An interesting benefit of breast feeding...

[little_O]

Yup the changing sides is so important! And looking into babies eyes too! Also breastfeeding lessens your chance of getting breast cancer :-)

That's funny you should say that because I was just about to post another snippet from another article which touches on that!:


Breast feeding benefits
“There is simply no better food for newborns” than breast milk, writes neurosurgeon Dr.*Sanjay Gupta in Time magazine. “Breast-fed babies have lower rates of hospital admission, ear infection, diarrhea, rashes, allergies and other medical problems than bottle-fed tots.” Breast-feeding is also reported to protect against respiratory illnesses. A Danish study concluded that “adults who as babies were breast-fed for seven to nine months had higher IQs than those who were breast-fed for two weeks or less.” The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that a child be nursed for six months and, if possible, for a year or more. “It turns out babies aren’t the only ones who benefit from breast-feeding,” says U.S.News & World Report. A study of 150,000 women in 30 countries revealed that “every year a woman breast-feeds she cuts her lifetime risk of developing breast cancer by 4.3*percent.” Yet, “only half of American mothers breast-feed, for an average of two to three months.”

[HotI]

Some of these can be incorporated into bottlefeeding - giving baby skin to skin & eye contact, changing sides, having a consistent carer, pacing feeeds. They are things i have thought about if i was unable to breastfeed for any reason.

[meow]

When we had to supplement my son's feeds for a short time, we used to drop the bottle down a few times so that the flow would stop then we tilt it up again when he did the "let down" suck. I didn't hear about the importance of changing sides till later, but then we were only doing 1 or 2 60ml bottles a day anyway so I guess it didn't matter too much. But there is lots that can be done to help a bottle fed baby.

[little_O]

When we had to supplement my son's feeds for a short time, we used to drop the bottle down a few times so that the flow would stop then we tilt it up again when he did the "let down" suck. I didn't hear about the importance of changing sides till later, but then we were only doing 1 or 2 60ml bottles a day anyway so I guess it didn't matter too much. But there is lots that can be done to help a bottle fed baby.

How can you tell what the "let down" suck is?

[meow]

Rapid, little sucks.