Equipment Used in Breast Feeding

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, breastmilk brings lot many benefits to an infant or a baby. This helps protecting your baby from various conditions like allergies, meningitis, Crohn’s disease, Juvenile diabetes, respiratory infection, diarrhea, urinary tract infection and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (The American Academy of Pediatrics, 1997)

Mother’s milk gives complete and valuable nutrients for baby’s ideal growth and development. Breastmilk is rich in antibodies that protect a baby against many diseases. The milk supplied from outside lacks of immunity, which is abandon in mother’s milk or breastmilk.

Breastmilk is easy to give and ready all the time that can satisfy a baby each time when it demands the food. Furthermore, baby’s body is not capable to eat any solid food or to digest easily since, baby’s intestines are not fully developed and the digestive system is weak to absorb nutrients from any other food other than the breastmilk. Babies grow much faster than adults do and the nutrients they require is much more than what an adult requires. Their body systems are not fully developed and on other hand, they need rich supply of nutrients. This opposite situation is tackled by breastmilk. It is extremely easy to digest for baby and it is full of nutrients and rich in all the components that a baby needs for its growth and development.

There are some breastfeeding equipments those are valuable for you and your baby as they make the breastfeeding easier for you to give and to receive for your baby. These are essential for today’s mother across the world. Here are few of the most important breastfeeding equipments…

1. Breast Pads: As the name suggests, these are the pads for breast having milk. Breast pads can be reusable or disposable. They are freely available in any baby shops and departments. Reusable breast pads are made up of 100% cotton and they are washable. On the other hand, disposable breast pads come in lots of patterns, shapes and styles. They are also made up with cotton. They are soft, breathable, absorbent and full of comfortableness. These breast pads are not made up with plastic coating so they are not stick and hot to your breast. Some of the cheaper breast pads made up of material other than the cotton are to be avoided.
   
   
2. Bra: This is important breastfeeding equipment. You never know when your baby will start crying and you need to give breastfeeding. Many times your bra impediments your breastfeeding work. It is quite difficult to lift up the whole bra and to expose the nipple to your baby and neither removing the whole bra is well mannered. You have breastfeeding bras that have an opening at the nipple so that if you open the flap, only your nipple is exposed to supply the feeding to your baby. This is very useful for any mother feeding their babies. They should be made up of cotton and the material used in that should be non-irritant to your skin.
   
   
3. Burp-pads and Bibs: In olden days, you needed a drawer full of terry or muslin squares to use as burp-pads and bibs. These are great for mopping up little accidents after the breastfeeding. Toweling bibs are ideal especially when you start mixed feeding. Many have some strap for ease of removal but one should avoid plastic backed bibs as they become hard and cracked after few washes and therefore, you should stick to white or light color, as they are washable even at high temperature to remove stubborn stains. There are many fashionable and stylish designs available in the market.
   
   
4. Breastpumps: They are boon for the mothers who do not have much milk in their breasts and boon for the babies who are not able to suck properly. Breastpumps are the devices that can be applied to a breast with nipple in middle and then trough one device/cuff; you can suck the milk from the breast. The sucked milk is collected in a container that is attached with breastpumps. The milk is then collected in sterilized container and given to the baby. Breastpumps are to be cleaned and germs free. You can wash them with disinfectant or simply boil the water and put the pump into it. This will kill all the germs and microorganisms.