Breast fed milk is the first food of the newborn baby. When you surf on you can find many advantages of breast-feeding. It is not only beneficial to the baby, but there are many benefits for the mother.
- Breast milk is a perfectly balanced food for the baby that contains all the necessary nutrients.
- The protective substance in the milk prevents any allergies, infections or illness affecting the child.
- A study conducted shows that artificially fed babies are prone to many illness and obesity in later stages than breast-fed babies.
- When the baby feels full, it stops drinking voluntarily. Hence, there will be no question of baby being over fed.
- Importantly, it strengthens the love and affection bonding between the mother and her child.
- In a mother, it helps in controlling the bleeding immediately after the delivery.
- Breast-feeding helps in bringing back the womb to its normal size.
- By feeding the baby, there chances of mother losing the extra weight during her pregnancy.
- More significantly, mother feels the sense of fulfilment and satisfaction.
Before breast-feeding, latching is an important process. Babies latching to the breast feed are a little difficult task but not impossible. Here are some tips to getting baby to latch.
- Use a proper nursing or regular pillow to position the baby for feed.
- Place your baby in a proper feeding position before you latch baby to your breast.
- Make sure that the baby is comfortable in that position.
- Move your nipple up and down on baby’s lips to tempt the baby to open his or her mouth for the feed.
- If this does not work, place some manually expressed breast milk onto your nipple for tempting the baby to latch.
- If the baby is very sleepy, try rubbing baby’s back along the spine or tickling under the feet.
- A nipple shield can be used to help the baby latch for the first week only. Once the baby is comfortable, you can stop using the shield.
|