Nowadays, even if a mother wants to breast feed her baby, it can be almost impossible for her to find the time to do so. Or maybe it’s just the inconvenience caused by attempting to breast feed in public areas. To get around this problem, many women choose to use expressed breast milk. Expressing is the act of mechanically squeezing milk from the breast and storing it in a bottle. The expressing is normally done using a pump. Expressed milk also comes in handy if the mom cannot be around and has to leave her baby in the care of a baby sitter, nanny, or her husband.

baby feeding guidelines

Expressed milk can remain good for quite a while if stored correctly. There are plastic bottles and bags made especially for holding and storing this milk. The milk can be placed in the freezer and refrigerator to extend it’s shelf life. It is true that expressed milk stored in the freezer will lose some of it’s nutrients, antibodies, and enzymes, much the same as any other food. But even so, unless you are sick, it will most likely still be healthier for your child than any formula that you purchase from the store.

So how do you determine if expressed milk is still good? Smell it. If it smells ok, the odds are that it’s probably still good. You should be able to store expressed milk at room temperature for up to 6 to 8 hours with no bad effects from it.

There are times when babies that have been used to breast feeding will have trouble adjusting to learning to feed from a baby bottle. Most likely this is due to the fact that different oral motions are necessary to suck milk from a bottle than from a breast. As a result the baby has to learn new eating habits, which most infants are reluctant to do after about 4 weeks. Now, nearly all babies will be bottle fed at some time or other. So to avoid or lessen problems later, it’s probably best to at least introduce a child to a bottle a few times in the first 4 weeks or so. This way it’s not a foreign experience to her when you try to get her to suckle from a bottle at a later time.

You have a couple of size choices when buying a baby bottle in which to store milk. A four oz. size or the eight oz. size. At some point, you’ll probably end of using each, so a good idea to to purchase a couple of bottles of each size. You can also choose to buy permanent bottles or disposable ones. One of the most important features to look for in a feeding bottle is one with anti-gas properties. Anti-gas features can do a lot towards preventing your child from sucking in air with her milk which can cause cramps and other discomforts.

Is there a “best” way for a woman to sit when breastfeeding? Experts normally suggest that the woman should sit in a near upright position, leaning slightly backwards. This decreases the chance of the baby swallowing air. It’s also a very comfortable position for the woman, enabling her to hold the child firmly while she wraps the baby around her.

Tags: , , , <BR/>

Related posts:

  1. The Disease Fighting Power of Breast Milk
  2. Low Provide Of Breast Milk
  3. What Are The Benefits Of Breast Feeding?
  4. How About Breast Feeding In Public
  5. Guidelines Breast Feeding And Positioning

Filed under: Children

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!