Bottle Feeding; The Second Best Option for Your Baby

Those who want to highlight the importance of breast feeding write about a lot of drawbacks about bottle feeding. Looking from the point of nutritional value offered by breast feeding their attack is justified to a certain extent. However, there are occasions that call for a bottle feeding as a good alternative. This could be on occasions like when the mother is sick and there may be a situation that will affect the child. When there are more than one child and the quantity of mother’s milk is not sufficient. In the event of an accident that incapacitate the mother to breast feed the baby. All these occasions call for a bottle feeding the baby.

Despite being the second best option for the baby before starting bottle feeding there are a number of points that has to be looked into in the interest of the health of the baby. At that age even the slightest negligence from the person feeding the baby will be exposing the baby to the danger of getting ill. Some of these points are to be followed with care so that the bundle of joy is in good health despite the lack of breast feeding.

Quality; ensure that the bottle, nipple and the cover of the bottle are of the highest quality and made of food grade materials. A poor quality material in the making of a feeding bottle will have far reaching effects in the baby considering the feeding period of one to one and half year. Authorities of each country give utmost importance to this point.

Preparation; the person who prepares the feed should be taking utmost care in personal hygiene. The hands should be subjected to thorough washing, almost to the equivalent of a surgeon scrubbing the hands before an operation.

Cleaning; the feeding bottle should be subjected to boiling along with the cap and the nipple to ensure the complete eradication of germs. This should be done for not once a day but each time before feeding the baby.

Temperature; the temperature of the feed should be almost equivalent of the temperature o the breast milk if not exact. The best way to ensure this is to pour a drop on your hand, without the nipple touching the skin and if the heat is a bearable, lukewarm then it is okay to give it to the baby
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Leftovers; for any reason if the baby is not taking the prepared milk fully, DISCARD the left over portion. It cannot be used again for a second feed after some time. Milk being very much prone to curdle once boiled discarding the unused portion is in the interest the good health of the baby
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Cleaning; once the leftover is discarded, or the baby has fed with the entire prepared milk, wash the feeding bottle thoroughly with boiled water. Do not keep the empty bottle as such till the next feeding time.

Keep away; milk with its tell-tale smell is an attraction for pets like cat. Keep the bottle, nipple and the cap away from the reach of such pets so as not to get contaminated.

When you choose bottle feeding, as the second best option to your baby, taking a little extra care is always advisable.