Translated interview (translation by Pat and Ake Torngren)
Marit Olanders interviews Dr Bergman

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The right environment also means free breastfeeding.

Dr Bergman says that babies sleep in cycles of 1 to 1 ˝ hours.  But even if the baby is asleep, the brain registers whether or not it is in its right environment, he adds. Of course babies can sleep for longer periods, but that is a learned behaviour, not a natural one. 

Colic, according to Nils Bergman, can be caused by too much food being given at any one time, or by the fact that the normal digestive process in the newborn baby stops when it is separated from the mother.  According to him, the natural situation would be one where babies feed approximately every 90 minutes, and consume 30 mls of milk, which in turn corresponds to the volume of the excretion reflex.  Among breastfeeding counselors, one often hears talk about several excretion reflexes taking place during one feed. But according to Bergman, this is a reflex that occurs because the baby is not fed often enough, and then is given too much at one single feeding.

On the first day following birth, the baby’s stomach can contain only 5 ml of fluid.  By the time the baby is a week old, its stomach can hold 30 mls.  If the stomach is filled with more than 30 ml of milk per feeding, the excess content leaves the body either by way of excretion or by the baby positing up some of the milk.  If neither of these occurs, the excess milk is trapped in the stomach and the stomach muscles become stretched as a result.   That alone can cause colic, explains Nils Bergman, as he demonstrates the size of the stomach with his hands.

Furthermore, if the baby is separated from its mother after it has fed, its level of stress hormones increases due to the trauma of being separated from her, and as a result the digestion stops, which can also cause colic. The correct digestive processes in a baby are totally dependent on the fact that it should not separated from its mother.

Continues ....