Breastfeeding

There are many good reasons for breastfeeding. I'm cooking dinner right now though, so I'm not going to go into them. Suffice to say,

What do you need? A helpful, supportive family is a good start. Advice from La Leche League or Plunket is helpful too. I was lucky enough to have the services of the hospital Lactation Consultant (LC), which really helped me with issues involved with mulitples and preemies. Plently of people find it really easy straight away, but most find the first six or so weeks at least a bit tough.

Good comfortable nursing bras are a must. I had one of pretty much every kind available while I was breastfeeding. And I was pretty gutted when the lovely Hot Milk bras came out just before I was about to wean. I wore bras day and night for at least the first four months, and probably should have for longer.

Nursing pads are useful too. I went through boxes of them (at least one a week) until I discovered the cloth ones at Kmart (made by Tommee Tippee). Of course, withing a month of finding them, I no longer needed them. Now, many sites that sell cloth nappies also sell cloth breastpads, some have cool designs on them and are really quite fun, if that's what you're into.

Adaquate food and water are a must. Your midwife will advise you on all that. There are plenty of recipes for cookies and shakes to increase supply, I tried one involving brewers yeast, which is available from chemists. I got the recipe in antenatal class.

If you're planning on expressing, you'll need a good breastpump and bottles, sterilisers etc. I got great use out of my Avent Isis Uno, but also used the Medela pumps in hospital and found them good too. Whether you need an electric, double or single pump depends on how often you plan to express, mostly. I expressed every three hours round the clock for the first two or three months, then one or twice a day for the next three or four. I also found the Avent Via cups convenient to express into, and later on used them for baby food too.

Cloth flat nappies or muslins are great to have under the baby's head for spills. I loved my Babyfirst breastfeeding pillow, but I'm not sure how useful it is if you aren't breastfeeding twins. I've heard they're good for protecting your tummy if you've had a c-section (as I did, although I didn't get to breastfeed until several weeks later).

Other optional extras include nursing necklaces and bracelets. They have a dial of some sort you can turn, or wear it different ways to remind you which breast to start on. I never had a problem remembering this myself, but it can't hurt if you want one. Later, they are used to keep the baby interested in facing the right way, when they're older and get distracted easily.

Still to come!

Upcoming topics:
Breastfeeding - what else to you need besides boobs?
Nappies (aka Diapers) - disposables - all you need to know
Nappies (yes, Dipaers) Cloth, they're not like they were when you were a baby!
Things I have that I love
Things I have that I hate
Things I wish I had but don't
What's different about twins? (with a side note biology lesson)
What do you really really need for a newborn baby, really?
Cots, as far as I know them
Strollers, prams and pushchairs
Baby slings and backpacks.
Toys and other things that take up way too much room in my house.

If you have any other ideas, please comment. I would be stoked to know that anyone will actually read this.

Disclaimer: I'm no professional, all this just comes from my experience as a mum of twins, and discussions with my friends.

Post number one - Baby Formula

I breastfed my kids for two years. I'm not going to argue breast/bottle, but I've done both, because my kids were premmies and needed 'topping up'. I'll do another post sometime dealing with breastpumps and all the other oh-so-fun things that go with that. This one is strictly formula.

The first formula I bought was S26, I think it was recommended to my by my antenatal instructor. I found it made the babies smell 'potato-ey', although they wolfed it down, not even caring it was something they'd never had before (this was about two weeks after their due date). I used up that can and then switched to
Karicare, buying the 'Gold' version most of the time (the only difference is that it has omega fish oils in it.) It didn't smell so bad, so we continued using it, first the starter formula and later the follow on formula.

When my children were nearly one, the dietician recommended we continue with toddler formula until they were two, rather than switch to regular milk. This is because they were still quite small for their age, and need the extra nutrition. I was suprised to find the Karicare toddler formula does not dissolve well in a bottle. I rang their help line and was told that it is not designed to be 'instantised', and I should make it up in a milk shake shaker and transfer it to a bottle! As if I could be bothered with that! I switched to Heinz (can't find a link at the moment) which dissolved well. The kids again didn't notice.

I was worried that they would like toddler milk too much, it tastes (although a little powdery, like powdered milk versus fresh) like a vanilla milkshake. When they were nearly two, I offered regular milk instead and they still didn't notice. No more formula for us!

There are also formulas available made of soy or goats' milk, they are expensive so I recommend checking with your doctor first. Some special formulas are available on prescription for babies with severe intolerances. Also I have seen formula available for reflux, hungry babies, constipated babies and babies with diarrhoea. I don't know of anyone who has used them, so I couldn't recommend or disparage them.

Disclaimer: The Ministry of Health recommends breastfeeding, yada yada yada. Actually, so do I, but that's not the point of this blog. For information on breastfeeding I highly recommend KellymomI don't get paid for this or have any connection to formula companies, or in fact any companies. I don't work (I'm a stay at home mum) and my husband, like so many other people around here, works for The Government.