How to feed a baby with expressed breast milk?
Time to feed with expressed breast milk! The value of breast milk is indisputable when it comes to infant nutrition. Breast milk is essential for feeding your baby, especially in the first months. Sometimes breast milk may come a little late or stop early. In such cases, you should focus on feeding your baby in the right way without worrying.
What happens if breast milk does not come?
Breast milk may not come immediately after birth. If this happens, do not worry because you have no milk, but continue breastfeeding or expressing. When your breast is stimulated, your hormones will be activated to produce breast milk. After a while, your body will start producing breast milk regularly.
You can store your milk by expressing it!
It is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to give your baby only breast milk for the first 6 months and then breast milk combined with other foods until the age of 2. To store breast milk during this time, you can also choose to express your milk with a breast pump. This way, when you are away from your baby, the caregiver can feed your baby with the breast milk you have already expressed . A breast pump is used to express breast milk. You can store the breast milk expressed with a breast pump in abreast milk storage bag or in a breast milk storage bottle. You can then heat it (not directly on the fire) and give it to the baby with a bottle. So, what do we know wrong about bottles and what should we pay attention to when giving breast milk in a bottle?
Is It Wrong to Use a Baby Bottle?
The first 6-8 weeks are the period when babies establish their breastfeeding patterns and bond with their mothers. During this period, it is important that babies are regularly breastfed and fed with breast milk. In addition, it is not recommended to prefer bottles for infant feeding in the first 6 weeks unless it is not necessary.
1.Choose the Right Baby Bottle!
When babies are separated from their mothers for various reasons , it is extremely important for healthy infant nutrition that they continue to be breastfed . This is because babies suck on their mother’s breast with a wave-like tongue movement, which is repeated about 1000 times during a breastfeeding session. In other words, babies spend a lot of effort while feeding from the mother’s breast. Babies who are introduced to standard bottles may not want to suck on the mother’s breast again because they will apply a different feeding motion without effort. This is called “breast confusion“. However, some bottles, or rather bottle teats, are designed to prevent breast confusion. Choosing the right bottle is critical to prevent the baby from experiencing breast confusion and rejecting the mother’s breast later on.
2. Pay Attention to These When Using Baby Bottles!
Once you have decided to use a bottle for infant feeding, another important consideration is the technique to be used when bottle feeding. The standard technique of placing the bottle perpendicular to the floor in the mouth of a lying baby increases the risk of overfeeding and can lead to abdominal pain. This is why health experts now advocate an alternative technique for infant feeding known as “Flow Adjusted Feeding“.
3. Use a Flow Adjustable Bottle!
This is a very easy baby feeding technique. It is based on getting the baby to feed at the pace that the baby wants and needs. It also teaches the baby’s parents and caregivers to observe how the baby reacts when it is hungry or full.
How to Use a Flow Adjustable Baby Bottle?
infant feeding with the “Flow Adjusted Feeding” technique:
- Hold your baby upright, try to have as much skin-to-skin contact as possible, this will help strengthen the bond with your baby.
- Hold the bottle horizontally with the nipple filled with milk.
- Let your baby open his/her mouth by touching the tip of the bottle to his/her upper lip or cheek, just as you do with your nipple when breastfeeding.
- Let your baby search for and find the pacifier on its own and put it in its mouth. Make sure that the pacifier is fully inserted between your baby’s tongue and upper palate.
- When bottle-feeding, babies sometimes forget to breathe and want to continue drinking breast milk quickly. If your baby is drinking too fast, lower the tip of the bottle or take the bottle away completely.
- Your baby does not need to finish a whole bottle. So don’t push for more when he or she has finished drinking breast milk. Watch your baby while he/she is feeding and try to recognize whether he/she is full or not by the way he/she reacts. For example, pushing the bottle, pulling back, etc.
- If you change your usual orientation during the feeding or during the next session, this will have a positive effect on his/her hand-eye coordination.
- Baby feeding is also a great opportunity for you to look at your baby, talk to him/her and stroke him/her. This will contribute to your baby’s social and emotional development.
Why is it Important to Use a Flow Adjustable Baby Bottle?
“Adjusted Flow Feeding” with a bottle has important benefits:
- It prevents overfeeding, which can lead to obesity in the future.
- The baby feeds with effort.
- It eases the transition between breastfeeding and bottle feeding and reduces excess air swallowing, a possible cause of colic.
- Strengthens the special bond between you and your baby, even when using a bottle.
- Improves your baby’s hand-eye coordination and contributes to eye development