The industry, in general, never ceases to amaze me by creating products to cover needs that do not exist with a little information, such as the need for many mothers to know how much their baby is eating every time she takes the breast, which is easily resolved with a little information, patience and a scale every so often.
There are many who ask, eye, and I know that there are mothers who end up going to the bottle because it gives them much more peace of mind to have them control of what their baby should control. Well, for these mothers, I guess, the "MilkSense" has been invented, a monitor so that mothers who breastfeed their babies know how much their baby eats, or what is the same, they invent a double-edged sword, because they sell it to us as the definitive invention that mothers both yearned for and may end up being a problem.
How the device works
The "MilkSense" monitor is a sensor that is placed on the chest, measures the electrical changes that are taking place between measurements and tells you how much milk you have at that moment and how much after the intake, or does the calculation and tells you how much He has taken your baby from that breast. The measurement is completely painless, very fast, because it gives you the result in just 10 seconds.
Watch the video below and you will know how the theme works:
In Germany he has received the award Kind + Jugend Innovation Awards 2013 as the most innovative product in the “Baby Care” category, but it seems to me relatively dangerous. Do you know that any innovation that can be beneficial to humanity can be dangerous depending on who falls into the hands? Well this would be something similar and now I will explain why.
Babies have to eat on demand
If you asked me how much a 2-week-old baby has to eat, I would say "I don't know." If you asked me how much a 2-month-old baby would say "I don't know" and if you asked me about a 6-month-old baby, who already eats some food, I would say "I don't know." "Well, go for a pediatric nurse, who doesn't know how much babies have to eat," you think. Others will tell you exactly what they have to eat and by giving an answer you will surely give it more validity than mine, but no, I'm more right.
A six-month-old baby has to consume between 491 and 779 kcal daily. But this is a boy, because if it is a girl, then it has to consume between 351 and 819 kcal daily. "But you didn't say, Armando, that you didn't know?" Yes, of course, I do know, but look at the numbers I just gave you, knowing it or not knowing it is indifferent, it doesn't matter, because I have no way of knowing if your daughter is the one who needs 351 kcal daily or if she is the one who needs 819 kcal, which eats more than twice the first. So since I don't know what yours is, well, I tell you that I don't know, and maybe that's how you need to know how much a baby has to eat, since only he knows.
Do all adults eat the same? Right no? Well, the same thing happens with babies. Only they know how much they have to eat and that's why babies have to eat on demand. Nature gave them thirst to know when they need to hydrate and gave them hungry to know when and how much they need to eat. Do wild animals know how many grams of raw meat they need to consume? No. They feel hungry and hunt. If they are not hungry, then they do not hunt.
And babies, well the same, when they are hungry they complain, then the breast comes, they grab, they feel that the milk that enters calms them that unpleasant sensation (that they do not know what is called hunger) and stop complaining. So until they feel it again and ask again. Interestingly, letting them handle the situation, they grow well, they gain weight well and they arrive at six months great.
And those who take a bottle?
As we have said on other occasions, too. What is the difference between breastfed babies and bottle-fed babies? Because I think they are endowed equally with their thirst mechanism and their hunger mechanism and consequently they should be able to choose when and how much to eat, even if the milk has changed. Or if a mother takes out the milk and gives it in a bottle, the baby should no longer be the one who controls how much to eat?
The control of the baby or the mother?
Exact. The control. This is all about controlling what the baby does at all times, including control what he should control. Knowing how much the baby has eaten is of no use. If things go well, perfect, the mother is calm. But what if the baby is eating little? How does the device help? It only serves to certify that you are eating little, but hey, how much is little? Because "I have a friend whose baby takes 90 ml bottles and mine has only eaten 47 ml of the left breast and 21 ml of the right. But hey, I just took him to the pediatrician, to the routine weight control, and it turns out that is gaining weight very well. But I don't stay calm, I'm going to try to breastfeed again. "
And situations like this can be repeated continuously because the machine tries to give control to the mother, when the one who has to be in control is the baby. He decides how much and he decides when, because bottle babies can be two or three hours without eating, some up to four, but teat babies usually eat more times. That is, they eat less per shot, probably, but they take more shots.
Not a real need
So that of trying to control the amount a baby has to drink from breast milk is a mistakeWell, we run the risk of starting to offer the baby more breast than he needs, more time, more drinks, or start distrusting if at any time during the day the mother sees that she has less milk. Come on, something as simple as breastfeeding, something for which the mother must have full confidence, becomes an endless number of numbers and measurements that can obsess anyone, and especially those who have more doubts at the beginning. It doesn't help, it adds problems.
Know what the baby eats not a real needWell, if things go well we will see that our son grows and fattens. If things do not go so well, we will see that it does not get fat enough and then we will have to see what is happening. But that is already seen with a scale.
Pediatrician Carlos González says that the bottles should be opaque so that mothers don't know how much their children eat and, in case you don't finish them, don't feel the need to force them to continue eating. The opaque bottles have not arrived yet, I'm afraid. And waiting for someone to invent them, something worse has happened. Instead of ensuring that all mothers and fathers remain in ignorance about the amount their children eat, they have now allowed everyone to know exactly how much they eat. I mean, let's get worse.
