how can fathers bonds with newborn ....

Molly - posted on 06/12/2009

Lucy had a great suggestion for daddy/baby bonding, and I just want to re-suggest it... You breastfeed, and when daddy is around, have him burp the baby. It gets REALLY old and it's a great time for daddy to get in there and lend a helping hand. Also, my husband was worried about the same thing, and he jumped right into the changing diapers thing. More power to him. I was thrilled. You'll be surprised how he'll find his niche. Some daddies are really good at putting baby down for a nap- my sister's baby would always wake up for her but fall fast asleep in the crib for daddy. Bedtime is another great baby/daddy bonding time. especially if you're with baby all day. it's a nice break for you and good bonding time for them!

Jerita - posted on 06/12/2009

fathers can bond just as much as mothers do especially if your breastfeeding he can bring bubs wind up after you breastfeed so buba knows mum and dad is there singing, reading books, talking everyone is diffrent and as soon as baby comes being a mother and father will follow itl depend on your day to day living a routine helps as well..and just be honest with your 4/5 yearold as young as they are if youtell them you are feeding baby or baby is having his/her milk theyll be sweet ma daughter would ask and then breast feed her doll lol it was cute but she grew out of it and now knows that her brother crys for the breast wen he is hungry upset and tired my daughter is 4 and my son is now 16 months and still breastfeed

Lucy - posted on 06/12/2009

Hi, congratulatons on your pregnancy and well done on your decision to be a breastfeeding mummy! What we have done since my baby was born was I feed amelia and then her daddy will wind her and have a cuddle. This has worked fine for us. There are plenty of other ways for dads to bond with new babies too....my little girl loves to fall to sleep on her daddy's chest and have cuddles with him. Your partner can bath the baby, have skin to skin contact with the baby and dress and change the baby but most importantly have lots of cuddles with the baby! Amelia is a real daddy's girl so I really wouldn't worry about breastfeeding interfering with the baby/daddy bond!



As for expressing milk and giving it in a bottle, this is also a good way for the baby to bond with daddy and is great for building up and maintaining your supply, it's best not to give a baby a teat of any kind bottle or dummy until atleast 4weeks old to ensure breastfeeding is well established and the baby doesn't get confused about how to suck on a teat or on the breast as this can cause problems when breastfeeding. Having said that I gave my baby a bottle of breastmilk at 5weeks old and she point blank refused to take it! I've tried her everyday since and she is now 9 weeks and still refusing to take the milk from the bottle, I guess she just prefers the real thing!



My nieces are 5 and when they first saw me breastfeeding they asked what I was doing and I just said "i'm feeding amelia her milk" they were confused as they'd only ever seen babies be fed with a bottle so i just said babies can have their milk from a bottle or straight from their mummy, this was enough for them to be satisified with the answer and not ask anything else!



Good luck with it all!

Tiffany - posted on 06/11/2009

oh also.. has any of you had a 4-5yr old child asking you "what are you doing?" or making a puzzled look when feeding a newborn.. (my first born was never breastfed.. he was bottlefed..) so any advice on that as well?