Feeding your baby is perhaps the most basic task of managing your infant. Since a baby’s sucking and rooting reflexes are well developed at birth, he will satisfy those reflexes by rooting and sucking on anything near his mouth. Whether feeding is accomplished by a bottle or the breast is not nearly as important as the gentle, tender cuddling you give him during feeding. Your decision to bottle-or breast-feed must be free of any coercion or manipulation. Guilt or a quest for approval is never in line with clear thinking. Instead, confidently base your decision on accurate, honest information. Nothing beats breast-feeding for physiological benefits to baby.
That’s plain fact. Mother’s milk is the complete and perfect food, nothing short of miraculous. Easily digested, it provides excellent nutrition and contains the right balance of proteins and fats. It also provides the additional antibodies necessary for building your baby’s immune system.
Even though we are not nurturing a baby, and usually young mothers will gain information from hospitals, there are some topics for us to think about. For example, how can we support the mother as a family member? What help can we offer? A young mother may have many concerned, how do we alleviate their worries? So find out what concerned mother has when nurturing a baby this week.
First, she will tell this week’s outline. We begin with the advantages of breastfeeding and then the composition of breast milk. The third part is how to breastfeed successfully for mothers. The final part is diet principles for breastfeeding mothers.
Then, she starts to explain the advantages of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding helps to boost the baby’s immune system and help the mother’s recovery. Also, breastfeeding is an intimate bonding time for the mother with the newborn. Last, eco-friendly is an additional benefit for breastfeeding.
After 6 months, we can start to add baby food for babies and continuously breast feed the babies until they’re approximately two years old, or a bit older. And why is this suggestion? First, there are many advantages about breastfeeding for babies. Breast milk is quite different from formula feeding because it consists of biological activity substance and the nutrients composition in the breast milk is much appropriate for babies. With the appropriate nutrients provided, babies can have better developed and growth. Formula feeding can cause babies a higher potential for obesity. On the other hand, breastfeeding can help babies to avoid allergy and also help babies to have better mental development. So why does breastfeeding help babies to have better mental development?
Breastfeeding is an important way to build up parent-child relationship between the mother and the baby. With a close parent-child relationship it helps communication between the baby and the mother. The mother will have a better understanding of the baby’s needs from baby’s reaction as well as to reduce the baby’s crying and unsettling. This relationship of mom’s understanding of babies’ needs can contribute to the mental health of the baby. It will also help the child’s psychological development in the future. Breastfeeding is not only good for babies but also bring benefits for the mothers. During breastfeeding, it assists in mother’s uterine contraction and helps the recovery of the uterine. Also, breastfeeding will delay ovulation, and reduce the probability of being pregnant again.
You can’t be with your baby 24/7 — even supermoms need a break — so you’ll likely have to give your breastfed baby a bottle at some point. And that can be a nerve-wracking experiment!
Maybe you’ve heard about babies who refuse to breastfeed after trying a bottle or you’ve heard the term “nipple confusion” thrown around a few times. The truth is that, yes, some breastfed babies can be picky, but that doesn’t mean your little one is confused. You just might have to try a few bottle brands before your baby properly latches onto the best bottle for breastfed babies.
What are the best bottles for breastfed babies?
To help ease the transition to a bottle, choose an option that most closely mimics breastfeeding. The bottle should have a wide, soft nipple that makes your baby work for the milk. There’s a particular sucking sequence that babies use during breastfeeding and a bottle that freely leaks milk into a baby’s mouth will make it hard to go back to the breast (after all, who wants to work more for their dinner if they don’t have to?).
The best bottle for breastfed babies will have nipples that look like the real deal, include anti-colic features and are easy to clean. All of these options fit the bill, so give them a try if you’re ready to give your breastfed baby her first bottle.
Best Baby Bottle for Easy Transition
This bottle’s soft, squeezable body combined with its naturally shaped, slow-flow, silicone nipples make it a natural choice for breastfed babies. They tend to latch on and make the transition between the breasts and bottle more easily.
Parents love the bottle’s wide neck, which makes it easy to clean, as well as the anti-colic vents (that don’t leak!). The silicone is BPA-, PVC- and phthalate-free — for your peace of mind — and is completely safe to go into the microwave, the dishwasher or a pot of boiling water. It’s sold in both 5- and 8-ounce sizes.
Lansinoh Momma Breast milk Feeding Bottle
Breastfed babies that switch back and forth between the breast and the bottle run the risk of the baby refusing the breast altogether. The Lansinoh Momma Breast milk Bottle is designed so that babies can use the same sucking motion on the bottle that they would during breastfeeding. The bottle also has an air ventilation system that reduces the amount of air your baby swallows. Plus, the bottle’s material is BPA-free. You’ll get a set of three 8-ounce bottles.
Playtex Baby VentAire Complete Tummy Comfort Bottle
The Playtex Baby Ventaire Bottle is another anti-colic bottle, but it’s unique because the venting system is built into the bottom of the bottle instead of the nipple. The vents work by letting air into the bottle (to prevent a vacuum as your baby drinks) without allowing bubbles to mix with the milk.
Parents also love this particular bottle because it has an angled body, which is easier on your wrist during longer feedings. The textured, wide nipple helps your baby to latch on naturally. One set contains five 6-ounce bottles.
Munchkin Latch BPA-Free Baby Bottle
Breastfeeding moms know that a deep latch is the best way to help your baby feed properly and to prevent sore nipples. The nipple on this bottle stretches and moves to help your baby latch properly and to prevent air from going into your baby’s mouth. There’s also an anti-colic valve at the bottom of the bottle to keep tiny air bubbles out of the milk.
Best of all, this bottle works with a pump adapter (sold separately) that is compatible with many of the leading pump brands. You can pump directly into the bottle to save yourself a step. You can buy a three-pack of either 4- or 8-ounce bottles.
Kiinde Twist Natural Feeding Bottle
These Kiinde bottles, sold in sets of two, are a pretty innovative option for breastfeeding moms. You need just pump directly into the Twist Pouches (using a pump adapter that is sold separately) to eliminate the need to transfer your milk from storage bags to the bottle. After you thaw and warm the milk in the pouch, it just snaps into the bottle. All you have to do is pop on a nipple.
The process and components save you time and mean there are fewer parts to clean. The nipple requires your baby to massage and suck the tip to get to the milk, which helps ease the transition between the bottle and breast.
Some interesting facts about bottle feeding
During the first half of this century, when bottle-feeding was in vogue, selection was relatively limited. Not so today. Your grocer’s shelves are filled with options. Besides the standard glass and plastic bottles, there are those with disposable bags, designer imprints, handles and animal shapes. All of these come in a clever range of colors and prints. This perhaps is more for mother’s amusement than babies. Adding to the confusion is a varied selection of supposedly proper nipples. You can find everything from a nursing nipple that is most like mom to an orthodontic nipple. There are juice, formula, water and even cereal nipples, so baby can suckle her table food. With so many choices, don’t go to the store without adequate rest. In truth, the most important consideration is making sure you purchase a nipple with the right-sized hole. That’s it. With too large a hole, the child drinks too fast. Excessive spitting up and projectile vomiting can be signs of too-rapid fluid intake. Remembering this simple tip can save you many a midnight mop-up. Conversely, a hole which is too small creates a hungry and discontented child. Imagine the frustration! These simple tips will prevent what could be major feeding problems for your baby and you.
One advantage to bottle-feeding is it allows others to participate. Feeding time for dad is just as special for him as for mom. Fathers should not be denied this opportunity to nurture. The same holds true for age appropriate siblings and grandparents. It’s a family affair. All participants, especially baby, benefit with this family approach.
Further reading
- See recommendations by William Sears, M.D., & Martha Sears, R.N., The Baby Book (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1993), p. 136.
- William Sears, M.D., & Martha Sears, R.N., The Baby Book (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1993).
- Jan Riordan and Kathleen Auerbach, Breastfeeding and Human Lactation (Sudbury Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 1993).
- Kathleen Huggins, The Nursing Mother’s Companion, 3rd ed. (Boston: Harvard Common Press, 1995)