Other Foods While Breastfeeding

Breast milk is actually the only food your baby will need until 4 months of age, although most babies do well on breast milk alone for 6 months or better. There is really no advantage to adding other foods or milks before 4 - 6 months, except under unusual circumstances.

Water

Breast milk is over 90% water. Even in the hottest days of summer, a baby won't require any extra water. If a baby isn't feeding well, they still don't require any extra water - although they will need the breast feeding problems to be fixed.

Vitamin D

Although breast milk doesn't contain much vitamin D, it does have a little. The baby will store up vitamin D during pregnancy, and remain healthy without any vitamin D supplementation, unless you yourself had a problem with vitamin D deficiency when pregnant. Exposure to the outside will give your baby vitamin D, even in winter and when the sky is covered. An hour or more exposure during the week will give your baby more than enough vitamin D.

Iron

Breast milk contains less iron than formulas do, especially those that are iron enriched. Iron will give the baby added protection against infections, as many bacteria need iron in order to multiply. The iron found in breast milk is utilized well by the baby, while not being available to bacteria. The introduction of iron should never be delayed beyond the age of 6 months. Breast milk is the best that your can feed your baby, as it provides everything he will need for probably the first 6 months. After the first 6 months, you can introduce solid foods to your baby if he is taking an interest

to them.

How To Choose A Breast Pump?

The milk production in the breasts, much like so many other things, work on the shear principal of supply and demand. The more breast milk your baby consumes, the more your body will need to make. Breast pumps are generally used to insure continued production of breast milk when you cannot feed your baby - whether you are back to work, traveling, taking medication, or just out of town.  

Basic types of pumps

Breast pumps can either be battery operated, hand operated, semi automatic electric, or even self cycling electric.

Hand pumps

Manual hand pumps are designed to use the strength of your hand or arm muscles for pumping one breast at

a time. You can also get pumps that will use the leg and foot muscles for pumping both breasts at one time. Mothers that with carpal tunnel syndrome may want to consider using a pump designed for the arm or leg muscles or even an automatic model.

Battery operated pumps

Pumps with battery operation are the best for women who have an established supply of milk and want to pump once or even twice a day. These pumps use batteries to create suction, minimizing any type of muscle fatigue. Most battery type pumps are designed for pumping one breast at a time and are recommended for occasional usage.

Electric pumps

Even though electric pumps are more efficient than hand or even battery operated pumps, they also tend to be more expensive. You can however, rent them if you need to. Electric pumps can normally plug directly into an outlet and are designed for pumping both breasts at a time and even frequent use. Hospital grade pumps are the most efficient for initiating and maintaining milk supply, and are available for rent or purchase.

How Breast Milk Is Made?

If you've every been pregnant or if you are pregnant now, you've probably noticed a metamorphosis in your bra cups. The physical changes (tender, swollen breasts) may be one of the earliest clues that you have conceived. Many experts believe that the color change in the areola may also be helpful when it comes to breast feeding.

What's going on

Perhaps what's even more remarkable than visible changes is the extensive changes that are taking place inside of your breasts. The developing placenta stimulates the release of estrogen and progesterone, which will in turn stimulate the complex biological system that helps to make lactation possible. Before you get pregnant, a combination of supportive tissue, milk glands, and fat make up the larger portions of your breast. The fact is, your newly swollen breasts have been preparing for your pregnancy since you were in your mother's womb!

When you were born, your main milk ducts had already formed. Your mammary glands stayed quiet until you reached puberty, when a flood of the female hormone estrogen caused them to grow and also to swell. During pregnancy, those glands will kick into high gear. Before your baby arrives, glandular tissue has replaced a majority of the fat cells and accounts for your bigger than before breasts. Each breast may actually get as much as 1 1/2 pounds heavier than before! Nestled among the fatty cells and glandular tissue is an intricate network of channels or canals known as the milk ducts. The pregnancy hormones will cause these ducts to increase in both number and size, with the ducts branching off into smaller canals near the chest wall known as ductules.

At the end of each duct is a cluster of smaller sacs known as alveoli.  The cluster of alveoli is known as a lobule, while a cluster of lobule is known as a lobe. Each breast will contain around 15 - 20 lobes, with one milk duct for every lobe. The milk is produced inside of the alveoli, which is surrounded by tiny muscles that squeeze the glands and help to push the milk out into the ductules. Those ductules will lead to a bigger duct that widens into a milk pool directly below the areola. The milk pools will act as reservoirs that hold the milk until your baby sucks it through the tiny openings in your nipples.

Mother Nature is so smart that your milk duct system will become fully developed around the time of your second trimester, so you can properly breast feed your baby even if he or she arrives earlier than you are anticipating.