Anti-Stress Nutrition Programme to Improve Mood,
Health, Behaviour and Learning
By Brenda Sampson
HAVING A BABY EASILY, OR, HOW TO HAVE AN EASY BABY (A NON-ALLERGIC BABY)
A mother with a young second baby said, "Thank you for telling me to read Maureen Minchin's book. After a colicky first baby, it is such a joy to have one who chuckles and gurgles after his feeds !" The book is "Food for Thought", ed 3, Allen & Unwin, 1985.
Having a baby is a three-fold achievement. It is firstly a creative achievement. An act of creation requires raw materials. The raw materials needed for a good baby are good foods. These should include meat, fish or legumes to provide protein; fruits and vegetables, mostly raw and preferably home grown or organically grown; and if grains are tolerated, baking should be done with a variety of whole grain flours. Pure water is the best drink. Eat a variety of foods in moderation, do not binge on one particular item. Read Betty Kamen's book "The Kamen plan for Total Nutrition during Pregnancy", (Angus & Robertson), or Catherine Lewis, "Good Food before Birth", (Unwin paperbacks).
Secondly, it is an athletic achievement. Athletic preparation is as important for childbirth as for an Olympic event. Read "Active Birth" by Janet Balaskas, (Unwin paperbacks) and "Birth Reborn" by M. Odent, (Pantheon, USA).
Thirdly, it is a spiritual achievement. It requires a spirit of faith. Faith means expecting good to happen. Have faith in your body's ability to do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time. Faith brings love, joy and peace, and makes thing go right.
RULES FOR AVOIDING ALLERGY AND COLIC IN A BABY
The tendency to develop allergy runs in families. If there is allergy in your family, or if you had allergic symptoms in childhood, such as asthma, hay fever, eczema, ear/nose/throat infections, growing pains, etc., prepare for a non-allergic baby before conception.
1. When planning a pregnancy: If you have been taking the contraceptive pill, or using a copper-containing IUD, stop using it at least one month before conception, and preferably longer, four months or more. Change to a barrier method which is safer for women's health and therefore for the health of the baby. The pill makes users zinc deficient; an animal study showed that zinc deficiency in pregnancy seriously affected the immune system in the offspring. So if you have been using the pill, take a good vitamin or mineral supplement containing zinc, such as Blackmore's or Vitafit 400. Be at your best before conception. Both partners eat well and abstain from all alcohol before conception as well as during pregnancy. The best time to start feeding a baby right, is several years before it is born. This applies to fathers too, since they provide half a baby's genes.
2. During pregnancy and lactation: Avoid foods that you are allergic too, and bear in mind that you may have hidden allergies that you are not aware of. Hidden food allergies are most likely to be foods you do not like and eat little of; or else foods you like too much and eat a lot of, or eat often. It has been said, "Addiction equals allergy". Cravings in pregnancy often point to foods you have a hidden allergy to. In pregnancy and lactation, do your best to avoid addictive stimulants and bingeing. We usually binge or want stimulants when we are depressed or tired.. Try to arrange things so that you can go to sleep when tired; and when depressed get away from the kitchen and get some exercise in the fresh air. Gardening is a good way for some people, or a walk. Perhaps you could offer to walk a neighbour's dog regularly?
Do not let people persuade you to eat foods that gave you an allergic reaction in childhood, or foods that you do not like, or ones that make you feel nauseated, by saying that they will be good for the baby. If you have a hidden allergy to the food, it will be very bad for the baby. This applies especially to dairy products, because they are often recommended as a good source of protein and calcium. Calcium can be obtained from many sources. A good balanced diet using alternative high protein foods and calcium rich foods will be just as beneficial for you and the baby. If a baby seems very active or overactive in the womb, this may be an indication that it is sensitive to caffeine or chemicals, and is distressed by these in the mother's diet or environment. Many couples decide to decorate during pregnancy and no-one knows what effect the very strong paint and turpentine fumes may have - may be the cause of breathing difficulties such as Asthma. A mother could be wise and use the Feingold low additive diet to help the baby. In fact the Feingold diet reduces physical stress, and benefits the health of the whole family when it is used. I have just read that singing (lullabies?) to a baby in the womb is soothing and beneficial to the baby. Your baby will let you know if it enjoys or hates various sounds.
3. Labour: Where there are good domiciliary midwives, as seems to be the case in Wellington at present, 1993, a home birth may be worth considering. The mother of a hyperactive child chose home birth for her second child. I asked her if she would do it again. She paused for a moment, and then said, "I couldn't NOT do it again; its such a marvellous start for the baby. This one is so placid!" If you decide on a hospital birth, try to avoid anaesthetics, especially pethidine. In pregnancy read something about pain management, e.g.. "Relief without Drugs" by Ainslie Meares. Since reading this book I have never needed a dental anaesthetic. For those who have a reaction to dental anaesthetic, the dentist can offer an alternative that may suit better.
A small survey done by our association in 1990 seemed to indicate that pethidine in labour may have long lasting effects on the child. Forty-seven mothers using the Feingold programme (either the basics, or extended, by avoiding other items as well) responded to our questionnaire. One question was whether they had pethidine in labour. The pethidine group had a higher incidence of asthma in the child, and a slightly higher incidence of hyperactivity.
Before going into the maternity ward, make it clear that the baby must not be given any complementary bottles; make the authorities sign a paper to this effect. The first thing that goes into the baby's mouth should be the mother's nipple, to establish the right bacteria in the baby's gut. Maureen Minchin worked with colicky babies, and said that all the severely colicky babies she met, had been given a complementary bottle in the maternity hospital. Possibly warmed distilled water only as a comforter.
One of the causes of allergy is a leaky gut allowing undigested protein to go through the gut wall into the blood, where it sets up allergic reactions. When a baby is born, the mucous membrane lining its intestines is not fully developed. It is leaky until it is sealed by an agent in the mother's milk. This can take up to eight months, but the first fortnight is crucial. It is very important for the baby's health and happiness that it should not have foreign protein in the first two weeks. A baby can also be exposed to allergy-forming proteins if the mother eats food that she is allergic to while breastfeeding, so look after yourself first. Avoidance of foreign allergy-producing proteins is one of the reasons why it is important for a baby to be breastfed, especially in an allergic family. Specific allergies may not be inherited, but DNA is and the tendency to develop allergies runs in families. In an allergic family a bottle fed baby has a two to one chance of becoming allergic. If the baby is breast fed this is reduced to one in four chance.
If you have allergies, tell them about it when you book into the maternity hospital, and make sure that they are prepared for you. Suggest that fresh low salycilate fruit may be better for you, for a snack after the birth, than hot buttered toast and cheese for example, if wheat and dairy products are a problem for you. Ensure that the dietary department staff know what you mean when you say that you are on a special diet, and to be certain, you could give them a few days sample menus to ensure that you and baby get only what is good for you. If your diet is quite restrictive, you may be best to aim for an earliest possible discharge from hospital. Discuss this with your doctor early, to book a domiciliary mid-wife who will care for you at home. Make lists of suitable foods and educate your friends or family who may cook meals for you in the early days, so that you can adhere to your diet even if you are not preparing the food.
When you start to take baby out socially, take allowed food for yourself to eat too. That way you and baby will not suffer from dietary indiscretions at morning tea parties, etc. Allergy, stress and tiredness are closely linked. Resting after baby is born is not always easy, especially if you have other children at home too. All try to have naps together. Teach older children to operate your tape recorder and allow them to play favourite tapes while baby sleeps. If possible, get everyone asleep after lunch. Lying down on the bed to read stories will often put toddlers to sleep. Gratefully accept any offers to take one or more children off your hands for a few hours so that you can sleep; but remember to send the child off with appropriate foods, so that you do not get a hyperactive toddler back again! With all the good planning in the world, you will have some bad days as well as the good. Remember that a baby is only a baby for a year or two, and make a positive mental and spiritual effort to enjoy this time with your baby.
USING THE FEINGOLD PROGRAMME IN PREGNANCY HELPS
The following notes are abridged from the Journal of the Hyperactive Childrens' Support Group, Great Britain.
Hyperactive children often come from atopic or allergic families; that is, from parents with symptoms like migraine, hayfever, etc.
Hyperactive children are often hyperactive in the womb, punching and kicking their way through the pregnancy. One mother wondered whether the baby was in distress. Very active in utero babies may get the umbilical cord around their neck. Many hyperactive children in Britain have been found to be deficient in zinc and essential fatty acids (EFA's). These are needed to produce prostaglandin E1 which controls the immune system, thirst, behaviour, etc.
In allergic people opioids from poorly digested wheat or milk protein may occur. These opioids block the production of prostaglandin E1.
HACSG suggests that hyperactivity in utero may be caused by chemical additives in the mother's food, or by EFA deficiency or by food allergy. They suggest that pre-natal clinics should screen mothers for over-active foetus, and where it is found mothers should be introduced to the extended Feingold programme. The extended programme eliminates sugar and/or milk/wheat products as well as chemical additives and salicylates. Eliminate as much caffeine as possible ie tea, coffee, colas and sports drinks. Guarana is another form of caffeine. These steps might correct hyperactivity before the baby is born, saving mother and child much misery later. Colas can also aggravate calcium loss from teeth during pregnancy.
HELPING A NEW BABY TO BREASTFEED
Two factors help to establish a good sucking technique in the baby. It helps if the baby has not received pethidine during the birth. It also helps very much if the baby is not taken away from the mother after the birth for washing and weighing, etc., but is allowed to lie naked on the mother's abdomen until it finds the breast and suckles.
In research, babies not separated took the breast within 49 minutes maximum, and sucked for about 20 minutes; 24 correctly, 4 in a faulty way. Of the separated babies, only 7 sucked correctly, 11 incorrectly, and 16 refused to suck. Of the babies who had received pethidine, the majority were too drowsy to suck at all. Of the babies who were exposed to pethidine, and were separated, not one sucked correctly. Of babies not exposed, and not separated, almost all sucked correctly. (Righart, "Effect of delivery routines on success of first breastfeed", Lancet, 1990)
FORESIGHT ASSOCIATION FOR PRE-CONCEPTION CARE
A chiropractor said that a common cause of colic in infants, is stress from neck vertebrae displaced by a difficult birth. I know of one very hyperactive infant who was cured by a chiropractor. But it is better to prepare for an easy birth by good nutrition and a good lifestyle before conception. Foresight is a British organisation to help parents do this.
