like that going on, I’m like, I don’t know, they’re just kind of fussy today and it’s fine.
Or maybe they’re getting sick. And really, I think the, the time that people ask this question the most is around three or four months. When they’re biting their hands all the time. When they’re biting their hands all the time. And they’re just, wet. They’re so wet. They’re so, They’re so wet. There’s so much baby saliva just, Coding them, and most of the time they’re not teething them.
But here’s the thing, so when the hand to mouth movements start getting really intense, and they’re exploring their world orally because they have so many nerve endings in their lips, and they’re bringing random things to their mouth, like they’re actually sometimes able to hold things and put it in their mouth, they definitely need more saliva because saliva cleans the mouth.
It does. Yeah, it’s what keeps our teeth healthy and our gums healthy and also if you’re just hanging around with your mouth open all day, you’re making a lot of spit. Right, and they tongue thrust to experience the object, and then when they’re tongue thrusting, they’re not swallowing. So if it’s in that time period, three to four months, you can usually assume your baby’s actually not teething and it’s a developmental phase.
Thanks. of oral exploration. Very occasionally babies pop teeth this early, but it’s pretty uncommon. Usually after six months if something like this happens if they’re fussy and red cheeked and just not having a good time and none of your fever, right? You know, like sometimes yeah, and just nothing you usually do to comfort them is working.
Yeah, they’re probably teething. And also I think sometimes they get the low grade fever because when they actually are teething, they start to chew on stuff a lot more and then they get more bacteria in their mouth because they’re just literally putting every single thing they could think of in their mouth.
And especially if we have this happening and your nips are like getting chapped because of how much they’re, they’re nursing. Yeah, it’s probably that. Yeah. And also. I think the answer is it doesn’t matter because regardless you’re most likely going to respond to baby the same way. And also it doesn’t mean you have to stop breastfeeding if your baby’s teething.
No, and it’s really either way, you’re going to lose sleep, you’re all going to be a little bit miserable, you’re still going to do your best to comfort your baby in every way that you know how. And whether it’s teething. Or a developmental phase, or they’re getting sick, it’s going to pass with time. We do actually have an episode called Tooth Care for Your Gummy Baby.
Yes we do. And we’ll link that in the show notes for you if you wanna, if your baby is actually popping teeth out and you’re like, what do I do with these things? It’s an older episode, but it holds up so well. Yeah. I love that one. Yeah. What’s number three? Number three is, is my baby constipated? I love this one.
I do love this one. No, is the short answer. Your baby’s not constipated? You know, when I look at this question, I’m like, this is people feeding Everything to their baby. This is people who are formula feeding breastfeeding or solid feeding or yeah, it can apply to any of them But let’s speak specifically to like the exclusively breastfed babies Because if your baby is like a once a week pooper and you take them to the pediatrician They’re gonna be like and it’s still normal until 10 days.
Yeah Maybe. Maybe it is. Maybe. You know, that’s when I really start to look into, like, okay, do we, like, yeah, yeah, maybe your baby is kind of constipated, but it’s not. The same kind of constipation that we see in adults. It’s not like, oh, they just need more water or more fiber. They’re not going to explode from the inside or anything.
Right, right. We’re looking more at like, okay, Is it a problem? Is your baby uncomfortable? Do they have to strain while pooping? Is their poop actually hard, or is it still liquid? Right, and if it’s still liquid and you’re like, Oh, my baby’s straining all the time and they’re just so uncomfortable and their belly’s hard and they’re like turning red and it looks like they’re pushing, they’re just really trying to get their sphincters to open at the correct time.
We have a gut motility issue with babies and a digestive timing issue where in the first year of life they truly suck at all of that, okay? And it gets better with time. But we also just need, sometimes we need to support that with different kinds of physical movement, right? Tummy time, different kinds of arm and leg movements, belly massage, sometimes we need to support it with probiotic support.
Mm hmm, chiropractic. Yeah, which I know is controversial for babies. So, we’ll just, we’ll just throw it out there. You know, or some other form of body work craniosacral, things like that. Because a lot of the time what we have with babies is they’re in the same position all the time. And we know, as adults, when we’re constipated, taking a walk usually helps.
Jumping on a trampoline. Doing some stretching, you know, some yoga. And so we, we do need to provide babies with the, with a similar level of physical stimulation. Sometimes to help with their gut motility and if it’s like infrequent stooling, like I don’t even want to call it constipation. If it’s infrequent stooling and there’s another issue, like they’re falling off the growth curve or you’re worried that you’re, you don’t have enough milk, then that’s a lactation issue.
Yes. Now. If your baby is actually having hard poops, okay, whether it’s breastfed, formula fed, or solid food fed, and they’re like rabbit turds, that, that is constipation. And that’s not good. And that’s not good, and that is an issue with how much water. is getting drawn out of the colon. Yeah. It’s usually a water to formula ratio.
Yes. The baby Brezza machine should die. I hate that thing. Anytime I see a baby that’s formula fed and they’re constipated, I say, are you using the baby Brezza? And they go, yeah. And I’m like, bad. No, it’s because it can’t, it just can’t calibrate the formula powder to water ratio correctly. When that little wheel spins around, it just.
The formula chunks up and it’s just not right. And it’s, it’s really painful. So you, you fill the water up first. So if you want four ounces, you put four ounces of water in and then you add the scoops. So it ends up being a little bit more. Yeah, and I also see this a lot when we’re introducing solids, but like, you know, when we, when we do talk about diet, they’re like, oh, yeah, well, it’s yogurt and crackers.
And I’m like, cool. We need some fiber. Yeah, we need some fiber. Your kid needs some fiber. Their poop should be like hummus. Yes. Yes. And also, when your kid is like nine months ish and eating three solid meals a day, and the breastfeeding has decreased because they’re full. Right. Then we need some water.
Then we have to add water. Yeah. So if your baby’s stool is a little bit firmer, then just add some water. They’re probably not nursing as much, which is normal. That’s where we’re headed anyway. Yeah. And the, the stool texture that I like when we’re like eating solids well is somewhere between hummus and Play Doh.
And if it’s harder than Play Doh, I’m not about it. Okay, I’m like, that, it’s frankly also for you adults out there. Yeah. Same rules apply. Okay. You need to follow Marty’s plan. Every Friday’s Chili Friday, and then she shits all weekend like a goose, and I’m like, dude. They do that on purpose. They’re like, Chili’s easy to make, but we don’t want to deal with the diapers, so only on Fridays.
Yeah, so like every single time we need to go on a trip, it’s Saturday, and she’s pooping the whole time. Lyra is doing pre K three days a week now. And I looked at their menu, they have a different meal every day. Like, not, it doesn’t repeat, ever. Really? Ever? I was like, are you kidding? For the month.
For the whole month. Oh, wow. I’m like, y’all, I don’t need a chef like that at my house. No shit. Yeah, okay, well what’s number four? Okay, number four. Is my baby gaining enough weight? You knew it was coming, Heather. Okay, so in the first three months of life, we like to see an ounce a day. So one ounce per day weight gain.
More is fine. More is fine. A little bit less can be okay, but we want to be double checking some other things too. Yeah, and that doesn’t just mean obnoxious weekly weight checks at the pediatrician. That means getting to the root of the lactation consult with somebody. If it’s beyond the three month mark, we really don’t need to be gaining an ounce a day.
We mostly are just making sure that baby isn’t dropping below major growth percentiles. So like if baby was in the 50th, we want to make sure they’re not dropping below the next major one, which would be the 25th. Right. You know, if they have an illness or something and they go in for a sick visit and they haven’t been eating correctly because of it, we might see a temporary dip, but then they should come right back up.
Yep. Absolutely. To where they were. Really, like, when we start to see these babies get older and older, we do like to see them find their percentile and stick roughly to it. By about two months. Yeah. By about two months, they’re, they usually find where they’re supposed to be at. Sometimes that means these, like, ten, eleven pound babies come down, because their parents are not those hundred th percentile people.
And sometimes it means these little six pounders go up, right? Yeah. We got to catch up or catch down. Yep. And that’s fine as long as we’re within the other safe limits. And usually they’re gonna find they’re sort of like what we think of as the genetic curve, like where, where genetically they’re meant to be given the proper amount of nutrition.
And, and then they stay there. And, you know, sometimes we’re also looking at the milestone of doubling the birth weight by six months. You know, again, not exact. It’s just a general guideline. Some babies are going to do it later. Some babies are going to do it earlier, but these weight guidelines exist just so we can kind of catch the babies that are in the outlying areas.
Minimum of half an ounce weight gain. Per day. Mm hmm. Minimum. And if you’re at that half an ounce weight gain per day, just double check. If your baby, like Maureen said, was born in the 99th percentile, and you and your husband are five foot two They’re going to come down a little bit. They’re going to catch down.
It might only gain half an ounce a day for a while, and then it should correct to be about an ounce a day. And then often we get this question again around nine months, ten months, twelve months, because babies are moving a lot. Yeah, they’re burning a lot of calories. Let me tell you what Marty ate for dinner.
The other day, so she ate 10 ounces at daycare of breast milk And she had tons of chili So she had her four bowls of chili and then she came home and she ate an entire piece of tilapia all of the tofu off of my black bear tofu burrito and two giant dollops of guacamole And about four ounces of water, and then breastfed before bed, and I was like, holy shit, but she’s crawling everywhere all day.
Right, and I’m sure her weight is a plateau right now. I don’t even know, probably. Probably, you don’t even need to check, she looks great. Yeah, and, and kids go through plateaus for, for the rest of their growth period, right? For the rest of their childhood. Mm hmm. You know, this isn’t, this doesn’t just apply to babies, like, there’s a period in toddlerhood, Where your little chubby toddler will suddenly grow five inches and they will not be chubby anymore and they weigh the same exact amount.
Yeah, you know same thing with your five year old and your nine year old. Yeah, and it’s okay. There are very natural periods of plateauing for everybody’s growth. Mm hmm. Yep. Okay. What’s the last one? The last one is my baby’s sick. Probably. Yeah. Is your baby in daycare? First, do you, are they in daycare, are their siblings in daycare or school?
If the answer is yes to either of those, absolutely. They’re sick. I don’t even need to know anything else. I think this, this really comes down to babies that are stuffy all the time. Like they just have that perpetual nasal congestion because they have really small nasal passages. And sometimes it’s just like, That really small nasal passages.
Sometimes they, when they spit up a lot early on, that barf will actually get up in their nasal passages, which is honestly fine. It’s just breast milk. It’ll get absorbed. Right. And, and, you know, a lot of the time, like babies run low grade fevers all the freaking time for no reason, you know? Well, like if they’re bundled up in 75 blankets, because your mother in law won’t stop putting blankets on them.
So when I get calls from parents that are like, My baby’s sick, they have a fever, whatever. I, I go through a couple of questions. I’m like, what’s the fever? Okay, like, were, were they swaddled when you took their temperature? How about you unswaddle them, wait five minutes, and then retake it. What’s the temperature in the house?
Right. Are they lethargic? Meaning, and to be specific, that is a floppy baby. A baby who is possibly awake, but not very alert. Root. It’s like, you know, when you’re like the older kids, you see they’re sort of like out of it and almost about to go to sleep and their parents like sling them over their shoulders and they just sort of flop like a rag doll.
It’s like that, except they’re, you know, that’s not real lethargy. That’s just a kid being tired. Your baby shouldn’t be like that all day. And this is a big change from normal. If they’re missing more than two feeds in a row, meaning like that’s about six hours. Right. Are they dehydrated? I often ask, have they been having adequate pee diapers?
If they’re still small enough to have soft spots, are they sunken in? If you pinch their skin up into a little mountain, does it stay peaked when you let go? Yeah, and if it’s the stomach bug, are they the color of my gray couch that we’re sitting on right now? And did they just projectile vomit three times in a row?
If that’s the case, then we’re looking at minimum Three wet diapers a day. Yeah, like as long as they’re eating, eating just a little bit or taking water or Pedialyte and honestly, if it’s below six and it’s a little baby, I’m like, just call your doctor for sure. If it’s a little baby, if we’re over six months.
Yeah. Minimum three piece. Yeah. And I’m really, you know, I’m, I’m like, Okay. Are, is their behavior altered enough that you’re worried? Mm hmm. Or are you like, I don’t know, I just wasn’t really sure, I’m not actually that worried, but I just wanted to call in double check, you know. As always, we always remind you to trust your gut, if your gut is telling you something’s wrong.
Go to your pediatrician, that’s what they’re there for. Yep. Go to a walking clinic. Check their ears. Mm hmm. If sometimes we’re not even treating this stuff, you know, but it is really reassuring to know that, okay, that level of fever is okay. It is okay to give them Tylenol at whatever dose. Yes, they do have an ear infection, but it will resolve on its own.
You know, like getting that kind of reassurance. Is helpful. Yeah, just because you don’t want to be the only one making these decisions. Especially the smaller the baby. Yes. And the younger the baby, I should say. Yeah, definitely. And knowing like, oh yes, it’s okay to give Pedialyte or whatever we’re doing.
Yeah, for sure. But yeah, your baby’s probably sick like every three weeks for the first four years of their life. And if your baby’s just like inconsolably crying for like more than four hours. Go to the pediatrician. Like, have them do a full physical exam. Like, what, I mean, your baby could have hurt themselves.
You know, it’s possible. And it’s very difficult. To assess the wellness of a human who cannot communicate with you. Yeah, that takes some skill. And we really empathize with you there. And how scary that is, how confusing that can be especially when you hear us be like, A sleepy baby is scary. No, a crying baby is scary.
No, this, no, this is, it sounds contradictory. To hear it all at once. So, you know, don’t be afraid to double check. Yeah. If no soothing techniques are working with a crying baby, none. Call a friend. Phone a friend. Definitely. I call Maureen and I’m just like, Hey, you know how I’m a midwife and a lactation consultant and it’s my third baby?
Well, I still don’t know what I’m doing. Can you just do this? Can I send you a picture of her poop really quick? And she’s like, yeah, she’s fine. And I’m like, great, thanks. Now I can sleep. That’s all I needed. Appreciate ya. I mean, it’s, it’s fine. I just like, I, I don’t know. I feel like we personally have been talking today a lot about, And it really reminded me, I probably told you guys a story about when Lyra broke her arm.
Oh yeah. And how, like, I basically had to fight the ER to get an x ray. Mm hmm. And, and the whole time, like, Nobody else trusted my gut but me. My husband was like, Ah, you know, I know she’s hurt, but I think it’s fine. I don’t really think you have to go to the hospital. You know, my mother in law was like, Well, she stopped crying.
I think she’s okay. The doctors were like, Her arm moves fine. She doesn’t cry when I move it. You know, and the whole time I was like, I just Yeah, you’re like, I know this girl. This girl’s tough as nails. She’s not going to cry. I know this kid, and I watched how she moved, and I’m watching her pain signals that I, her mother, know, and I’m telling you something’s wrong.
Mm hmm. And, you know, had I not pushed for that and followed my gut she might have ended up with a much more serious injury. Yeah, oh god, that scares me. Or maybe I would have gone in four days later and they’d be like, we’re calling CPS because you didn’t bring your child in with a broken arm earlier.
You know, like, I’m glad that in that moment I trusted myself. Yeah, absolutely. 101, by the way, go to your pediatrician. Yeah, just go in, especially the little baby. With like a toddler, you know, usually the threshold is much higher. And we’re kind of looking at fevers that you, that are like visibly upsetting them and causing And also fevers that don’t come down with Tylenol.
Yeah, exactly. Also breathing. Give that Tylenol half an hour, by the way, . Yeah. Like also if they’re breath, if their breathing is labored and you see what’s called retractions, where they’re kind of like sucking in the skin and the muscle between their ribs. It’s like when they, when they’re breathing and you can like see the outline of their ribs.
Or like their belly button gets sucked really far in, or when they’re doing nostril flaring when they’re inhaling. Or repetitive grunting. Or singing. Yeah, the strider. I hate that one. Which can be normal, but really, with other stuff going on, no, we’re not doing it. Blue around the mouth, blue chest.
Those are all sick babies, and you need to take those in. For sure. But you guys knew that. You already knew all this stuff. Just a reminder that you’re not, so you’re not gaslighting yourself. Yeah. You already know this. Yeah. That we, it’s the innate wisdom that’s been passed down for thousands of years from woman to woman, womb to womb.
We know when something’s wrong. I can’t. Oh shoot. Come on, aren’t you all about that? Not like that. You made it weird. That’s because I need to go to sleep now. Well, I’m sure everybody at home has already googled those before and gotten answers they did not feel satisfied with, so I hope This can replace your top five Google searches.
I hope so too. Maybe we’ll do another episode with questions five through 10. I mean, really, sometimes it feels like that’s all we’re doing on this podcast. And I love it. I’m like, yeah, I want to be your search engine. Yeah, I want to be your search engine. That’s funny. Put that on a t shirt. Okay. Today I want to give an award to the.
Not one, not two, but three patients that I have who have two babies, two kids, and then got pregnant with twins for their third pregnancy. No, not that many. Yes, that’s how many I have. Yeah, all within a year. Yeah, so I don’t know if it’s me. But you are the common denominator. So they’re crushing it.
Yeah. They’re doing really well. They, I’m not going to say their names cause I don’t have their permission, but I, they’re all handling it very differently. You know, everybody’s kind of managing my ship personally. Yeah. It’s, it’s pretty awesome to see the initial shock. Followed by the buckling down, like, let’s figure this out, what’s the plan, and then the babies actually come, and it’s like, people are pulling in resources that they didn’t even know they had.
It’s just, it’s an amazing thing to see these women. I know what a word they should get. Put it together. What? It’s a funny one. Okay. The knuckling down knockers. The knuckling down knockers. That’s right. Knuckles down. We gotta get this thing going. I mean really, cause it just. I have a hard time even imagining the amount of work that it takes to just keep, keep those children alive and well.
And not to mention like breastfeeding those twins. Well, that’s the thing. That’s the thing right there. The thing that’s been like the hardest I would say across the board for those patients is the realization that you can’t work and do all that. You just can’t because the childcare for one kid is too much, and so the child care for twins on top of two other babies is like astronomical.
And it’s almost like, because it’s so much of an ask, that it’s I watched them go, Oh, well, I guess I’m not going to do that food truck I was going to do. Right. We’re just going to do this now. And just the sheer willpower to like make it work and put their dreams on hold for just a hot minute in this economy.
No shade. Yeah, you got to do what you got to do, or, you know, people that are like, Yeah, I worked really hard for this degree, but I’m not going to use it right now because I have to keep four children alive now. And then they do and the year ends and then I’m seeing one of them like slowly get back into working and that’s great.
That’s awesome. But just, sorry, did you hear every bone in my arm just crack? You know, when you just move and you’re like, geez, I’m like a glow stick. Anyway, the Knuckle Down Knockers Award goes to these moms who truly are giving every single ounce of their strength to their four children. And I’m sure that applies to a lot of y’all at home listening right now who give your all to your kids every day.
I hope you make some time for yourselves too, because you deserve it. And I want to remind you, you’re doing a great job. Yeah. I know it. We know it. You’re listening to this podcast, that means you care, that automatically puts you at the top 5%. So It has to be. for listening to another episode. Yep. The way we change this big system that’s not set up for lactating families is educating ourselves, our friends, and sometimes our providers.
And if you want to help support this project of ours where we educate and support parents in feeding their babies for free all over the world. Every week, you can share about us on social media. You can tell a friend. Apple review. You can leave us an Apple review. We’d love those. Or you can join our Patreon and give us a little bit of money that goes directly toward producing this podcast and getting it back into your ears.
And that is at Patreon. com. In fact, let’s read one of those Apple reviews right now. This is from loverifpodcasts. It says breast friends and my dot, dot, dot five stars. Thank you very much. She says, I’m going on 11 months breastfeeding and pumping my baby girl. I could not have been successful without Heather and Maureen.
I’m constantly referencing. Episodes, and when I have a question, there’s an episode for it. There’s even an episode about how unprepared most healthcare professionals are in supporting lactation. Breastfeeding is constant commitment and hard work, but the milk minute always makes me feel less alone and offers a laugh along the way.
I’m so very thankful for you ladies. Thank you for all that you do. Oh, that’s so nice. We almost have 500 like reviews on Apple right now. You could be number 500. Thanks for taking the 30 seconds to do it. We greatly appreciate you. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you guys and we will be back next week. All right.
Bye. Bye.
