Feeding your baby

Sounds easy doesn't it? All you have to do is feed your newborn baby.
You have two choices. You can either breast feed or use formula milk.

Formula milk comes in powder form, or ready made in cartons.

There are many different makes of formula milk and each formula tastes slightly different.
The formula milk is designed to be as much like breast milk as possible.
The tins of formula milk are economical for every day use, but cartons are ideal for outings or emergencies.
If you bottle feed, you need quite a bit of kit:

Selection of bottles
Sterilizer
Bottle warmer
Breast pump (dependant on method)

You can save a lot of money by buying a set as opposed to the individual items. We got a set which contained all the above from mothercare

Baby essentials, from Avent

This set comes with:

Steriliser, a bottle warmer, some bottles, a breast pump, and some soothers (dummies).

If you buy the pack, it's £100 from mothercare , but if you bought the items separately, it would cost you £140.

How to make up formula milk:

The bottles, teats, caps and holders and are first washed in warm soapy water with the bottle brush. They are then sterilized in the steam sterilizer which takes about 10 minutes.

When cool, the bottles can be assembled, (don't touch the teats!) and the correct quantity of cool boiled water measured in each bottle. The correct measure of formula powder is then added and leveled off with the back of a knife according to the instructions on the side of the tin. Each bottle is then made up and shaken until the formula is mixed.

Once made up, each bottle can last for up to 24 hours in the fridge, and can last up to one hour out of the fridge. So if you're organized, you can make the milk up in a batch. Just log the time you do, so that you don't go over the 24 hour limit. When you're tired, even simple tasks like counting the number of scoops of formular milk is really difficult. It's a good idea to keep a record of your babies feeding.

If you bottle feed, it does mean that Dad can take his turn too and get involved.

Breast feeding

Breast feeding is the more natural option and is the best form of nutrition for infants. Breast is best!

Baby feeding; Charlotte 10 minutes old

Within the first minutes of birth, our baby instinctively started sucking and looking to latch on.

I tried breastfeeding for the first 4 days, but unbeknown to me, my baby was not receiving enough milk and I had to switch over to formula milk.

It was really distressing as I really wanted to breastfeed.
I think that in the end, you have to do what's best for you and your baby.

Breastfeeding resources