Breast Feeding Tips

Breast feeding is a very important aspect of motherhood that is sadly being ignored in today’s modern and fast paced society. The number of busy, working women led to the decline in breast feeding and a lot of babies are left with commercial infant milk, which may be serviceable, but will never be able to replace authentic mother’s milk for functional and sentimental reasons. For women who forgo breast feeding, I suggest rethinking your priorities, but for women who didn’t, here are some tips to help you in breast feeding:
Nurse frequently. The amount of milk produced by a woman’s body is directly related to the amount of stimulation her breasts receive. Limiting or restricting the amount of nursing sessions will greatly reduce the amount of milk she is able to produce, so it is best not to limit the actual breast feeding, so that milk supply will be consistent and stable.Drink lots of liquids. Women who are nursing need lots of fluids.

Staying hydrated should be of utmost importance, but avoid harmful liquids such as coffee and alcohol, which encourage further fluid loss. As a good measuring stick for hydration, a mother’s urine should be pale in color. Dark colored urine means that she needs more fluids.

Take a rest when the baby rests. This will help sync your breast feeding availability with the baby’s needs. You wouldn’t want to be too tired to breastfeed when the baby is hungry. One good way of doing this is to sleep at the same time with your baby; this also helps create a bond between child and mother.Pay special attention to your diet. Nursing is the most important time where a woman should watch what she eats. Take special care not to miss meals while at the same time, prevent ingesting any junk foods or meals that don’t contain much nutrients. Remember that what you eat is being passed on to your kid.Get rid of any vices. This should have been done even before pregnancy, but in case they aren’t, stop now before you further damage your baby’s health. Any kind of vice from smoking, to drinking alcohol, excessive coffee drinking and even staying in late should be stopped. The nursing stage is a phase where the baby will directly mirror the mother’s health.

Observe proper posture and positioning. This will help prevent sore nipples as well as make sure that your baby will receive the right amount of nutrition. Ideally, the proper position is either lying down or sitting up, with the baby’s tummy directly facing your tummy. Try to support your breast with your hand, and to tickle the baby’s lips with either your finger and your nipple. This will entice the baby to feed.If you fail to follow the previous tip and end up with sore nipples, you should start following them when possible. In the meantime, the baby should feed on the less sore side, and adjust your breast feeding schedule to short, yet frequent feedings instead of long and infrequent ones.