Breast milk is the best milk for your baby. Pediatricians recommend breastfeeding until you baby is a year old. Breast milk, iron-fortified infant formula or a combination of both should make up the main food for your baby for the first year.
Advantages of breast feeding:
- Human breast milk is the perfect food for your baby. It has all the right ingredients in just the right amounts for your baby.
- Breast milk has special antibodies that help protect your baby from colds, flu, ear infections, and illnesses like asthma, eczema, and hay fever.
- It is much more economical to breastfeed.
- Research shows that there are fewer crib deaths (SIDS) among breastfed babies.
If you are breast feeding:
- Feed the baby on demand. Go by the baby’s needs, not the clock. Many babies are hungry about every two hours. The more your baby nurses, the more milk you will produce.
- There is no need to supplement breast-feeding at all during the first two weeks with bottles of water or formula; healthy infants get all they need from breast milk.
- Make sure the baby is positioned on the breast properly. Baby and mom should be tummy to tummy and the baby has as much of the breast in his/her mouth as possible. If the baby is only on the nipple, soreness will result.
- Be patient. It takes time to get to know one another and to perfect the art of breast feeding.
If you have any questions about breast feeding your newborn call La Leche League @ 406-582-5688.
If you are bottle feeding:
You and your doctor will decide which formula is best; if your baby is allergic to milk, there are special formulas available on the market. Never change formulas without discussing it first with your doctor. Here are some other things to keep in mind about bottle feeding:
- Powder formula is the most economical.
- The first time you use new bottles, rings, nipple caps or nipples, sterilize them in boiling water.
- When you mix formula, follow the manufacturer’s directions exactly.
- Check the expiration date on the container to make sure you’re using a safe product.
- If you are using a powder formula, it’s easiest to prepare the entire day’s bottles in the morning and put them in the refrigerator so they will be ready when the baby is hungry.
- If you warm formula, place it in a pan of hot water. NEVER microwave bottles because milk in the center of the bottle can easily get overheated.
- Follow your baby’s lead to decide how much formula to give. At first, babies only take a few ounces; by the time they are three months old, many take up to our eight ounce bottles a day. Tune in to signals that baby has had enough: fussiness, pushing bottle away or turning head.
- Nourish your baby emotionally as well as physically. Give your newborn skin-to-skin contact whenever possible, cuddle and speak softly and lovingly.
- Feeding time is a learning time for your baby. Be patient and attentive to your baby’s needs. When using a bottle, hold baby close. Never prop a bottle or let baby sleep with a bottle.
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