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, hit shelves this past winter. Breastfeeding is one of the best gifts you can give your baby. Here are five tips for making it as easy as possible:
1. Be Good to Yourself -- The frequency of feeds varies as your baby grows. Early on, feeding may be very frequent. Later, your baby may not need to feed as often. But no matter the frequency, it can take a lot of moms’ time and energy. While breastfeeding, be especially good to yourself and realize that during this window in time, the most important thing you are doing is caring for your baby. Everything else can wait.
2. Drink Lots of Water -- This helps you make the amount of milk your baby needs. Before sitting down to feed your baby, fill a large glass or stainless steel canteen with water so you can drink while your baby drinks.
3. Treat Yourself to a Nutritious Diet -- I recommend continuing to take prenatal vitamins while nursing and being sure to eat healthy amounts of real food -- this is great for mom and baby. As an added bonus, the flavors mom eats come through breastmilk as a wonderful way to introduce baby to a rich variety of tastes.
4. Take Advantage of Your Hormones -- Every time you nurse, hormones are generated that make you drowsy after nursing, so take a nap when the baby naps. You are not being lazy. You are taking care of yourself so you can take care of your baby.
5. You’re Not Alone -- If you have trouble nursing, call an expert for help. A Certified Lactation Consultant is an invaluable resource. You might also want to connect with a La Leche League volunteer or an experienced family member or friend. Getting the encouragement you need could make a world of difference.
BornFree’s Breastfeeding Week Giveaway
MANDATORY ENTRY: BornFree asks moms to tell how you transitioned from breast to bottle. Please leave your comment after this post, and BornFree will select a winner at random to receive a BornFree bottle.
Bonus Entries (after fulfilling the mandatory entry above): You may tweet this giveaway up to 3x a day. (Please space them at least an hour apart.) Leave a separate comment with the URL of each tweet. (1 entry per tweet) Tweet
One winner will be randomly selected from the qualified comments received by Sunday, August 7, 2011, at 11:59 PM ET. Please leave an email address on one of your comments if it’s not available on your Blogger profile. Winner must respond within 72 hours or another winner will be drawn. Contest is open to US residents only.
CONTEST CLOSED. Congratulations to the winner: The Knapps!
DISCLOSURE: No products or compensation were provided for this post. The Amazon affiliate links are linked to my account.
With my first son.. we never transitioned from breast to bottle.. he quit nursing at 13 months so we went to cups/sippy cups.. my newest son is 5 months old and flat out cannot use a bottle at all.. I'd LOVE some tips!
ReplyDeleteI just left the bottle around the house with water in it and my son got the hang of it.
ReplyDeleteI was never able to breast feed (it was a real disappointment) so we had no choice but to use bottles and both of my children needed the nipples for premature babies.
ReplyDeletehttp://twitter.com/#!/lch2004/status/98076533087936512
ReplyDeleteslowly added in bottle feedings until they became the only feedings
ReplyDeleteabile27 at yahoo dot com
I'm questionning the third "tip" - professionals everywhere encourage mothers to feed their babies as often as the baby would like. If your baby wants to nurse sooner than every 1.5 hours, chances are it is going through a growth spurt and only frequent nursing can increase your milk supply!
ReplyDeleteI breast fed my baby for about 3 weeks then I started to dry up. I was nursing her almost every hour and it did not increase my milk. I know that everyone's body is different but I was really upset that it was happening. So we bought a few different types of bottles for her to try before we found one that she would take. Finally we found one and I kept trying to breast feed her and then offer the bottle to try and transition her easy. It was a good thing that I started giving her the bottle beacause a few days later I had a kidney stone and had to be hospitalized and a few days later passed another. So then I had to stop because of the meds that I was on.
ReplyDeleteamyleanne0819@yahoo.com
http://twitter.com/#!/lch2004/status/98559868427976704
ReplyDeletewe never transitioned. we went straight from breast feeding to spill-proof sippy cups.
ReplyDeleteperki014@uwp.edu
I made the transition by introducing a bottle with a nipple that was very close to the breast, starting out just giving the bottle once or twice a day, then progressing to more often. It worked really great with no fuss. Paula C. paulasue39@yahoo.com
ReplyDeletetweet - https://twitter.com/#!/Sexyknickers68/status/99229687611539456 Paula C. paulasue39@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteTweet #2 - http://twitter.com/#!/Sexyknickers68/status/99292248696561664 Paula C. paulasue39@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteTweet http://twitter.com/#!/Sexyknickers68/status/99367804670722048 Paula C. paulasue39@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteWe had to transistion to the breast. My daughter spent the first 9 days in NICU. I would pump and the nurse would feed her breast milk through her feeding tube. Then we switched to a bottle and when she came home the breast. She is able to switch back and forth, and prefers the breast. It is funny she will spit the bottle out and start rooting on her dad's upper arm.
ReplyDeletetweeted http://twitter.com/#!/vphonegirl
ReplyDeleteI had the baby's father give him his first few bottles and after that he took it no problem from me. Which made me a very happy Mommy.
ReplyDeleteTweet http://twitter.com/#!/Sexyknickers68/status/99656380679598080 Paula C. paulasue39@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteI have not done that yet but will after my baby is born
ReplyDeletelittleumbrella (at) wow (dot) com
Tweet https://twitter.com/#!/Sexyknickers68/status/99724288847917057 Paula C. paulasue39@yahoo.com
ReplyDeletetweet http://twitter.com/#!/Sexyknickers68/status/99862797512486912 Paula C. paulasue39@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteI don't khow that it was much of a transition. I never had any trouble getting my baby to nurse or take a bottle. I would pump all day at work and my mom would give her the bottles and I would nurse at night and on my lunch break. I did this for a full year.
ReplyDeletefelecia@twinoaksfl.org
tweet - https://twitter.com/#!/Sexyknickers68/status/100022640609202176 Paula C. paulasue39@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteWe were using a combination of breast and bottle from about week 2 on. It wasn't a hard transition between the two for my son but it was hard on me emotionally.
ReplyDeletemariahm22 at gmail dot com
We're still trying to transition our baby to taking a bottle once in awhile. She protests and cries and waits until I come back.
ReplyDeletecbeargie at yahoo dot com
Tweet #1 - https://twitter.com/#!/Sexyknickers68/status/100070762144215040 Paula C. paulasue39@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteWe never transitioned. Hoping we can with the second.
ReplyDeleteWith my daughter, I started her on the bottle somewhat early simply because I knew I didn't want to breastfeed for a long time. So by week 4 I was giving her both bottles and breast and she didn't have any problem switching between the two. I was lucky!
ReplyDeleteI'm expecting my first but plan to breastfeed and use the bottle for when I'm at work...hoping that if I introduce it early on baby won't have any problems switching in between.
ReplyDeletedanielleaknapp at gmail dot com
I am currently pregnant with my first so I love all the advice for transitioning as I plan to breastfeed.
ReplyDeletejennykmoses@yahoo.com
Tweet#2 - https://twitter.com/#!/Sexyknickers68/status/100262660947443712 Paula C. paulasue39@yahoo.com
ReplyDeletehttp://twitter.com/#!/lch2004/status/100319643390066688
ReplyDeleteTweet#3 - http://twitter.com/#!/Sexyknickers68/status/100337114562035712 Paula C. paulasue39@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteI haven't had to transition yet...no baby for us yet!
ReplyDeleteWe never transitioned.... nursed the little ones until almost 2 years old! Would love to win this for my sister in law who is transitioning right now!
ReplyDeleteginahamm@yahoo.com
DID HALF AND HALF AND SLOWING TRANSITION!!
ReplyDeleteDIEMYDOLLIE@YAHOO.COM
i tweeted about this
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/#!/diemyd0llie
diemydollie@yahoo.com