Although you are starting to nourish your baby through new foods, she is still benefiting from breast milk and the breastfeeding experience. Barriers to breastfeeding are likely moving from the how to mechanics of nursing your baby to the how to keep it up within your busy lifestyle. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest breastfeeding for at least baby's first year or longer. Successfully "keeping it up" means:

1) Congratulate yourself on making it this far

2) Set a realistic and meaningful goal for how long you want to continue breastfeeding

3) Identify things that might make it hard to meet your goal

4) Determine steps or activities to help reach your goal, including what supports you will need to ensure success

Breastfeeding and solid foods

Brain Science for Your Baby

Sometimes it's really hard to figure out how to keep breastfeeding going. Is it worth the hassle? Is it important to your baby's brain that you can keep breastfeeding for the whole first year?

A 2013 study (Belfort, et al; JAMA Pediatrics) reported results of breastfeeding for more than 1300 mothers and children followed to age 7 years. The study found that longer breastfeeding duration was associated with better receptive language at the age of 3 years and with higher scores on an intelligence test at age 7 years. The authors concluded that their findings support national and international recommendations to promote exclusive breastfeeding through age 6 months and continuation of breastfeeding through at least 12 months.

A Baby Buffer Prescription for Your Baby

Going back to work is often stressful for nursing mothers. Take some time to think about how you can make it work in your work place.

Set times for milk expression throughout your day. Adjust how often and how much milk you express (pump) based on your baby's needs and your goal for continued breastfeeding. Protect this time just like you would an important meeting or other work related responsibility.

Get support from colleagues & supervisors. Make sure you have the space, time, and privacy you need for milk expression.

Adjust how often you nurse your baby and how often you express milk if needed. Adjust your feedings and/or milk expression schedule to achieve your new goal rather than quitting all together. For example, keep nursing your baby at the feeding times you are almost always available and modify your breastfeeding goal if needed.

A baby Buffer Prescription for You

Set aside guilt and praise yourself for taking care of your baby! Make choices for you and your baby and feel good about the choices you make! Being a Baby Buffer means being a caring and supportive person in your baby's life.

Making decisions with these things in mind will help you make the right ones for you and your baby. Try not to worry about other people's opinions and set aside unnecessary guilt because the stress is not good for you or baby.

Remember to maintain a healthy diet while breastfeeding and include plenty of calcium, protein, folic acid and iron. This will ensure that your body has the fuel that it needs to keep you feeling great and your baby growing healthy!

What Your Baby Can Do - Developmental Milestones

Your baby is changing quickly during this period. Know what to look for to make sure your baby is growing and changing in a healthy way. Click on the links below for information from the CDC on what your baby can do now.

What your baby should be doing at 6 months

What your baby should be doing at 9 months

What your baby should be doing at 12 months

Gene's Research Tip of the Week

What does spanking do? It can surprise, scare and hurt. Sometimes it does all three, other times only one of the three, and if used a lot, spanking may become totally ineffective. Parents often think it worked, if the child stops the activity, but many young infants and toddlers will go back to the activity quickly. Infants and toddlers aren't ready for understanding why someone hits them. Many parents think hitting should be enough for the child to "learn" not to repeat the activity, but that isn't how the infant brain always works. The infant brain can learn to be afraid and untrusting, and one response is to cry and to become aggressive by hitting back, or using fast, angry movements. This may be the reason more of the infants that were hit in the first year of life "learned" to be angry and aggressive as older kids.

Baby Buffer Blog

Written by Barbara Unell, Author

Is there anything more amazing than a baby's gurgles, coos or moves? Those coos and babble are the sounds of her repeating back the sounds she hears. They are a vital part of your baby's language development and are the beginnings of her first words.

Help your baby grow in her ability to talk by lovingly talking right back to her. When she says the sounds "Oooo" or "aaaah", for example, gently coo them back at her so she can hear you say the sounds she's making.

Research studies tell us that everything we say to our baby matters-simply repeating her "coos" back to her and more. It has been shown that it is important for us to use words-talk in sentences-when we respond to those sounds that our baby makes. The more we talk to our baby, the better.

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