welcome back to another edition of our Sunday sit down q a thank you so much for your questions
um we're really excited about what we're going to talk about today being pumping and breast
pump parts yeah we're talking about baby spit up and why it happens and maybe some things
you can do about it and then also how things are going with our current pregnancy ourselves
yes so if this is your first time meeting us I'm Sarah I'm a board certified OB GYN I'm
Kurt I'm a board certified pediatrician and we are the doctors bjorkman [Music]
all right let's get into it our first question this week comes from Jade Perry
um and her question says pumping hygiene and safety I've read different advice on cleaning pump
parts clean versus sterilized versus sanitized um pump companies say only boil or sterilize
sterilize the parts before initial use then just clean others doctors and parents they sanitize and
sterilize once daily or even after ever use and the CDC says once daily if under three months old
but doesn't say that age does that mean not all or once a week you know what's needed I
don't mind boiling Parts as often as needed if it protects baby but then I read that boiling parts
will cause Plastics or chemicals to Leach in the milk feels like a catch-22 boil to kill dangerous
germs but get harmful chemicals or not steriloids and wash in only hot water and dish soap and risk
baby getting sick I have stopped pumping because of it so now I'm going to get my Supply back
there's a lot there yeah I totally understand totally understand because like there's so much
information what do you do what do you do and you've never done it before and
um I've been there I remember when I got all my pump parts and a bunch of pacifiers and all this
stuff I boiled it all in a big pot and the some of my more experienced mom friends laughed at me and
said what are you doing and I said that's what it says today you so in terms of recommendations for
breast pump parts and feeding your baby the factory recommendation again is to sterilize
and boil those parts once for five minutes after that you do not need to do it again and cleaning
with warm soapy water is very very safe and an effective way to clean those parts there is some
thought pediatrician can weigh in that if you have a premature baby that is immunocompromised
or has other risk factors for infection then maybe you want to consider some of these more
intense sterilization procedures because you want to be so careful with their fragile immune systems
but for normal healthy term babies you can just wash those pump parts in warm soapy water or the
dishwasher or whatever works for you yeah I think it's good too with that point just in terms of
washing like this is thing like you've used them and then you wash them right away or if you can't
wash them right away keep them in a zip block bag in the refrigerator that milk isn't getting dried
on to then it also like keeps bacterial growth down on that fluid and on those parts and then
keeps that moist for when you go to wash them so you don't like dried on stuff on it right so
this is called the fridge hack we actually have a whole playlist of videos about breastfeeding and
pumping and in that I talk about the fridge hack talk about breast milk storage guidelines some
of these cleaning things so we'll link that whole playlist here for you to check out but the fridge
hack saves so much time pumping sucks and so and then having to clean your parts every time after
you use them like nobody has time for that and so the way around that you know is you take you pump
you put your parts in a Ziploc bag and you put it in the fridge when you put your milk in the
fridge and then as Kurt was saying the next time you go to pump you take your bag out of the fridge
you put on your pump nips are a little cold but things again are fine and it is fine to do this
throughout the course of the day and then again wash those parts once at night so hopefully that
saves you some time and can save you know your breastfeeding and pumping relationship pumping
is hard enough as it is and so some of these hacks really help in terms of safety for your
baby washing parts once a day with warm soap and water is very safe again for healthy term babies
our next question for this week is going to come from Amanda Brown she asks why do babies
spit up I know that part of it can be due to an immature digestive system but how about when it
varies also is it related to eating cheese while breastfeeding so it's actually a decent amount to
unpack there so the first thing of why all babies spit up is exactly what you alluded to and that
their immature digestive systems what it is is we all have a muscle a sphincter muscle on top
of our stomach so we swallow food goes down our esophagus which is the feeding tube that
connects our mouth to our stomach and right at the bottom of that on top of the stomach
is our esophageal sphincter which is a special muscle that is squeezed closed all the time and
then relaxes to let food into the stomach when you swallow and then closes back down again in
babies that muscle is actually pretty thin and pretty short which just means that it's leaky
and more prone to spit up especially with position and things like that yeah as they grow and develop
that muscle becomes thicker and elongates as well which just means it's better at holding
the food into the stomach once it gets in there and so this is why all babies are going to spit
up but almost all of them grow out of it by six months or sometimes as little late as 12
months of age which just means you're going to go through a lot of dirty bibs and clothes and wipes
um yes the question that you then have is like when is spit up abnormal and so the things that
there can happen in severe cases you can have so much spit up that there's actually you're
losing calories from it and they aren't growing or that acid can start to erode at the esophagus now
if you have a baby who spit up a ton like ours did two year old learning is this too much like
how do I know if this is too much um and again your pediatrician is going to be able to check
these at those regular well child checks every two months or so um and if you're concerned in between
then you can call them but if they're growing along their growth curve they're getting enough
calories even if it seems like they're spitting up all their food it's amazing how much stays
down and then in terms of like is there damage to the esophagus as long as it doesn't seem like
they're in a lot of pain with it there probably isn't in some cases you'll think about adding
an antacid if there's really a lot of pain with it and again that's something you should talk to your
pediatrician right I feel like I mean gosh I just we went through so many spit rags and I remember
we were I was just like is this a normal amount of spit up is this I don't know she's the first
baby I've had and Kurt said it is it's often baby spitting up is just a laundry problem them and we
had lots of laundry we did the other thing you asked you asked about cheese while breastfeeding
so there are times where babies can have a milk protein allergy that they often grow out of if
it happens in the first year of life but in those babies mom's Dairy consumption while breastfeeding
can actually play into that that usually shows up not necessarily as spit up but lots of kind
of GI distress sometimes poor weight gain again sometimes it spit up sometimes it's lots of
diarrhea and that's something that like you should talk to your pediatrician about like do you need
to eliminate Dairy from your diet I wouldn't do that based solely on just lots of spit up and lots
of dirty laundry I would think more about there's growth problems lots of spit up diarrhea my baby's
in pain do they have a milk protein allergy that could show up if a baby's formula fed or if
breastfed and Mom is consuming Dairy a challenge there too is about half of those babies that have
that allergy to milk protein in the first year of Life can also have that same allergy to Soy
and so then there's special formulas if you have a formula fed baby that need to be thought about in
those instances all right our final question comes from Marianne Hayes she said just wondering how
you're doing and feeling this pregnancy compared to your first what are you excited for with having
a baby boy I feel very much the same yeah I want to be the dad in the next pregnancy is what I want
um it's been it's it's different and the same in many ways
um I'm going to do a whole first trimester Vlog like 2.0 uh I would say the fatigue first
trimester fatigue crushed me this time crushed just I was so so tired I was also trying to study
for my board exam so that maybe didn't help um other things I just don't with the first pregnancy
you'd how oh how far along with you oh I'm six weeks and three days oh I'm seven weeks in one day
this time they're like oh how far along are you I'm like I don't know are we eight weeks ten not
where where are we at I think having like a the small bear cub of a toddler running around there's
like there's enough craziness that it's amazing how easy it is to miss out on some of those fun
little details from the first pregnancy yes a lot of details just get let go because they're
just it's not important I you don't necessarily have time for that like last pregnancy you know
my we did a picture every week and we made an episode every week that we like walked through
the medical evidence of and it was so much I don't know that I've taken two bump pictures this time
um so it's just there is this like second pregnancy phenomenon and I think
things aren't new you sort of know what to expect which is nice and also then you're generally busy
chasing around a toddler and so at the end of the day you're just like okay I'm gonna we're gonna
fall asleep at seven o'clock on the couch now I think the one thing that you've done differently
this time than the first time that even was a priority in the first time but have more emphasis
on this time you're just staying Physically Active too for sure um you know we talked
about the importance of exercise on pregnancy during the first one but um but I'm a human and
I'm not perfect and it often I like it was a choice between napping or exercising or doing
other things and I did not exercise as much as is recommended or that I want to do and I really
um was sore like had physical I had like SI joint pain in the second trimester I had
um pretty bad SPD or synthesis pubis dysfunction around like 32 weeks um and I said I really want
to make sure I continue exercising and strength training to try to help with some of those things
this pregnancy because when in the when that kicked in especially that SPD at the end of the
third trimester last time I really started doing gentle strength training exercises to try to help
with you know core strength and some different things and I really felt that that helped me with
that SPD and so I said I gotta keep moving and exercising this time or I maybe I'm gonna break
and I don't want to do that so so far so good it's early um but I am exercising more and it's hard it
is so hard like it's so hard life is busy life is busy and exhausting and so I know how hard it is
to get that recommended 150 minutes of exercise per week um I definitely am not doing it but I'm
doing better than I was last time so that's a goal um boy I don't know what to do with the boy
um I think we're gonna you're gonna do great well I hope so there's a no return policy so
we'll be keeping him um we'll keep you updated as we go thank you so much for joining us please
make sure you're subscribed um we've got some episodes coming out on Wednesdays of
course and more questions next Sunday uh from you all have a great week bye
we're doctors but not your doctors anything we've said in this video
is for education or entertainment purposes only it is not medical
advice any specific medical questions you have should be directed to your provider