Infant Feeding
BFS: delivering education, health and wellbeing for children and young people aged 0 to 19 in Birmingham.
Breastfeeding and your baby
Why is breastfeeding good for your baby?
UNICEF: The Baby Friendly Initiative
Breast milk is unique and contains some important components that are vital for a baby's growth, development and health. These include essential enzymes, hormones and antibodies. Breast milk is also tailor made just for your baby. This means it changes as your baby grows to meet their needs, offering protection as they grow and develop. Your body is fine-tuned to protect you, your immune system is mature and can rapidly produce antibodies in response to viruses or bacteria you may come into contact with. These antibodies can also be quickly passed through your breast milk to also protect your baby whilst his/her own immune system is still developing and more vulnerable. Despite years of research, science still can't replicate these unique properties found in breast milk.
How does breast milk help your baby?
- Breast milk helps protect your baby from illness, for example chest, ear and tummy infections.
- Breast milk reduces the risk of constipation or tummy upsets.
- Breastfeeding helps your baby regulate their appetite, reducing the risk of obesity as they grow older.
How does breastfeeding help prevent obesity?
Breastfeeding offers a good start to learning appetite control:
- Breast milk contains hormones that program your baby's regulation of food intake.
- Breastfed babies control the amount of milk they drink and stop drinking when they are satisfied.
- Breast milk also introduces tiny amounts of flavour. This can influence taste preferences and food choices later on.
Why is breastfeeding good for mothers?
Breastfeeding:
- Reduces your risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and diabetes.
- Is protective to your bone health, helping to keep them stronger for longer.
- Is good for your mental helth. Breastfeeding hormones promote feelings of love and calmness.
- Helps stimulate responsive mothering behaviours towards your baby. This helps to create a strong bond with your baby and for baby, in turn, to feel safe and secure.
- Helps your postpartum recovery and burns calories, which may help you return to your pre-pregnancy weight.
Responsive breastfeeding
Responsive breastfeeding is a reciprocal relationship between a mother and a baby:
- To rest and relax;
- To be close to your baby;
- If baby is distressed or lonely;
- Whenever baby shows feeding cues;
- Your breasts feel full;
- For comfort.
Breastfed babies cannot be overfed or 'spoiled' by responsively breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding resources
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Birmingham and Solihull United Maternity and Newborn Partnership (BUMP) |
Feeding your baby booklet: answer to the most frequently asked questions about feeding your baby. |
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Trusted NHS help and advice during pregnancy, birth and parenthood. |
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CHILD Cohort Study |
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Best Beginnings |
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Scottish Government |
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Global Health Media Project |
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Transition to Parenthood |
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Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative |
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First Steps Nutrition Trust: eating well in pregnancy, infants and new mums and in early years information and resources. |
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If you're more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under 4, you may be entitled to get help to buy healthy food and milk. With Healthy Start, you get free vouchers to spend on milk, fresh, frozen, and tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried, and tinned pulses, and infant formula milk. You can also get free vitamins. |
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La Leche: warm and friendly breastfeeding counsellors (Leaders) provide mother to mother support for breastfeeding via meetings, help forms, phone calls and social media.
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Bottle feeding
Which Milk Should I Choose?
All infant formula have to be of a similar composition to comply with UK requirements and all brands are nutritionally adequate for infants.
If a substance was found to be beneficial for infant health that could be added to infant formula, it would be in all brands of milk by law. You do not get a better 'quality' infant formula by choosing a more expensive brand.
Bottle feeding
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First Steps Nutrition have useful information for parents and health professionals on infant formula.
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Transition to Parenthood |
