Baby Care

Archive for the ‘Baby Feeding’ Category

Do you know that breastfeeding gives a baby not only saturation, but also love? It establishes relationship between mother and child. Perhaps, therefore, the truth remains unchanged that the best way is to breastfeed the child. But there are situations in a woman’s life when she has to feed a baby from the bottle, and squeezing becomes simply indispensable. How to overcome this problem? We tried to give some solution in this article:

When to squeeze milk?
In some cases, woman simply can not do without squeezing. It’s better to consider these cases beforehand in order to avoid feeding problems.

If you have too much milk (it happens between the second and fifth day after birth) squeezing helps the breast to relax, and your child can take it easier.

There are situations when only milk is not enough. In such cases, a woman usually wants to stop feeding. But wait! Sueezing with the help of a milk sucker will contribute to generating new milk.

After feeding your baby, you feel that your breast is not empty and you need to squeeze it, because extra milk in the breas can lead to such diseases as mastitis.

It’s not a secret that children often get sick. So if your baby is ill and does not want to suck the breast, don’t forget to squeeze breast milk every three hours. This will help to maintain lactation. If you work and want to continue to feed the baby, regular squeezing also contributes to lactation.

How else can you use the squeezed milk? For example, if you decide to go to the cinema or meet with friends, squeezed milk will be given to your child. Remember that breast milk is equally useful both in bottle, and when sucking from the breast.

How to squeeze?
Now you already know when to squeeze milk, so we’ll tell you how to do it.

First of all, it can be done manually. However, this process is laborious and time-consuming. In addition, some women argue that this is painful. Therefore, you need a professional help (preferably hospital staff, who teach this).

It is important to remember that the squeezing will be successful only if you relax and rest. First of all you should wash your hands (always before contacting with food), and wipe chest with a damp towel. Then sit comfortably and think about your kid (you can look at his/her picture) and only then begin squeezing.

A simpler version of the efficient and pain-free squeezing is to use milk suckers.

You should pay particular attention to Premium Canpol milk sucker. It has several advantages, for example, mimics the natural process of sucking the baby (if you press the knob and keep it in this position, the pumping power is reduced, just as feeding the baby). Squeeze milk safely, gently and quickly (so in case of a milk overflow it will help to keep from stagnation and inflammation of the breast). You can regulate this milk sucker yourself (you decide how often to press the handle, and how to apply the force). In addition, Premium Canpol is small and quiet, it can be used even in public places. It has a silicone mouthpiece, which stimulates milk ducts in the allocation of milk. Among other things, it is hygienic and easy to use (it consists of 5 elements). Decant the milk directly into the bottle from which you can then feed the baby, or tighten its lid, put in the refrigerator. But at the same time do not forget that squeezed milk can be stored, only observing special conditions. Here they are:

12 hours at room temperature.
48 hours in the refrigerator (temp 3 – 5 ° C).
A week in the freezer (temp – 10 ° C). First, cool the milk in the fridge.
6 months in the freezer (temp. -18 To -20 ° C).
Choose the best!
Now in pharmacies there is a very large selection of milk suckers. Electric milk suckers are the most popular ones. They, of course, squeeze milk in a better way, but many women complain of psychological discomfort. They need rest, but the sound of the engine is loud and unpleasant. The most convenient are manual ones. They mimic the natural process of child sucking. You should choose the most convenient variant yourself.

All the kids are different so the approach to each of them should also be individual. It depends on the state of the child, heredity and other important factors. We can only list the general principles of which every mother can easily draw up a scheme for her own child.

Additional nourishment

You should add new products to child’s diet when he/she is ready for it. What are the main signs of readiness for the introduction of new products?

1. Age not less than 6 months.
2. A child weight has doubled, with a weight of not less than 6 kg.
3. The child can sit alone without support.
5. The child is interested in adult food.

How to give additional nourishment?

Feeding can be teaching and ordinary.
When teaching a child is given a piece of something. The child should decide himself/herself what to do with that piece. You can give a piece of vegetables, fruit, cookie, etc. This is like a friendship with a new flavor, so you will not replace them with feeding, but just try to give new products.

Mothers usually prepare (or buy ready) puree and give it to the child, gradually replacing the whole feeding. There are certain rules for the introduction of new products. Start with small portions (with a teaspoon), gradually bringing to 50-100 gr. Each new product is introduced every ten days, so you can track the reactions to it. You must start with monoproducts. If the puree contains two or more products, it can be imposed only when the components have been tried in monovide (for example, the puree “cauliflower with potatoes”, you can give to the child only when he/she is already familiar with the potato or cauliflower).

You should give such food with a spoon, not from the nipple.
Starting from the age of 7-8 months the child can try mashed potatoes and cereals if a kid does not have diathesis.

It’s recommended to start with cereal or vegetables.

From cereals you should choose rice or buckwheat.
Carefully read the content – there should not be sugar and other “extra” ingredients. After these they can try corn, oats, barley. Cereals can be diluted with water or a mixture of breast milk.

If parents decide to start with vegetables, they should first give him/her squash or potatoes. Again, carefully read the content, there should not be salt, cream, and other unnecessary ingredients. If diathesis did not occur, you can add carrots and pumpkin.
Starting from the age of 8-9 months, you can add olive oil in food.

After vegetables and cereal you can try to give him/her fruit. They can try both fruit itself and added to cereals and vegetables (such as an apple with courgettes).

Starting from the age of 10 months, not earlier, you can start with dairy products – cheese and curds. But remember it will be a serious burden on the child’s kidneys.

After dairy products, you can try meat. Start with good lean pork, or beef. You can also choose turkey and rabbit.

Starting from that same age, they can also try juices.

What does feeding mean for a child?

He/she knows more than you think. The child as any person has the instinct of hunger. If he/she is chronically malnourished, he/she will shout, demanding more milk. Believe him/her and talk to the doctor. If he/she does not drink his/her usual portion, do not insist.
Consider that he/she wakes up because he/she is hungry. He avidly catches teat (or dummy) with his/her mouth. Sucking is a serious work for the child. He may even sweat of an effort. If you take away dummy before he/she is satisfied, he/she will indignantly shout. When he/she drinks as much milk as he/she needs, he/she will fall asleep again. Even while sleeping, he/she makes sucking movements, as if he/she is fed. All this constitutes the fact that food is the main joy in his/her life. He/she gets the first view of the life from the environment in which he/she is fed. The first presentation about the people he/she receives from the person who feeds him/her.
If mother constantly insist that the child drinks more milk than he/she wants, he/she will gradually lose his/her appetite. He/she will try to avoid this, sleeping more than before or will protest. If he/she continues in this way, his/her joyful curiosity of life will disappear, as he thinks to himself: “Life is a struggle. These people do not give me rest. I must fight to defend myself”.
So, do not make your child eat more than he/she wants. Let food be a pleasure for him/her and then he/she will feelthat you are his/her friend. This is very important for the development of his/her self-confidence and cheerfulness, which are very important in the first year of life.
The instinct of sucking. Newborn sucks vigorously for two reasons. First, he/she is hungry, and second, he likes sucking. If you feed him/her enough, but do not give him/her an opportunity to satisfy the demand of sucking, he/she will suck his/her fist or thumb, or clothing.
During the first days after birth, children are losing weight.
Some parents are overly concerned about this phenomenon. It seems unnatural and dangerous to them. They also hear about dehydration in the case of dramatic weight loss. Do not worry. If such a thing happens, the newborn immediately can recover by drinking some water.

Children, who already run, jump and swim, are extremely active in summer, and therefore they need much more energy from products that “charge” their batteries. In summer the most of the time children spend in the open air. It’s the season of hikes, long walks, sports and helping adults in the country. The baby wants to pick a bunch of greens, collect berry himself.

The energy consumption increases while appetite reduces due to heat. So, what to feed your little active baby, what products at what time and in what quantities are good for a child in summer?

Very often in the kindergarten or school, when teachers meet their pupils in the beginning of the school year, you will hear they say that children have grown up. And surprisingly, in summer children are growing more active, and therefore the children need the protein, which is the main “building” material of organisms, more than usual. It is very important to increase the proportion of sour-milk products during summer. This way the protein is in its most easily assimilated form. Cottage cheese, kefir, yoghurt should be given to the child 100-200 ml more than his/her normal age-norm. The best is to break the daily norm into 2-4 reception. Thus you first help your child’s stomach – because dairy bacteria contained in dairy products help to improve digestion, which is especially important in hot weather. Second, the baby will not have to drink a glass of kefir at once, especially if he/she is not fond of such drinks.

Daily portion of meat products are also recommended to increase in 10-30 g, depending on the age of the child. With regard to carbohydrates, the main suppliers in the children’s menu for the entire warm period should be berries, fruit and vegetables. Minimize the consumption of biscuits, rich bread, wheat bread and confectionery products, if the kid wants sweet – offer a cup of berries.

It’s necessary to include fresh vegetables in the diet – spices, radishes, sorrel and young nettle should be added to soups and salads. Also keep in mind the forest berries. Remember, that usually they are sweeter than the garden ones.

A child usually knows how much he/she needs to eat. If a mother has less milk because of fatigue or nervousness, the child most likely will wake up early and start his/her hungry cry. He/she will drink the milk until the last drop and try to find more with his little mouth. In these cases weight the baby to make sure that he/she adds less weight than necessary. If the child is very hungry, he/she may start to cry immediately after feeding.

If you have such issues, you should talk with your doctor.  Maybe you need to increase the portion of milk. But beware, do not insist, if your baby does not want more milk than usual. If you breastfeed him/her and he/she wakes up early, feed him/her, even if it leads to additional feeding during the day. More frequent emptying of the breast will stimulate the formulation of more milk if the mother’s body is able to do so.

How much should children put on weight?

The most correct answer is: the child himself/herself knows how he/she should put on weight. If you give him/her less milk, he/she wakes up earlier for the next feeding. Some children add more weight, while others – less, and that’s OK. However, a slow gain in weight may mean that the child is malnourished or sick. If your child slowly adds weight, it is better to visit  a doctor to be sure that he/she is healthy. There are children who slowly add weight, but do not show signs of hunger. However, if you give more milk, he/she will be willing to drink it, and put on weight faster. In other words, the child does not always shout, when he/she is hungry. Usually, children born weighing 3.5 kg, weight 7 kg by 5 months. But children born with small weight, gain weight faster, as though striving to catch up with their larger brethren. As a rule, child adds about 900g per month during the first 3 months (160-200 g per week). Of course, some healthy children add less weight, while others – more. And in the second year of life the child usually adds 200-250 g per month. The older becomes the child, the slower and more regularly he adds weight. While the child’s teeth grow, usually his/her appetite is deteriorated, and within weeks he/she can not put on weight. When he/she is healthy, the appetite returns to him/her, and the weight is increasing rapidly.

His/her weight at each weighing depends on the fullness of his/her stomach, bladder or bowel. If one morning you weigh him/her and see that he/she has added only 100 grams over the past week, while before he added up to 200 g, do not conclude that he/she is malnourished or sick. If a child is completely healthy, wait a week or two, perhaps in the next week he/she will add more weight. But always remember that the older he/she becomes, the slower he/she adds weight.

How often do you need to weigh the child?

Of course, most mothers do not have weights at home, and children they weight children only when they visit a doctor and that is enough. If the child is healthy and cheerful, it does not make sense to weigh him/her more often than once a month. If you have any scales at home, do not weigh the newborn baby more often than once a week or better – every two weeks. Weighing him/her every day, you will be too worried about his/her weight.

“Your child does not eat sweets? But in this way you are depriving him (her) from childhood!”, – exclaims a friend, and even a stranger learning that you exclude from the diet of the child artificial sweets. Here, under the artificial sweets we mean those that are made on basis of natural products, but with the addition of various sugars. For example, chocolate – children’s favorite delicacy, prepared on the basis of cocoa beans and sugar, which in turn is extracted from either sugar cane or from beets.

When saying natural sweets, we will mean those which have a sweet taste from nature, without additional sweetening. For example, fruits and berries, and honey. So what is childhood, without sugar, wrapped in colored paper? This is a fantastic performance, shown by mother or the child to a grateful audience – relatives and friends. Childhood is a Dad’s strong hand on which the child hangs like a small monkey, holding with hands and feet.

So, what is candy? Candy is a common joy, and when the child does not know its taste, a piece of sugar in wrappers for him/her is absolutely nothing. Chocolate, candies, pasta, marshmallows are all artificial sweets, their taste reinforced repeatedly, in contrast to the natural sweetness, such as fruit.

When child grows enough to reach a table or to sit around it with parents, he/she is certainly interested in, what is in color wrappers. But here is an example: adults use alcohol at table; however, they don’t even think that they can “treat” the child with it. The same happens with candy – you can simply explain child that it’s “adult food”. Kid is constantly faced with different restrictions in life, and life will not become a tragedy adding one more ban in his/her list.

Another thing is when the child begins to get acquainted with the “image” of chocolates. Advertising, “good” relatives and acquaintances, socializing with peers who brag in front of each other about eaten supplies of chocolate and marmalade this is when it would be difficult to simply ignore the existence of “pieces of sugar in the colored wrappers”. But by this time the child will already be old enough, and a bit of candy will not harm him/her.

Here you will find examples of dishes which are not only useful, but they also help to make food an exciting pastime. Here are simple examples of offering usual dishes to small gourmands, but in the original design.  

 Give a good example

If you want your children to eat fruit and vegetables, make sure that you yourself can eat them with pleasure, and regularly include them in your diet.
Let the mashed potatoes become “potato glue” to which other vegetables will stick. A child can dip a spoon with mashed potatoes and take other vegetables too (peas, corn, carrot cut into small pieces).
Pete or the basis for a pizza can be become the face of Mr. Vegetable with eyes, lips, nose and hair made from vegetables.

 Hide or mask

Useful products can be added if you hide vegetables in the children’s favorite dishes. For example, you can add shredded carrots or zucchini into the sauce Bolognese, and so on.
Children like to have burgers, so “stuff” a lot of vegetables in them. For stuffing, you can use peas, celery stalks, lettuce, grated carrots or pumpkin.
Children eat soups made from potatoes, pumpkin, tomatoes and other vegetables with pleasure, which are very useful. Serve these soups in favorite dish with toasts, which child can dip in the soup.

Let the food be practical

Children will eat sliced fruit easily. Check that the bananas are not damaged, because damaged skin can quickly spoil it, choose small ripe tangerines – it will be easy to clean them.
I can eat a rainbow. For the festive table, you can make a rainbow from colorful fruits. Slice strawberries (red), pineapple (yellow), watermelon (pink), kiwi (green), black grapes (purple), oranges or pumpkin (orange), and add berries of blueberry (blue).
The best offer at festive table will be candy together with fruit. For example, you can make barbeque- from a marshmallow and various fruit.

Weaning is the process of introducing your baby to solids after being totally dependent on breast milk for her nutritional need for the first six months of life. You can gradually introduce your baby to minced or mashed foods and foods that need to be chewed. Of course, you may continue to breast or bottle-feed your baby alongside solid foods for as long as it’s comfortable for you and your baby.
As with breastfeeding on demand, Baby Weaning is a method of introducing solid foods that leaves it up to your baby to decide when and how much to eat.  While not necessarily a “hands off” approach, Baby Weaning does advocate allowing your baby to make all food choices for him or herself.
You are the best judge of when it’s time to wean, and you do not have to set a deadline unless you and your child are ready to do so. However, now the Department of Health recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months (26 weeks). Breast milk and formula milk are easy for your baby to digest and provide all the calories and nutrients your baby needs for healthy growth and development. Also, it is thought that the chances of developing allergies are greatest during infancy, so feeding your baby a diet of breast milk or formula until this time helps reduce the risk of introducing allergens. As your baby’s digestive system matures, he or she will be better able to handle different foods without an allergic reaction. Breast or formula milk will continue to be a very important source of nutrition whilst your baby adjusts to a mixed diet and for the first year or so of life. If you feel your baby needs to start solids before this, do talk to your health visitor. The Department of Health used to recommend that babies were started on solids between the ages of four and six months.

How to know when your baby is ready for weaning?
Don’t rush into weaning as a result of pressure from parents or friends, but be guided by the following signals from your baby:
• being unsatisfied after a full milk feed
• demanding increasing and more frequent milk feeds
• weight gain slowing or leveling out without a period of illness to explain why
• after a period of sleeping through the night, your baby begins waking because he/she is hungry

You may also notice your baby showing interest in your food and attempting to put things in his/her mouth.
If you are unsure or concerned about when your baby is ready to begin weaning, talk to your health visitor.

Let’s start with an advice: Do not feel guilty if you decide to switch to bottle-feeding. It always requires a large excerpts from the mother and courage, so if you are unsure of your decision, please follow the maternal instinct and do not be afraid of the condemnation of others.

In some cases, artificial feeding is more appropriate for the child than breastfeeding, especially if the mother smokes, drinks or takes harmful drugs (certain drugs, alcohol and nicotine can be transferred to the child with the mother’s milk). In addition, bottle-feeding is the only acceptable solution for women living with HIV or suffering from other serious diseases, such as anemia, tuberculosis, or kidney disease. Also, switch to bottle-feeding is recommended for mothers taking certain medications.

Milk for the artificial feeding will provide your child with all necessary vitamins and minerals, and its nutritious properties are close to the properties of breast milk. Typically, milk for replacement feeding is an ordinary cow’s milk, only it has received special treatment and is easy to digest.

However, today one can find an alternative to this milk. For example, soy milk is specially designed for infants who are not carrying lactose, or kids with allergies to milk. However do not get involved in new developments: use a standard milk formula, if the doctor had not recommended otherwise.

When making milk for replacement feeding, it is important to accurately follow the instructions on the package. Feeding from a bottle can cause cramps, if you cook too weak or heavily concentrated milk or feed baby milk, heated to the wrong temperature.

Ready milk packaged in cardboard boxes or bottles will help you on the trip, but it is almost twice the price of conventional milk powder for artificial feeding.

You can keep the milk with a margin of 24 hours, leave it in the refrigerator and use as needed. However, after 24 hours from the time of preparation any unused milk should be discarded. Never reuse the remaining milk – it is popular place for breeding bacteria!

The temperature to which you need to heat the artificial milk to feed baby is individual – some kids love milk, heated to room temperature, and some like warm milk. To warm up the milk put the bottle in a pot with boiling water for a few seconds and then check the readiness of milk for feeding, dropping a few drops on your wrist.

If your baby swallows the milk too quickly, find the dummy smaller, and vice versa – if the child is not in a hurry to swallow, look for big dummy.

Feeding a newborn baby is not only pleasant, but also a lengthy process. It can take 20-40 minutes, and there are kids who do not release mother for an hour. If mother holds her still quite small (4-5 kg) baby for so long, at the end of feeding she fells it is physical fatigue, heaviness in arms and tension in the back. Can this be avoided? How to make the process of feeding a real pleasure?

There is an advice in many books about caring for children: «… if you want the process of breastfeeding to be comfortable, you’ll need to store up to five pillows. Mom sits on the sofa or chair, puts on his knees two pillows (so that baby is at breast height), two more pillows she puts a under her hands, the last pillow is placed behind her back ».

I do not think that any time you need to feed the baby, you will resort to such a complex structure. And why, when there is an excellent alternative – a special pillow for breastfeeding!

Pillow to feed is in the form of split-lifebuoys, which is tightly enclasps around the waist of a mother. Pillow does not allow mother to move when she feeds a baby. The front of the feeding pillow is densely filled, so it helps the baby lying on it to stay at the level of mothers breast. The ends are rounded cushions to pad for the feeding was based on mother’s waist. Moreover, the construction of a universally valid for mums of any size. You can use such a pillow from birth and until you breastfeed a baby.

Pillow for feeding makes breastfeeding comfortable for mom and baby. Mom does not have to hold the child with two hands. Mother can drink tea or read a book without interrupting breastfeeding. Pillow allows you to change the chest and rotate the position of the child to different angles of the chest. The alternation makes it easier to generate a different proportion of empty chest, and this decreases the likelihood of lactostaz.

When selecting pillows for breastfeeding pay attention to its completion. It is best if the pillow is attached to feed removable slip at a lightning. In this case, you have no difficulty to withdraw pillow for washing – it’s convenient and hygienic.

Breastfeeding pillow should be made of solid teak, with 100% cotton pillowcase. This is an environmentally friendly material that retains good form, does not cause allergic reactions, does not absorb odors.