Feeding Your Baby

During pregnancy, a baby grows rapidly from a fertilized egg to a mature baby weighing around seven pounds. All the nutritional needs are met by his mother's body. For the newborn, growth also continues at a rapid rate, but now he is dependent on milk to supply the nutrients necessary for the extraordinary growth occuring in the first months of life.

Two important organ systems are not fully developed at birth--the skeletal system and the central nervous system, which includes the brain. Because the most rapid growth of the skeleton occurs in fetal life and during the first year of life, malnutrition at these times can cause a delay or abnormalities in growth and maturation. There are two rapid periods of brain growth--between fifteen and twenty weeks of fetal life and from thirty weeks of fetal life until one year of age. By one year, the brain has grown to 82 percent of its adult size. It is not surprising, then that malnutrition, especially before six months of age, can permanently impair brain development and function.

Parents have the very important responsibilities of providing their baby with foods to promote healthy growth and feeding their baby in a caring and loving way to foster emotional development. The way parents meet their baby's nutritional needs greatly influences both the physical and emotional well-being of the baby.  

Breast Milk or Formula?

The decision whether to breast-feed or bottle-feed is a personal one. Before making up your mind, try to become informed about each method of feeding. What are the advantages and disadvantages? Under what circumstances is breast-feeding superior to formula and vice-versa? Do you have support and commitment from loved ones, friends, and your baby's doctor for your decision? After gathering the facts, it might be helpful for both you and your partner to list all the reasons for, and drawbacks against, each feeding method.   

Breast milk is physically better for babies because it is the milk that nature intended for them. It even adjusts itself during a feeding - so that the baby first gets "foremilk," which he can gulp down to satisfy his thirst and desire to suck, and then the richer "hindmilk," which satisfies his appetite. But modern baby formula can be very nearly as good. Breast-feeding brings the two of you as close as it is possible for a mother and baby to get, but you can make close, warm physical contact by using a bottle, too.

What are your feelings now?

If you are looking forward to the physical relationship your baby will want to have with you, you will probably enjoy breast-feeding. There is an obvious, natural connection between the baby's hungry, seeking mouth and your full breasts. It feels very right and very pleasurable too.

But if you find the whole idea embarrassing, you may not enjoy actually doing it. If you don't enjoy it, then it will not work very smoothly. Both you and the baby may be happier using a bottle. And if you have a partner who is against you breast-feeding--perhaps because he feels that your breasts are private to your adult sexual relationship with him - his lack of support may make it very difficult for you. Although it has to be your decision, you will need to try and bring him around to your way of thinking in advance.  

What kind of life do you plan after the birth? 

If you mean to stay at home and make the baby's care your priority for a few months, either way of feeding will suit you. But at the very beginning you may need more extra help if you are breast-feeding than if you are bottle-feeding. Getting your supply of milk tuned in to your baby's demands for it can be time-consuming and tiring and, since stress and fatigue really can reduce your breast milk, you will need to be able to relax and rest.

Once the baby is a month or so old and breast-feeding has become second nature to both of you, it will give you far more freedom to get out and about with the baby. So if you have visits or vacations planned, or if you like to be able to go out and do things on the spur of the moment, breast-feeding will tie you down less than bottle-feeding, with all its preparation and paraphernalia.

If you plan to go back to work within a few weeks of the birth, bottle-feeding may seem an easier option and may indeed prove to be so. But it will still be worth your while to get the baby established on the breast. A new baby is extremely portable; you might be able to take him with you to the job at least for a couple of months. And even if you want to be able to leave the baby with your partner or a caretaker, you may prove to be somebody who can express breast milk so easily that you might as well leave bottles of breast milk as bottles of formula. This also applies to partners or grandparents being able to feed the baby, for their own pleasure or to relieve you of some night feedings. If you have a copius milk supply and can easily express in the evening what the baby will need during the night, you can take turns with somebody else without bothering with formula.  

Are you still uncertain which you want to do?

Keeping your options open while you make up your mind means starting off with breast-feeding. You can always wean a baby gently from the breast to a bottle but you cannot switch from formula to breast milk because, if the baby has not been sucking regularly from your breasts, they will not be making milk.

Why Breast Milk is Recommended

• The nutritional composition of breast milk is ideal for human babies.  

• Breast milk is easily digested.  

• Breast milk contains antibodies that help protect the baby from infections.  

• Breast-feeding reduces the possibility of allergies.  

• Breast-feeding aids involution (the return of the uterus to its normal size).  

• Breast-feeding, because it requires close physical contact, allows the mother and baby to have an intimate relationship for feeding.  

• Breast-feeding is both convenient and economical. 

When Breast Milk is Not Recommended

There are certain rare instances, however, when breast-feeding may not be possible:

• If the mother has had extensive breast-reduction surgery in which the areola was moved (thereby severing the nerves to the areola), if circulation to the breast was impaired, or if the duct system within the breast was altered   

• If the mother has untreated tuberculosis  

• If the mother is HIV infected      

• If the mother has herpes sores on her areolae    

• If the mother receives significant amounts of certain drugs, such as chemotherapeutic drugs for cancer    

• If the mother uses cocaine    

• If the baby has galactosemia (a rare condition where the baby is unable to digest the sugar in the milk)  

• If the mother would be uncomfortable, resentful, or unhappy breast-feeding    

Formula Feeding Advantages

Commercially prepared infant formula is a nutritious alternative to breast milk. Bottle-feeding can offer more freedom and flexibility for the mother, and it makes it easier to know how much the baby is getting. Because babies digest formula more slowly than breast milk, a baby who is getting formula may need fewer feedings than one who breastfeeds. Formula-feeding also can make it easier to feed the baby in public, and allows the father and other family members to help feed the baby, which can enhance bonding. 

Why Formula Is Not Recommended

Formula fed babies are more likely to get sick with attacks of the runs, nose and chest problems and allergies   

• Because they miss out on the antibodies and other protective factors, formula-fed babies are more likely than breast-fed babies to get diarrhea, constipation, otitis media (glue ear) and chest infections.       

• Even one breast-feed a day lowers the risk.       

• It is very important to keep bottles and teats very clean to cut down the risk of infections. Not smoking around baby will also help.

Some formula-fed babies can have problems with their weight 

• Formula-fed babies who get sick a lot sometimes cannot get all the nutrients they need from formula. This means they can stop growing fast enough and develop failure to thrive.       

• When feeding a baby with a bottle we often make the baby finish the bottle even if he has had enough before the end. This can confuse the baby's appetite control (knowing when they have had enough) so that when they grow up they tend to over-eat and become overweight.  

• A formula-fed baby tends to have more fat and less muscle tissue than a breast-fed baby of the same weight.

Advantages of Starting your Baby at the Breast

The baby's sucking will get your milk supply established so that you have the option to go on breast-feeding or to change over to a bottle if breast-feeding does not work out for you.

While the baby is establishing your milk supply he will be getting the colostrum which breasts produce first of all. Colostrum gives the baby water and sugar (which he could also get in the form of "sugar-water" from a bottle if he was not to be breast-fed) but it also gives him just the right amount of protein and minerals plus many important antibodies from you that will protect his health while he is building up his own immune system. There is no artificial equivalent of colostrum, which is why even a few days at the breast give babies a head start.

If your baby should have any health difficulties in the newborn period - mild jaundice, for example - he will really need to be fed on human milk rather than formula. Babies whose mothers decide in advance against breast-feeding are often given breast milk from the hospital milk bank if they are unwell.

Early feedings - perhaps complete with "after-pains" - speed up the return of your womb to normal, even if you do not go on breast-feeding long enough for your figure to benefit from feeding your baby the extra fat you laid down in pregnancy! 

Conclusion

Feeding your baby has far greater significance than simply providing nutrients and calories for physical growth. A baby whose hunger cries are consistently answered develops a sense of trust, security, and well-being. A baby who is smiled at, talked to, and cuddled develops a sense of emotional security. And holding your baby close stimulates the senses of touch, smell, and taste. All these things occur during feeding. Feeding provides many opportunities for your baby to express affection toward you and appreciation by cooing, grinning, patting, and other endearing behaviors. Feeding time is an important catalyst for the emotional development of the infant and the strengthening of family ties.