I got up extra early today to relieve Dear Husband, who continues to stay up overnight with the Wildflowers. This 24-hour coverage means that Daisy receives meals about every 2 - 3 hours around the clock, and the puppies are fed on a fairly regular schedule.
Lactation is a big priority here — and for excellent reasons. Nine of them, in fact.
I continue to explore what is optimal for babies, and have spent the past few hours researching and reading professional, peer-reviewed articles from the past ten years in the areas of formula vs. breast fed, effects of early weaning, and so on; I list just a few of the articles I cite and/or read below.
I am mindful that none of us can always do “optimal” — we are imperfect humans living in an imperfect world. This reality, however, is not an excuse to throw up our hands and be a Slacker.
Rather, we need to continually aim for optimal — as Peale said, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”
Larkspur — with ears!
I hope it is not news to anyone that "human milk … is considered the gold standard for feeding infants” (Moukarzel et al., 2018, p. 1). Not for puppies of course! Dog milk is the gold standard for feeding puppies.
The amount of research into the benefits of an extended period of only breast feeding are both staggering and not limited to physical health. Moukarzel et al. (2018) noted that “suboptimal provision of nutrients during early postnatal development may have lasting consequences on the brain…” (p. 1).
Sub-optimal = Less than optimal.
Early weaning in rat pups — early by just three days! — “caused lower body weight, length, VFM, total body fat, hypoglycaemia and hypoinsulinaemia, all changes linked to malnutrition status” (Da Silva Lima et al., 2011, p. 1409).
Early weaning = Malnutrition = Less than optimal.
Further, “the disruption of mother–infant bonding in the later lactating period, such as early weaning … greatly affected the infant's neurobehavioral development” (Mogi, K., Nagasawa, M., & Kikusui, T., 2011, p. 1236).
Early weaning = Affected development = Less than optimal.
ACK!
All this reading is making me even more strident about the importance of lactation, delayed weaning, and the dangers of supplementing puppies in any but the most urgent situations.
Breast is best — it is our job to make it work.
Breast milk = Optimal!
Another reason for being committed to making lactation work for puppies is the options for replacement and/or supplementation are so so not optimal.
Consider that formula for humans is carefully and extensively studied, and even though that is true it remains inferior nutrition AND more is being learned all the time. For example, researchers have recently identified the importance of Milk Fat Globule Membrane and as a result, human infant formulas have been adjusted.
Larkspur and Clover
There is zero evidence that puppy formulas — homemade or commercial — are studied and developed with the careful attention that human infant formulas are — and again, human infant formulas — even though very, very well-researched and developed — are inferior to breast milk.
What that means to me is supplementing puppies with any formula is just a bad idea if it can be avoided, and if I ever had to supplement a puppy I would not use a homemade formula.
There is just no possible way a homemade formula has been studied enough to be considered adequate; reading about what goes into human infant formula development has convinced me it is much more complicated (and important) than one might think.
Mallow and Sage
I know — people are thinking, “I have used goat’s milk for puppies for twenty years and …” Great — I wonder how much better it might have been if those puppies had been fed in an optimal way — and there is simply no way to know.
Heck — I wonder how much better my health would be right now had my mother breast fed me!
As my dad says, “we can’t change what we had for breakfast.” In this discussion, we can take that very literally!
We can, however, plan for a better lunch and dinner.
EVENING: PHOTOS FROM THE DAY
LUPINE
CLARKIA
SAGE
LARKSPUR
MALLOW AND PAINTBRUSH
You’re welcome
LUPINE AND DAISY
rePete the Cat visits the Wildflowers
CLOVER
PAINTBRUSH - remember that puppy eyes start blue
Daisy and Buttercup
I hope the photos convey what I see throughout the day — puppies who are thriving because they have a devoted, kind, attentive mother in Daisy. If maternal care is the ticket to well-adjusted puppies, the Wildflowers are going to do some serious blooming.
Good Night, Friends.
Work Cited (and just a couple of examples of some that I reviewed)
Aguirre‐Benítez, E., Porras, M., Parra, L., González‐Ríos, J., Garduño‐Torres, D., Albores‐García, D., . . . Hernández‐Falcón, J. (2017). Disruption of behavior and brain metabolism in artificially reared rats. Developmental Neurobiology, 77(12), 1413-1429.
Da Silva Lima, N., Gaspar de Moura, E., Cottini Fonseca Passos, M., Firmino Nogueira Neto, J., Martha Reis, A., De Oliveira, E., & Cristina Lisboa, P. (2011). Early weaning causes undernutrition for a short period and programmes some metabolic syndrome components and leptin resistance in adult rat offspring. British Journal of Nutrition, 105(9), 1405-1413.
Mogi, K., Nagasawa, M., & Kikusui, T. (2011). Developmental consequences and biological significance of mother–infant bonding. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 35(5), 1232-1241.
Moukarzel, S., Dyer, R. A., Garcia, C., Wiedeman, A. M., Boyce, G., Weinberg, J., . . . Innis, S. M. (2018). Milk fat globule membrane supplementation in formula-fed rat pups improves reflex development and may alter brain lipid composition. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 15277. doi:http://dx.doi.org.weblib.lib.umt.edu:8080/10.1038/s41598-018-33603-8