Newborn babies receive all the necessary nutrients with their mother’s milk - these crumbs do not need additional nutrition, vitamins and even water. But there are times when a mother, for reasons beyond her control, cannot breastfeed her baby. Centuries ago, there was only one solution to the problem - to find a nursing woman who could feed not only her child. Today, parents have the opportunity not to seek help from the nurse: mixed feeding, which is carried out using adapted artificial mixtures for baby food, will help feed the baby .
How to combine the mixture and breast milk?
In young mothers, a lack of milk is a fairly common phenomenon. However, in this case, most often the problem is not in the physiological inability of the woman to produce milk, but in adverse external conditions. Regardless of age, weight, size of the breast, 97% of mothers are capable of breastfeeding. That is why it is important to put aside all the absurd prejudices that have no scientific basis for sagging breasts, a blurry figure and hormonal imbalances, and try to save milk at all costs.
If, despite all the attempts, there is less and less milk every day, it's time to switch to mixed feeding, which implies that the child will receive an adapted mixture as a supplement, but most of his diet will still be occupied by breast milk.
Subject to all the rules, mixed feeding does not lead to a complete rejection of the breast. Moreover, if you follow the advice of specialists, you will soon be able to refuse from supplementary feeding, continuing to exclusively feed the baby:
- the adapted mixture should be given to the child from a spoon. If the parents decided to use the bottles, then the opening in the nipple should be very small;
- the use of a dummy should be limited as much as possible;
- at night, the baby should only receive breasts.
When switching to mixed feeding, the baby should receive the mixture only after breastfeeding. In general, feeding a baby up to a year should ideally include at least 50% of breast milk.
Artificial Feeding
The transition to artificial feeding occurs if breast milk is completely lost. At the same time, mom has additional chores for the purchase and preparation of adapted mixtures. What should parents know who decide to transfer the baby from breast milk to the mixture?
First of all, you need to pay attention to choosing a decent product. This issue should be discussed with the pediatrician. Also, the child should receive a mixture that is appropriate for his age.
It is important to remember that the composition of even the highest quality mixture is not identical to breast milk, so artificially children should receive complementary foods much earlier than babies - mashed potatoes, juices, cereals. In addition, for the prevention of rickets in the diet of such babies, it is advisable to introduce products that contain vitamin D and calcium.