Page 47 - What to Expect

Going home

Drink plenty of fluids such as water, milk and juice. Drink according to your
thirst. Reduce your intake of tea, coffee, coke or fizzy drinks, the caffeine
may irritate your baby as it will get through to your milk. This is also true of
some compounds found in dairy foods, alcohol, onions, garlic, cauliflower,
cabbage and strawberries. You should experiment a little to see if your
baby can tolerate these in your milk. It takes 24 hours for whatever food
substance you are concerned about to appear in your milk.
Signs of intolerance to substances in your milk include:

A fussy baby
A rash on baby’s bottom

A few spots on baby’s face.
Smoking cigarettes can decrease the amount of breast milk you produce
and the toxins found in cigarettes are found in the breast milk of women
who smoke.

If you want to find out more about increasing your breast milk then you
can read The Breastfeeding Mother’s Guide to Making More Milk by Diana
West, IBCLC, and Lisa Marasco, M.A., IBCLC.

Is my baby getting enough breast milk?

This is probably the most fretted over question, both in the Unit when you
first start to breast-feed, and when you get baby home. You can be sure
that your baby is well nourished if he:

Is content most of the time
Can last from one to four hours between feeds

Has about five to six or more wet nappies a day
Gains an adequate amount of weight over a two week to one
month period
Is alert with good skin and muscle tone.
All babies are different, some will only have four feeds a day and be happy
and some babies are hungry babies and like to feed a lot.

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