Is it good to squeeze the nipple for babies?

There are many traditional considerations in the growth and development of newborns, especially in rural areas, where various considerations have a significant impact on the development of newborns. Among them, many elderly people are accustomed to squeezing the nipples of newborns, believing that this can have a better impact on the future chest development of the newborns. However, modern medicine has never made such suggestions. Let's take a look at whether it is good or bad to squeeze the nipples of babies?

When a baby is born, the older generation will squeeze out the baby's sunken nipples according to tradition. In fact, what they don't know is that this practice is very wrong.

Enlarged breasts in newborns is a very common physiological phenomenon. It is caused by the fetus receiving corresponding hormones from the mother through the placenta before birth. The swelling of the breasts of newborns is caused by the influence of progesterone from the mother's ovaries on the fetus while the lactation of newborns is caused by the influence of prolactin from the mother's pituitary gland on the fetus. Breast enlargement and lactation in newborns are temporary physiological phenomena.

Even today, this phenomenon still exists, both in rural areas and in cities. That is to squeeze the baby's nipples after the baby is born, and they insist on doing so no matter how much pain and crying the baby is in. In fact, these people are too deeply influenced by old customs and habits. According to the theory of old customs, it is believed that the nipples of newborns must be squeezed, especially for baby girls. If the nipples are not squeezed, they will have "blind nipples" and will not be able to breastfeed in the future. Some people may think that if the baby's nipples are not squeezed, the nipples will not develop ideally and will not look good when they grow up, which may cause retracted nipples.

What people call "blind nipples" refers to what modern medicine calls inverted nipples or retracted nipples.

Most inverted nipples are congenital, but can also be caused by trauma or surgery, breast tumors, and fibrosis after mastitis. Congenital inverted nipple is caused by poor development of the smooth muscles of the nipple and areola. These muscle fibers are pulled inward, and the lack of supporting tissue under the nipple causes inverted nipple.

There is no correlation between inverted nipples and whether or not nipples were squeezed during infancy. In addition to some internal reasons, it may also be related to the underwear worn by adolescent girls. Some girls feel shy about their breast development, so they wear tight underwear to tighten their chests, or wear bras that are too small during the early stages of breast development. This causes the developing breasts to be squeezed and become flat. At the same time, the compressed breasts suffer from poor blood circulation and insufficient nutrition, which affects the normal development of the mammary glands. The nipples are also squeezed and sunken into the breasts, forming inverted nipples, which are not caused by not squeezing the nipples at birth.