How to bottlefeed

why mothers bottlefeed | cleaning | ingredients

Why mothers bottlefeed

There are lots of pressures on mothers to bottlefeed.
Milk formulas are commercial products, so there is advertising, attractive packaging and so on.

Some milk powder companies will give away free samples in hospitals. Remember, if you take one of these, prepare for a lot of expense in the long run. If you give your baby free milk powder in the early days, it can be hard to start breastfeeding later. Whilst the sample may be free, in the future you will have to buy lots more powdered milk. In some countries, there are now very strong laws to stop milk companies from giving away free samples in hospitals and clinics.

People from the milk powder companies also sometimes wear white coats when they visit new mothers.

This can be confusing these people may be nurses but if they work for a milk powder company they will try and encourage mothers to use these products.

Some mothers talk of pressures from inside their family to bottlefeed. Sometimes mothers are told that their baby is not growing fast enough or or that a mother's breasts are too small to breast feed.

If a mother is told these things, the stress can actually make her produce less breastmilk.

Some women say they're told that bottlefeeding is fashionable and done by all the mothers in rich countries. In fact, most women in the rich countries know all about the importance of breastfeeding and bottlefeeding is certainly not fashionable anymore.

Cleaning

Hygiene is extremely important. Everything that comes into contact with baby's feed must not only be washed, it must be sterilized every time it is used. Sterilized means free from bacteria (dirt that is too small to see). The tiniest trace of bacteria, or milk from an earlier feed, can make baby ill, sometimes seriously.

Sterilising tablets can be used. Otherwise, it is important to sterilize everything by boiling for half an hour, making sure that everything is under the water.

Salt can also help in cleaning the teats but, if you use it, every trace must be washed off. The holes in the teats must be kept at exactly the right size. The equipment - bottles, teats, jugs, spoons and so on - must be boiled, even when they are new from the shop.

Sometimes, babies get given the bottle to hold. If you do that, you can give baby a stomach illness, because it's impossible to make sure the bottle stays clean.

Ingredients

It's very important to use exactly the right amount of powder; too little and the baby may be malnourished, too much and you may damage your child's kidneys, two of the most important internal organs.

The water used must be absolutely clean, and boiled to make sure that it is sterile. It must be served at the right temperature, in a way that will work for our baby, and it must be available, fresh, whenever a baby is hungry. That can be many times a week, day and night.

Many bottlefeeding mothers use a fridge to help them prepare feeds to last a whole day. Some mothers use ready mixed milk. Remember that ready mixed milk can be especially expensive - but to give formula milk at all cannot be done cheaply.

Communicating with a Baby
Feeding a Baby
How to Breastfeed
How to Bottlefeed
Feelings after having a Baby
Postnatal Depression
Families with New Babies
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