Tips to breastfeed your baby longer

The best gift any mother can give her newborn is the gift of love expressed through her milk! As a new mommy you want to give your baby the best right from the day one. Your doctor also advises you for excusive breastfeeding for 6 months before you start another semi-solid foods along with breastfeed. However, there are times when a mom feels anxious about her milk flow not being sufficient, or if the baby is not latching properly to take in the milk. Hence in that anxiety you may feel that switching over to the formula milk is a better option. But before you do that, think again, especially about the fact that nothing else can replace a mother’s feed for the child. As we celebrate World breastfeeding Week today, here are some things you must know about your breast milk and its importance for your child.

Breast milk – Importance and rich in nutrition

Breast milk is quite important for your baby as it not only contains the essential vitamins and nutrients that your baby needs, but is also rich in disease fighting substance that will protect your baby from numerous infections like stomach viruses, lower respiratory problems, and ear infections. Experts suggest an exclusive breastfeeding for first 6 months to avail the maximum benefits from breast milk. In fact the longer you choose to continue to breastfeed your baby the better protection you will be able to provide her.

Feeding breast milk when you cannot breastfeed yourself

Despite knowing the benefits of breast milk and the importance of breastfeed, there are times when a new mom cannot breastfeed herself. It could be because the moms have to join work, or travel, or there is a problem in baby latching on. The reasons can be any but it makes a mom anxious and makes her think “I am not able to feed my baby.” Before you jump to formula feeding as the only alternative, explore expressing breast milk with a breast pump. A breast pump helps in stimulating your milk glands and thus express your milk in a container, which can then be given to your baby either through a bowl and spoon (Katori-chammach) or if that is too tiresome, using a bottle. A good breast pump like Philips Avent Electric breast pump is comfortable for the mom, can be completely sterilized and expresses more milk.

Also read: Benefits of using a Breast pump!

Should I continue to breastfeed along with semi solids?

As a mother remember that if you breastfeed your baby for longer period, chances of her falling sick frequently will reduced. Well, that’s why your doctor advised you for an exclusive breastfeed for 6 months. Clearing the doubts on whether a mom should breastfeed along with semi solid the answer is yes. You may gradually decrease the frequency of breastfeed but you should continue to breastfeed your baby for as long as it is comfortable for both of you. Remember that whatever top feed you may give your baby – it will not be able to match the benefits of breast milk. WHO recommends that a baby should be given breast milk up to the age of 2 years. You start by introducing semi solids in 1-2 meals a day mixed with breast milk, and gradually increase the meals while reducing the breast milk.

New mothers’ dilemma

There will be times when you feel that your baby is not getting enough of your milk and hence you start thinking that your body is not producing enough breast milk. However, as experts would suggest that moms not having enough breast milk is mostly psychological and medically it is quite a rare occurrence. So all you need to do is, to have patience and relax and the milk flow will happen.

If you are a working mother who has to rejoin work after 2 or 6 months, then it better to start feeding your baby breast milk through a katori chammach or bottle a few weeks in advance and fed by someone other than you, so that the baby gets used to it.

Also read: How to safely store breast milk for your baby?

Also read: 9 Tips to increase breast milk supply in lactating moms

Tips to feed breast milk artificially

Though it is convenient to feed your breast milk through a bottle, please remember that because it is an artificial process, additional care needs to be maintained.

Additional points:

1. If you are using a feeding bottle, remember to get one which is BPA free. BPA causes cancer in babies and is present in some, but not all plastics. Look for the BPA-free mark on the bottle before purchase. Never buy Polycarbonate (PC) plastic bottles as they have been banned by the Government due to BPA

2. If you plan to combine breastfeeding and bottle-feeding, there is a risk of nipple confusion, where baby finds the bottle easier to use and stops breastfeeding. This is minimized if the bottle's nipple is shaped like a mother's breast, i.e. Natural-shaped

3. Infections can pass through bottles if they are not cleaned properly. Boiling them is not enough as all bacteria are not killed by boiling. You need to sterilize them with steam (Also read: Stop boiling baby bottles)

4. If you want to bottle feed your milk to your baby then ensure you start early as babies who are introduced to a bottle in their 5th or 6th month have high chances of rejecting the bottle. In such cases you may persist with a natural bottle but if if that doesn’t work out, then you may try with a sipper.

5. Your breast doesn’t have a shelf life but a bottle nipple has hence, remember to replace/change them every 3 months as they wear out faster than the bottle.

6. Nipples are available according to the flow size so choose the size carefully and keep changing the nipples according to your baby’s age. This will avoid a flow that is too slow thus leaving your baby hungry, or too fast, which can choke your baby.

Disclaimer: This blog is a special initiative to help mothers and is supported by Philips Avent.