Maintaining your Breastfeeding and milk supply

If you are planning to spend time away from your baby whilst Breastfeeding, it is important to protect your Breastfeeding and your milk supply by being careful to continue to stimulate your milk by using a breast pump or hand expressing. Your breast milk supply is very finely tuned to the demands of your baby, therefore to maintain your milk supply it is important to mimic your baby’s feed … Read More

When to begin to offer expressed breast milk

Offering baby an alternative feeding method too soon in the early days whilst they are learning to breastfeed may interfere with the way your baby is Breastfeeding. It is better to wait until your Breastfeeding and lactation are established; this can vary between mothers but generally it takes 2-4 weeks. I have also noticed that there appears to be a developmental window in which babies readily … Read More

Methods of feeding expressed breast milk to your baby

All of the supplementary feeding methods detailed below should ideally be demonstrated to parents by a Lactation Consultant, Midwife or other competent Breastfeeding specialist, who should in most situations, is able to provide the necessary equipment or give you advice on where to purchase it. Finger feeding Using a feeding tube attached to your finger with tape, the other end of the tube can be … Read More

Getting the best out of your breast pump

Compressing the breasts during pumping without causing the pump to lose suction will assist in milk ejection. You can find some more information at Dr Jack Newmans website on breast compression and watch videos on Breastfeeding. If you are using an electric pump it will have a pre-set suck programme, if you are using a manually operated pump I find that mothers are able to express more … Read More

Baby having difficulty adjusting to a new way of feeding

If your baby is finding it hard to adjust to the new way of feeding, here are some tips: Give the bottle at the end of feed when baby is sleepy Dip the teat in the breast milk Trial different types of teats available Warm the teat and milk, avoid using a microwave, using your own body heat is best, put the bottle inside your top! Some babies may need to use a nipple shield for a few … Read More