Sometimes, a breastfeeding mother needs to leave her baby at home while doing some errands. It can be a short one such as doing grocery shopping, having a me-time with girlfriends, or regular separation such as going back to work or study.
If you do exclusive breastfeeding, that means to feed your baby with expressed breast milk when you are away.
How to do that?
You may say, just put the milk in the bottle and give to the baby.
Well, it can be true, but it can be more complex than what you think.
Here’s why..
Do you know that some lactation consultants recommend avoiding bottle-feeding for breastfed baby, especially in the early days?
Why is that so? Bottle feeding, if not done carefully, can lead to nipple confusion, where the baby thinks that the bottle nipple and breast nipple has the same way of drinking (which is incorrect), and thus the term ‘confusion’.
The issue here is that with typical bottle nipple, the baby does not need to suck extra hard to get the milk out from the bottle.
Whereas at the breast, first the baby needs to suck to stimulate let down reflex, and only after that the milk start flowing. So, some efforts need to be done first.
Now, let me ask you, which one do you think you would prefer, doing easier or harder job? Of course the easier one, right. That’s why some babies prefer bottles (due to less or no effort involved) and refuse direct latch. Of course, you don’t want it to happen.
So, how to feed baby expressed breastmilk the better way?
This post will explain some tips on how to feed your baby with expressed breast milk, by bottle-feeding or its alternatives.
