During lactation, many mothers worry about insufficient breast milk, unable to feed the baby, unable to meet the needs of the baby's growth and development. At this time, they will take mixed feeding. Mixed feeding refers to the method of adding infant formula to assist mixed feeding when breast milk is insufficient.

How to judge the lack of breast milk

How to determine the mother's lack of breast milk, it is best to analyze the baby's weight gain. If you gain more than 30 grams per day or more than 200 grams per week, and you can urinate 6 diapers per day, your baby is full and does not need formula milk. If you are underweight, urinate less than 8 times a day, have low or light green stools, cry after breastfeeding, bite your nipple, or wake up within 2 hours of sleep, you may have a low milk supply. Don't give up breast milk even if it's not enough, breast milk should still be a priority.

Insufficient breast milk is how to mix feeding in my situation

1. Supplementary Grant Law

The supplementary teaching method is mainly to add formula milk after breastfeeding. This method allows the baby to suck on both sides of the breast milk, and the number of feedings per day can reach 6 to 8 times, which can promote the secretion of prolactin. If you do it right, your breast milk will increase and you won't need to add formula. Note that under any circumstances, do not directly mix breast milk with formula milk powder, and it is not recommended to use breast milk to make formula milk powder for the baby to drink, because the baby's gastrointestinal development is not perfect, the mixing of different proteins will cause the baby's stomach and intestinal burden to increase. Indigestion such as bloating and fecal milk valve often occurs.

2. On behalf of the law

The substitute teaching method is that the mother first feeds breast milk directly or expresses breast milk by herself to save enough for a meal, and then alternates breast milk and formula milk at intervals. This method reduces your baby's sucking and stimulates your breasts, which can lead to less and less breast milk. It is necessary for the mother to use a breast pump to help express milk, maintain the hormone level of prolactin by stimulating the nipple, help increase milk production, and gradually supply milk to the baby's needs, unless the mother does not have much time to feed the baby or prepare for weaning due to work reasons. Just use the proxy method. In general, this method is not recommended.

During the neonatal period, mixed feeding should be careful not to use a pacifier or bottle to feed the baby, but to use a spoon, small cup or dropper to avoid nipple illusion. If the baby is used to the bottle head, it will refuse to suck breast milk, so that the breast milk will become less and less, resulting in insufficient breast milk in the future.

Precautions for mixed feeding

1. Adhere to the principle of breastfeeding first. Mother's own breastfeeding helps to increase the mother-child relationship. The baby's sucking can stimulate the secretion of milk more than a breast pump, which is conducive to the mother's postpartum recovery.

2. Breastfeeding at night. When the mother rests at night, the baby's needs are relatively reduced, but she must also express milk on time to prevent milk blockage.

3. Nutritional guarantee of formula milk powder. The nutrient composition of formula milk powder is similar to that of breast milk, which is more suitable for infants to eat. Mothers, don't worry about malnutrition in your baby.

4. Infants take longer to digest formula milk than breast milk. Therefore, after mixed feeding formula milk, the interval between next feedings is generally 0.5-1 hour longer than that of exclusive breast milk. The specific interval depends on each baby's own situation, and is determined according to the speed of the baby's digestion and hunger resistance. Therefore, mothers should grasp the feeding interval by themselves, make a record when they start mixing milk, and slowly find out the baby's milk drinking pattern.