What this year's celebration of World Breastfeeding Week is really about--more than updating the status on breastfeeding acceptance or increasing understanding for mothers who are unable to breastfeed--is advocacy for parent support.
Breastfeeding is the optimal way to satisfy an infant's nutritional and emotional needs. "Bottle Nursing" adapts breastfeeding behaviors to bottle-feeding to help initiate a secure attachment. Follow the feeding cues for both infants and children, encouraging them to eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full. Offer healthy food choices and model healthy eating behavior.
What this year's celebration of World Breastfeeding Week is really about--more than updating the status on breastfeeding acceptance or increasing understanding for mothers who are unable to breastfeed--is advocacy for parent support. |
My husband gently bounced our wailing 3-week-old son while pacing around our apartment. I quickly fnished toweling off, ran a comb through my wet hair and threw on a comfy pair of post-baby pants and a T-shirt. |
I am very much a breastfeeding advocate, but I hesitate to vilify formula. I myself have bottle-fed two of my three babies with some formula. |
Each of my three children has taken a bottle as part of their full-time feeding strategy. Not every mother can breastfeed or breastfeed exclusively. |
A mother on a mission can do amazing things, especially when working with an equally passionate parent support advocate. |
When a woman makes the choice to breastfeed, she usually doesn't anticipate that it won't work. After all, we are told that almost everyone can breastfeed--and this is true: Lactation is a robust biological process that almost always works. |
For so many women, breastfeeding was the turning point for our journey into Attachment Parenting. |
When I was little, I had a favorite doll. She was big enough for me to cuddle in my arms, was plump with silvery curly hair and had a round face. She looked like a cherub, and I loved her. I brought her with me everywhere I went. |
Public breastfeeding can infuriate us, scare us, make us feel ashamed or empower us. |
I was born and raised in New York City, USA, one of three girls. My father was a physician, my mother is a teacher but spent much of my childhood as a stay-at-home mother. As a child, I always knew that when I grew up, I wanted to be a mother. |