TV’s Supernanny offers her top tips and answers your questions to help you become a confident parent
“I’ve been breastfeeding but feeling exhausted, and think it would help if I bottlefeed too so my partner can get more involved. However, I’m finding expressing difficult. How can I avoid feeling guilty about bottlefeeding?”
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with mixing breast and bottle. If introducing bottlefeeds helps you then do so. The key words here are ‘help me’ and ‘guilty’. If something’s helping you, why should you feel guilty? Where’s the guilt coming from? If it’s because you feel you’re not giving your baby your ‘all’, then trust me, you are. If you’re having your needs met, then ultimately you’ll also have a happy, contented baby, and that’s the most important thing here. When it comes to expressing, when are you trying to do it? Some mums find the best time is in the morning, when they wake up feeling relaxed and rested. I’ve seen some mums choose some awful times to try, when they’re so busy or stressed they can hardly sit down in one place, let alone focus on expressing!
Expressing will be hard if you’re not supporting yourself to do it. If you’re feeling stressed and guilty, it’s going to affect your milk flow.
