Breastfeeding and Beyond
Being fed is about more than just the milk or food - it's a matter of being lovingly nourished, with touch, eye contact and connection as well as nutrients. As well as giving practical tips about food and eating, we consider the emotions that may crop up for mums, dads and babies at the start of life when this can be a pressing issue. How you all feel has a huge impact on the success, or otherwise, of a breastfeeding partnership, and how smoothly your baby makes the transition to bottles (if you choose to bottle feed) and to solid food.
Breastfeeding
Your baby knows how to breastfeed: to find your nipple, latch on, and suckle to get milk. It’s a powerful instinct. And her frequency and type of suckling tells your breasts how much milk to produce, and the precise components to put in it – depending on your baby’s needs from one feed to the next. Your baby knows, and your body knows too. One of our team, Helen Biscoe-Taylor, is a former breastfeeding consultantgives advice and guidance on feeding in our foundation weeekend and day courses.
Boosting breastfeeding
Babiesknow encourages breastfeeding as the best possible source of food for your baby. We look at the 'dyad' of mum and baby, and how and why breastfeeding helps you both feel good. Breastfeeding can feel like the most natural thing in the world, but doesn't come easily for every mother or every baby. We explore what you might need in place for breastfeeding to be comfortable and nourishing. We discuss simple ways to get a good atmosphere, to relax into it and to look after yourself and your baby. And we discuss the obstacles that sometimes put mums - and dads - off, and how you may overcome them.
We encourage you to tune into your feelings around breastfeeding – mums as well as dads. We explain how some of your early experiences may affect the feeding partnership with your baby today, and if this is causing or adding to difficulties, what you can do.
Bottle feeding
Most babies bottle feed at some stage, and occasionally babies are bottlefed from birth. On a babiesknow course, and with even more attention on a babiesknow birth-one workshop, we explore ways of getting maximum benefit out of bottle feeding, for you and for your baby.
Toddlers
When it comes to toddlers eating can become a flash point in the family day. We take you beneath the refusals and the tantrums to consider the emotions that simmer in the kitchen, cope with a fussy toddler, and discover how to change some of the attitudes to food you might have inherited from your family of origin, or the media, if they don't suit your family today. We explore this further in our babiesknow Age 1-3 workshop.