There have been some fairly interesting word combinations over the past decade or so, but the newest word to come out of the breastfeeding and nursing world is the word “brexting”.
Brexting is a brand new term which is being used to describe mothers who choose to text while breastfeeding, and it has one psychologist concerned.
The Argument
Psychologist Katayune Kaeni was recently interviewed on Southern California Public Radio and she believes that brexting could be causing mums to miss cues from their bubs while they feed. If mums are distracted by their smartphones, they may not be noticing that their baby is full, or that they are still hungry or that the baby is having trouble swallowing. She is also concerned that bonding between mum and bubs may suffer if mum is texting while her baby is looking at her.
The Defence
For years babies have been breastfed while mum eats, reads books, flips through magazines, watches the television, and plays with other children in the household. These babies still have had secure attachments to their parents and their parents to them. If anything, a smartphone may keep a mum’s attention more closely aligned with her feeding baby than these other “distracting” activities.
So What’s A Mum To Do?
To stay healthy and happy, balance is always the key.
If mum has already spent a lot of her day chatting, singing, carrying, massaging and playing with bubs then catching up with friends on Facebook, sending out emails or reconnecting with other adults could be just as beneficial to her and baby as spending the whole time completely focused on the task at hand.
Too much screen time is never a good thing - as we like to inform our kids every once in awhile - and so we suggest a number of activities you can both partake in while nursing...
- Dance (a little difficult with bubs attached and so should probably be done after...)
- Cook
- Clean (ok - not so fun...)
- or simply relax and meditate (I like this one...)
Some adventurous mums may even practice yoga while feeding bubs – making sure they're safe and there is no chance of hurting baby, of course.
So, strap on a carrier, tie on a wrap or throw on a Peachymama top and get to it.