Does giving infacol undo the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding?

[claireybee]

Just wondering really...It occurred to me today that I can't really say I am exclusively bf ds if I am putting another substance into his body so am now wondering if it can also negate some of the qualities of a breastmilk only diet.

Are you feeding breastmilk from a bottle then?

Infacol is basically sugar, if you prefered a more natural alternative, I was told to use a teaspoon of BROWN sugar in water as a drink between feeds.

Infacol isn't sugar at all.

I exclusively breastfed dd and she had infacol before every feed until she was about 9 months.

It hadn't even crossed my mind that it would undo any of the goodness. No more than say the odd dose of calpol from 4 months - so 2 months before solids.

So I really hope not! And if anyone says otherwise I shall put my fingers in my ears - lalalalalaalalalalala not listening! Infacol saved my sanity.

I would say, that you are thinking a bit too literally. I mean, if your kid had to have medication, would you think that was not exclusively bfing

no infacol isn't suger at all

It isn't for constipation (which is what brown sugar is perfect for)

Taken from Google:

Infacol oral suspension contains the active ingredient simeticone (previously spelt simethicone in the UK), which is a type of medicine called an 'anti-foaming agent'. It reduces the amount of trapped wind in the gut.

Simeticone works by bringing together all the small bubbles of gas that are trapped among the stomach contents when a baby swallows air. This forms large bubbles that are more easily expelled by burping or passing wind. The medicine works locally in the gut and is not absorbed into the baby's bloodstream.

The medicine helps to relieve the abdominal pain (gripe, colic or wind) that is common in both breast and bottle fed babies as a result of trapped wind caused by swallowing air.

Infacol active ingredients:

www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/100001342.html

and no of course it doesn't mean your not exclusively breastfeeding if you use ut
and no it isn't doing anything to the goodness of your milk

Can I kind of leap in here with a sort of related question. I am bfing my 9 week old ds and like whenachild, Infacol has been a life saver, but how do I know when to stop using it? Do you wean the los off it?

a baby that is exclusively breastfed surely does not need sugar water between feeds anyway
nor does any baby, AFAIK..

i think you can safely give it and not undo the benefits of breastfeeding

fennel tea or camomile tea , need to check which is an alternative to infacol....

by it, i mean infacol!

Sorry...just passing on what I was told by HV

Don't know why I listened to HV anyway! She told me DS1 had colic, but we since found out he didn't! The bloating, constipation, projectile vomiting and trapped wind where sysmptoms of something else!

yes... HVs, doncha just love 'em !

Em - every so often I would miss a day's dose and see if dd was still able to bring up wind. As Infacol seems to work cumulatively rather than a single dose making all the difference, it was useful to see what would happen if I missed a dose or two.

Colic "traditionally" is supposed to stop at around 12 weeks. But as my dd was just completely unable to bring up wind at all until she was sitting up unaided and rolling, we carried on until about 9 months, but the colic didn't disappear completely until she turned one . Now she\s 2.5 and belches for Britain but in the early days if we missed a dose or 2 or nightmare - forgot the bottle - then poor dd was miserable for the next day until it all built up in her system again - she was not happy.

Back to the OP - I'm assuming you're thinking about the whole fauna in your gut thing where even one formula feed can "undo" the pure environment or something like that. I don't know the biology of it tbh - Tiktok might?

Are you thinking of the "virgin gut"? Apparently as Infacol isn't a "foreign protein" it shouldn't compromise the virgin gut

iirc infacol isn't actually absorbed by the gut.

I knew virgins had something to do with it....

The definition of exclusive breastfeeding does not depend on the baby having no medication, and in any case, infacol does not work on the baby's physiology, but on the air in his gut, so it has no systemic effect anyway.

Where on earth a HV gets the idea that it is sugar, I don't know....

Claireybee, you are exclusively breastfeeding if you are giving your baby breastmilk only, and there is an official definition here:

www.linkagesproject.org/tools/m&e/ebr.php

Any studies done on the outcomes of babies who are excl bf and those who are not are based on that definition.

Lenaschild-No I breastfeed but give the infacol before a feed.

Whenachildisbob-Yes that was what I was thinking of, the idea that one formula feed can compromise the benefits of breastmilk. (Jacanne I think that is the same as the virgin gut...)
That is the bit I got from a hv, who told me that as I'd given dd a ff on day 3 before my milk came in I might as well not bother continuing to bf as all the benefits would be undone-needless to say I ignored her. The rest is just my sleep deprived ponderings...