Once baby is breastfeeding well, many families want to introduce a bottle. A great time is between 3 weeks to 6 weeks of age, and can be a small amount once a day or a few times a week, just for practice! Baby should sit upright and be paced fed, and ideally use a bottle nipple like pictured above to best mimic and go back and forth seamlessly between breast and bottle!
An important part of any in-person lactation consultation is the "weighted feed." This is where we weigh baby on a sensitive scale before and after they feed, in order to see what they are able to transfer at the breast. This "snapshot" or "data point" provides information for what steps to take next. Is baby back to birth weight around the 2 week mark? Are they gaining about an ounce a day?
Want me to come do a weighted feed for your baby? I would love to! It doesn't have to only be in the early weeks either; some parents are curious to see what baby is getting at a variety of ages, like when planning to head back to work!
Sorry about the poop picture! This is what I am hoping to see in the diaper of a breastfed baby after about day 4-5, and before the start of any supplemental foods (around 6 months). Yellow, seedy mustard ;)
And plenty of it...like 3-4 quarter sized or larger "servings" per day. Baby poop gives us a lot of information about baby health.
