How Do Babies Grow?
How do babies grow? Quick answer: ideally with milk from their mothers.
Growing is indeed a miracle – it happens almost without our noticing – whether a plant, an animal, or a baby. La Leche League believes that the best foundation for a baby’s healthy growth is the foundation given by the mother’s milk.
Mothers’ milk is a unique and precious resource that has helped ensure the survival of mammals since the beginning of time. Unique because it is perfectly adapted to its species – for example, cow’s milk and the milk of other long-legged animals is very protein heavy, in order to produce strong legs so that a calf or a horse can stand up and walk almost from birth on and, if necessary, run from danger. Human milk, on the other hand, has a higher sugar concentration to encourage brain development. It is precious, because however hard industry tries, breast milk cannot be copied.
Breastmilk is versatile and adaptable. In hot, dry climates, it has a high water content: in cold regions, it is fattier. Mothers’ milk changes composition throughout the course of a feed and throughout the day, so that baby receives what he needs just when he needs it.
In the latter stage of pregnancy your breasts start producing colostrum, the starter milk that is specially formulated to boost the newborn’s immune system and again to help ensure survival of the child. Livestock farmers always have a store of refrigerated colostrum on hand to save young lambs or calves whose mothers do not survive the birth process. Catapulted from the warm, sterile safety of the womb, babies are especially vulnerable to the germs and dirt of the outside world. So nature provides them with this protection.
As your baby grows, becomes more active, and is busy trying to crawl, it is exposed to more germs and dirt; your milk will receive a boost of antibodies to deal with these new dangers. The milk continually adapts itself to the particular age and stage of the baby, rather than according to set monthly patterns. And, contrary to popular belief, there is always value in mothers’ milk, even when the baby has grown into toddlerhood and beyond.
Although breastmilk is the optimal food for a baby, not just nutritionally but also for emotional comfort, many mothers reach for formula in the first days and weeks because it seems that their babies are either losing too much weight or are not gaining quickly enough.
In the womb, the baby floats in amniotic fluid. Soon after birth, he loses weight as he sheds the excess fluids in his tissues and passes the meconium from his intestines. Weight loss is affected by many factors unrelated to milk intake: gestational age, the baby’s gender, birth experiences, birthing practices, hospital routines, and cultural differences. Mothers who receive IV fluids during labour pass along some of these extra fluids to their babies in utero, thus increasing their birth weights and subsequently resulting in a greater weight loss after birth when these extra fluids are shed. Babies reach their lowest weight between two to four days postpartum; they should have regained their birth weight within ten to fourteen days after birth.
Babies gain weight very rapidly during the first three months, averaging about 150 grams increase per week; after this growth slows, averaging about 100 grams per week until six months of age and 50 grams per week until roughly one year. Boys gain weight slightly faster than girls do. Length measurements are also important indicators of a baby’s growth. During the first six months, a baby grows an average of about 2.5 centimetres in length and 1.25 centimetres in head circumference per month; over the next six months this is reduced by about one half.
Studies show that formula-fed babies do gain weight faster than breastfed babies do. Two of the most important factors being the greater milk intake of formula-fed babies (bottles flow easily and can lead to overfeeding) and the higher protein levels in formula, which encourage physical growth. What formula-fed babies do not benefit from, however, are the components of mothers’ milk that contribute to better use of food nutrients and healthier metabolic programming, and to the physical closeness and comfort that breastfeeding brings.
Health professionals base their judgments about the adequacy of weight gain using growth charts. In the past, these charts were based mainly on data collected from formula-fed babies. In 2006, The World Health Organization (WHO) carried out worldwide research and then released growth charts that reflect the normal growth patterns of all breastfed babies, independent of cultural or racial background. It would be useful to check that your health professional is using these WHO growth charts when discussing weight loss or recommending supplementing. Check the WHO website for details. And always remember: these charts are useful tools but can also confuse the issue and put the focus on the wrong area; look first to your baby before getting caught up in weight issues that do not look good on paper.
Dr. Jahura Hossein wrote a very informative article on growth charts for the December 2014 issue of Mothering Matters, so do check it out.
The technical information in this column comes from Breastfeeding Answers Made Simple – A Guide for Helping Mothers, by Nancy Mohrbacher, an IBCLC Lactation Consultant. Nancy based her 800-page book on results from worldwide, peer-reviewed research carried out by world-class experts in the field; therefore the information contained can be used and quoted with confidence.
By Joanna Koch
Joanna is a longtime La Leche League leader and a founding member of Mothering Matters. She is happy to have eight loving grandchildren.
Illustration by Lara Friedrich
Lara has been a freelance illustrator for Mothering Matters since early 2013. She is a demo singer for the songwriter Kate Northrop and has also written an article for the newspaper March Anzeiger. Lara is bilingual in English and German with a Cambridge Advanced Certificate in English. She is in her first year at University.
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