Mathilde Lacombe

Being a young mother isn’t easy! While it might be overwhelming, it is a significant responsibility to fulfill. As much as you want to enjoy the process of your baby growing, you also need to get back on your daily routine of work, so balancing a feeding schedule might be troublesome for you.

Breastfeeding or nursing is a vital aspect of motherhood, and it is crucial for infants as well. Breastfeeding is essential, and we all are aware of its benefits, while the most important one is that it ensures the baby’s health and survival.

Why Breast Milk For Your Baby?

Breast Milk is the ideal food for infants as they are the safest and have a balanced composition of fat, minerals, and lactose. But the constituent which makes it unique and effective is the presence of antibodies that protects the child from various childhood illnesses and provides an added immunity to the baby against infections. As a result, it reduces the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and protects the baby from asthma, pneumonia, ear infections, and gastrointestinal problems. 

It has also been observed that breastfeeding babies perform better in their lives and have better health structures, and breast milk has an impact even in the long term. For example, breastfed babies are less prone to diabetes later in life. 

Are There Any Specific Guidelines For Breast-Feeding?

A general question for young mothers is how long do they have to breastfeed the baby or when is the appropriate time to stop breastfeeding?

To be precise, there is no appropriate time frame to stop breastfeeding your kids. The World Health Organization(WHO) has advised mothers to breastfeed their babies exclusively for the first six months. However, continuing breastfeeding even after six months has added benefits to the child’s health and development. WHO further recommends breastfeeding babies along with solid food until two years. 

How long you want to breastfeed your baby is entirely your choice and how much your body allows you to. Some mothers feed their babies for a few weeks while some for years, so there’s never a right or wrong way for doing it. 

Here are some suggestions that will help you as a young mother : 

There are three breastfeeding patterns that you can follow to continue breastfeeding your baby. 

• Exclusive feeding – This is mandatory, and this continues for six months. A baby does not need additional food, water, supplies, or anything during these six months. 
• Combination feeding – After the six months are over, it might become difficult for you to continue feeding your baby as you get back to work. So as an alternative, you can combine breast milk with formula milk. This would also be helpful for situations where you cannot produce enough breast milk to meet your child’s needs. Combination feeding ensures that the baby gets complete nutrition, including breast milk and additional nutrition.
• Breastfeeding along with complementary foods- Experts recommend not to replace breastfeeding but to give complementary foods for providing more nutrition in addition to breast milk.  

Conclusion!It’s always good to have memories that your kids can cherish for a lifetime. Personalised memorial keepsakes are a great way to do so. As for the duration of breastfeeding, you can continue breastfeeding as long as you want, as even a tiny amount of colostrum is beneficial for your baby. In addition, breast milk provides antibodies and immune properties to older children, so there is no harm in breastfeeding kids above two years. It’s ultimately you who takes the decision.