Whether you are using a bottle or breastfeeding your baby, it is important that you strike the perfect balance between the two methods. More than anything, you also want to put yourself in a position in which you understand all techniques at your disposal. There is a great resource that we found that was created by a group of healthcare professionals. Spend some time watching the clip and the transcript below if you would prefer that.
If you are wondering about what formulas to give your baby check out our post on the best baby formulas.
while most new moms know that breastfeeding is the best for their baby a vast majority of information that's out there is just not clear enough the American Academy of Pediatrics has specific recommendations for giving our babies the best start in life here's dr. Tanya Altman with more on the subject the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusively breastfeeding for the first six months of life and then adding in some solids or complimentary food and continuing to breastfeed until at least twelve months of age and as long really as a mom and baby desire you can breastfeed as long as you're enjoying it and your baby's enjoying it breast milk is really the best source of nutrition for your infant there's so many wonderful benefits so breastfeed as long as you can but especially for the first six to twelve months of life well even if your children are very grown up now chances are you still have vivid memories of how each of them nursed when they were babies I know I do it can be an intense and challenging time with some very important nursing decisions involved that affect both your baby and everyone else in your family and speaking of families with new babies we'd like to introduce you to one right now this is Sebastian Alexandra syska he was born a month ago and he's very serious about his feeding time my name is kishna Sisca and i have four kids now i have a 14 year old 12 year old and nine and a half year old and newborn who's a month old I really enjoy breastfeeding for multiple different reasons one the bonding you get to experience with the baby is special and unique to breast milk is best I've had times where I was seriously ill with other it's that when I was breastfeeding in the baby we never got anything I really enjoy breastfeeding and it's really relaxing and the baby gets really relaxed and the mom really relaxed the beautiful thing about breastfeeding is that I find you lose the baby weight that's also a plus that I found yeah I had to supplement with formula for my first one and she was the worst nurser and lost too much weight and she'd sleep on the boat so she nursed for five minutes and then fall flat asleep my second one was an excellent nurse er she was fantastic I never had to supplement she breastfed till 15 months and my third one was a good nurse or two but he stopped at seven months when he started fighting fighting did real quick and this one he's doing really well he's a good nurse er but this one I'm going back to work earlier than I did with my other three so I'm gonna be making bottles so I think it's gonna go well as a working mom my breast pump was my best friend I took it with me to work every day I traveled around the country speaking with my breast pump sometimes my baby came with me but I could always bring him with me so I would leave him at home take my breast pump with me collect breast milk fly home with a cooler stored in the refrigerator or the freezer and the caregivers would provide my sons with my breast milk and of course I wanted a nurse as much as possible but I could always be there 24/7 so as a working mom I did my best to provide my both my boys with my breast milk and sometimes that came from me and sometimes it came from my breast pump but I think the most important thing is to be flexible we know that it's important to breastfeed and we know that's the best thing for our children but we can't always be with them so luckily with today's modern conveniences there are so many ways to be away from your baby and still provide the baby with your breast milk I'm sure so many moms out there can relate to the very real issues decisions and stress associated with nursing but if you're feeling that stress today know that you're not alone in fact experts say Nursing is one of the most important and most challenging aspects of motherhood I can definitely relate to that and that's why I can't wait to introduce you to our next guests they've got the a-to-z on all things Nursing I've got Jenny Lockwood Mulaney from the infant feeding brand Tommee Tippee here and registered nurse and board certified lactation consultant and Marie Sawicki welcome ladies what a great topic to talk about a hot topic to talk about I went through it it was very rewarding but also very stressful I know so you deal with both stay-at-home moms and you deal with career moms yes from all of your experiences what would you say is the driving force that that makes them decide whether to nurse or to bottle-feed truly is a personal decision for every mom every mom wants to do the best for their baby and they know the health benefits and breast milk is the best choice every mom should know that a little bit of breast milk is better than none and more is better than some and that's where I come in I get him off to the right start right it's hard in the beginning the first I'm not gonna lie to you it is hard but getting all the first week yeah it's it's worth it I don't want to underscore that but it is it's not something you just step into or fall into so let's talk about the challenges both for breastfeeding and for bottle feeding yes challenges getting off to the right start knowing how breastfeeding works having a little bit of knowledge about how breastfeeding works getting educated with their significant other going to prenatal classes and then having a health care provider that's going to support them and their views on how they're gonna feed their baby do you think one of the major challenges is just not having to support them well your you experience the challenges some moms um have to go back to work some moms or stay-at-home moms but they also want the ability to go back and forth from breast to bottle and you might have to use a breast pump to get you started talk about that Jenny you I have three children two of which with preemies yeah that had its own set of challenges can you tell us about those yep well each baby is different and each one of them brings their own experience of breastfeeding so even when you've breastfed one the second and third it could be a very different experience again which was the case with me my four oldest was full-term and latched pretty readily but then second baby preemie needed support in the hospital needed feeding tubes and all that extra pumping to get the milk supply established and to get something that he would take by mouth was a big challenge and then the third one had her own personality so it's different every time yeah every every woman every baby so certainly the relationship between the body and the baby and the products and equipment I think most people should know that even though you choose to exclusively breastfeed at some point you might be transitioning and you may need a bottle and in your experience do most women both breastfeed and at some point use bottle yes the majority of moms don't have the luxury of staying at home at some point we they do have to return back to work the majority of the workforce are women and a good portion of those are of childbearing age so a pump to continue the breast smell is gonna make it a lot easier Jenny you are as we said a mom of three but you also work for Tommee Tippee which is an award-winning infant feeding company been around for 50 years and they're all about extension right it's about allowing women to breastfeed for as long as they want or to getting get going even further than they expected yeah and they have some really great products that help them do that can you tell me a little bit of what they've done to sort of help women get through this time sure well we're all about trying to make life easier for moms and families and Nursing is its own rewarding experience for sure but in those cases where mom isn't nursing you still have to get that milk into the baby through a bottle so there's a variety of options to do that our newest launch is actually called pump and go and the real innovation here is that it has a single pouch mom pumps directly into the pouch she uses an adapter from her hospital grade pump or her personal pump pumps right in here puts the lid on and then she stores warms and feeds from the same pouch so there's none of that transferring pouring the risk of spilling we don't want to lose a drop liquid so pump and go allows mom to then take this pouch snaps are right into a bottle and feed the baby but it also starts with a nipple because the comfort the baby experiences while bottle feeding has a lot to do with mouthfeel and what their experience is silicone nipples can feel a lot like Mom's nipple they have a lot of pliability they move in every direction they can take on the warmth of the formula or the milk that's behind them they also have a venting system that moves the air through so that it's a comfortable and smooth feed so today's bottles and nipples aren't the ones our mothers used yes I don't think they were the ones that I use to be honest five years ago yep so our latest innovation actually involves taking the nipple and putting it off-center and why is that it allows the milk to stay in one continuous direction so that baby can feed in a very continuous way it's smooth it's comfortable it's baby lead they can control the flow better it has a contour zone which is more like mom's breasts and overall bottles and the innovation behind them are making breast to bottle transition smoother and easier for families well how lucky are we to live at a time when we get such great support and have such great products to make this process a little bit easier thank you ladies so much for joining us today such great information and you can head straight to Tommee Tippee com to learn more and of course you can also head to access health TV welcome back as many of you are well aware every baby is different some love breastfeeding and some love bottle feeding and some actually love both but what about baby Sebastian let's check back with the syska family and find out a for weeks which is the age of my infant I started transitioning pumping and having him start to get used to the nipple from this age so that going back to work it's not like a stressful thing leaving him and him not wanting to take the bottle properly and all that good stuff the brand I've been using they didn't have it around when I had my other kids I have my own business I'm a physical therapist I my own practice so when I go back I'm gonna do a gradual transition you know a couple hours at a time and then gradually get to a full day so the Tommee Tippee pump and go system you get the sterile bags you get the various nipples depending on the age of the baby you get the transitioning tops that can go from the pump to the bottle and I like the wider bottles the Tommee Tippee comes with the wider bottle the baby when the baby does eventually get to hold it's easy and some of those skinny narrow ones and it comes with the the nipple that's very similar to nature soft and supple not a hard thick plastic the pump and go system with transitioning from being with your baby to going back to work from being able to create a time at work to pump the bottles for your baby for the next day or for when you head home I find to be an easy system very doable very no nonsense and I recommend it to new moms transitioning back to work and fretting or worrying about how they are gonna be able to still take care of their baby with the breast milk and continue that breastfeeding time for as long as I can myself being you know the babies know your smell and they know you and they know what's about to happen whatever they come close to you with the nursing so then we say the moms not the one to be to feed the bottle when you do pump at work they go into those sterile plastic bags and the plastic bag goes straight into the fridge I don't have to worry about it spilling or worry about the transitioning from when I pump to putting it into the fridge that I might spill it or lose some or bacteria getting in there so this guy he's I started pumping last week and he's been taking the bottle so I'm looking I think it'll work out I had a beautiful family we wish the CC goes and all of your growing families the very best we'll be right back