Pregnancy Baby Child

As most of you know I am pro breast feeding and feel very strongly that if you can, you should breast feed your baby. There are so many benefits for both you and your baby when breast feeding that it just makes sense!

However breast feeding isn’t always straight forward, especially in the early days when both mum and bub are learning. The tools are there, your breasts are full of milk and your baby has been practicing sucking while in the womb but now it is time to combine both your skills and it’s not always that easy.

For Addison and myself breast feeding was a slight challenge (not as bad as what many people go through, but still a challenge nevertheless) with Addison refusing to take the left side. With the support of the hospital staff we tried a few different positions to find something that would work for us both. Eventually we discovered that Addi would feed on the left if we used the “football hold.” The “football hold” is where the baby’s bottom, legs and body wrap around your side like you are holding a football, rather than belly to belly. So pretty much it is just a shuffle over from the standard position on the right side to the left, rather than turning the baby around.

The football hold for us became the solution to achieving Addison to breast feed on both sides, but recently I decided that we would try something new.

Over the last couple of days I thought that we would give lying down while breast feeding a try. The initial reason I tried this was I was having some tummy pain myself the other night and it was a bit much to have Addison pushing and leaning on my stomach, so instead I laid him down next to me and feed him on my side. This seemed to work really well for the both of us, and I decided that I would give it a trial run for a day or so.

Another reason I thought this would be a good idea was with the hot weather we have been experiencing as we head into our first day of Summer today we were generating quite a bit of heat between our two bodies and getting rather sweaty! Addison has developed some pimples on his cheeks, mainly due to the heat I believe and his skin becoming sweaty and oily during the day. This is not being helped by the heat generated while breast feeding.

Our bedroom has air con, so that was the first plus to the heat problem. Laying down and feeding also means that we are not having the body heat problem. It is also much more relaxing for the both of us and especially allows me to feel more at ease and enjoy a little break. I’ve also found that he burps better following his feeds and hasn’t been bringing up any milk! I don’t know if this has anything to do with the way I’m feeding him, but it certainly is a positive.

So far this is working out really well for the both of us and I will continue to use this position for feeding! Eventually when I get time I will be writing an article for the website about the benefits of breast feeding which will be found in the side menu for those that want more information on the topic.