How to make your baby comfortable with drinking breast milk from the bottle

Some babies can refuse breast milk from a bottle, here is how to counter the problem.

By: Debjani Arora | | Published: June 22, 2017 5:28 pm

For many working mothers, going back to work after maternity leave is a major concern. Whether your leave period is for six or nine months, the fact is your child still needs to be supplemented with breast milk despite being weaned. Even the WHO guidelines advise supplementation of breast milk till two years of age. Here are 10 tips to start weaning your baby off breast milk.

The hitch here is babies exclusively breastfed, at least for the first few months of their lives, find it difficult to adapt to the bottle instantly. For mothers, who pump and store their breast milk to supplement their baby’s diet at such times feel helpless. This is either due to bottle stress or nipple confusion. Know if it is a concern if you baby stops taking milk from a bottle and wants to breastfeed.

Here Dr Payel Biswas Soo, BPT, ISTC, PTOBG(US), Member of CAPPA, Child Birth Educator & Lactation specialist at Diwakar Speciality Hospital, Bangalore and Member of Medela LC club tells us how to counter this problem. Follow these tips to ensure your baby can still enjoy the benefits of breast milk from the bottle while you are at work:

Plan the feeding schedule before your maternity leave gets over. Allow the secondary caregiver to feed your baby breast milk from the bottle in front of you, so your baby gets used to this routine.
Start pumping and storing milk at least a week before you join office, so you don’t run out of your supply.
Don’t stress over the amount of milk extracted. Sometimes it might be just 10 ml, 15 ml or 50 ml. Continuous pumping will send your brain signals to help your breasts make more milk and meet your child’s requirements.
At work, ask your employers for a private space to be able to pump breast milk and then store it in an airtight BPA free container to feed your baby once you get home. Most offices these days are co-operative with new mothers and provide support for pumping.
At night, you can nurse your baby naturally to enhance breast milk production and improve mother-baby bonding.

Image source: Shutterstock

Published: June 22, 2017 5:28 pm

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