There are lots of babies who can’t breastfeed efficiently unfortunately.
They slowly run out of energy while trying to suck and you only realize in horror when they don’t wake up from
their hypoglycaemic “nap” by themselves anymore.
Breastfeeding is a wonderful thing and it’s an important default more mothers should be able to practice for as long as they and their child need and want to.
It’s also a highly complex process that often even a lactation consultant won’t be able to “fix”.
So yeah no shame, just empathy for all involved.
Feeding suddenly gets 1000x harder especially when deciding to go down the commendable road of pumping. All while potentially suffering from additional knock-on effects from lack of often very effective comforting-through-breastfeeding for example.
Even if health, general well-being and circumstances allow getting breast milk into a baby over even just the minimally recommended time can be one of the hardest things you’ll ever witness your partner go through.
For the lucky - majority I’m hoping - it can be both very fulfilling and sensual bonding probably even relaxing to the mother as well.
Teething is miserable no doubt, going through it now. My comment assumed we were talking children who were not yet teething. Possibly a bad assumption on my part.
I've had a colicky baby who cried not because he wanted to nurse (he would stop wanting to nurse after a certain point) and not because he was hungry. There are a certain percentage of babies with colic, we don't know why they cry but they cry and carrying them, nursing them, feeding them breastmilk through a bottle doesn't really help.
Then for our son, it grew less and by the time he was 3 months old, he was a very happy baby.
Hold him, breastfeed him and co-sleep with him and he'll be fine. Otherwise you're doing something wrong.
It's basic common sense, if babies evolved to scream for no reason for long hours in the wild, early humans would have been killed off by nocturnal predators ages ago.
> Hold him, breastfeed him and co-sleep with him and he'll be fine. Otherwise you're doing something wrong.
Some humility would serve you well.
Some babies, even toddlers, scream loudly for extended periods with no way to console them. Our neighbor a decade ago had one such child. They were great, loving parents. The kid was obviously happy and content. Yet, every night, for several hours, she was a siren. They saw lots of doctors. They started with co-sleeping, for what it's worth. In the end, a separate bed and a parent reading a book with ear plugs [for several hours] seemed to cause the child the least distress.
When the child was 2, and still screaming, a new neighbor moved in. They spread neighborhood gossip of child abuse. They called the police and child protective services. Luckily, their case was so well documented, it was not an issue. The issue was "resolved" with better soundproofing.
The kid is a teen now. Extremely kind, well adjusted, helpful, smart, and, a sound sleeper. She's obviously loved very much her entire life. I think the parents did a great job.
”It has been an age-old practice to drug crying infants. During the second century AD, the Greek physician Galen prescribed opium to calm fussy babies, and during the Middle Ages in Europe, mothers and wet nurses smeared their nipples with opium lotions before each feeding. Alcohol was also commonly given to infants.”
yeah it’s a modern phenomenon because overzealous regulatory agencies gatekeep parents’ access to opium lotions
1a.) Formula is expensive, takes minutes of effort to prepare, and not always obtainable.
2.) Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Comfort nursing at certain stages of the child's life will end up sleep training them in a negative way.
3.) Some babies are born with impairments that do not allow them to nurse effectively, or at all.
4.) Moms need a break from nursing too.