Breast-feeding is recommended for mothers with diabetes (both type 1 & 2); it is beneficial both to baby and the mother.
Diabetes Breastfeeding
There is no reason for a healthy woman with diabetes should not breastfeeding her baby.
- Baby in intensive care - can breastfeed after he/she is discharge from intensive care.
- Snack before nursing - helps to avoid a sudden drop in glucose level caused because of breastfeeding. Have a glass of milk before nursing the baby helps to maintain the blood-sugar.
- Increase fluid and caloric intake - to balance the excess calorie’s requirements for the milk productions.
- Minor infections - a pain or redness around the nipples or on the breasts must be promptly and quickly treat with antibiotics. Usually, you need not to stop nursing because of it.
Importance of diabetes breast feeding
- Breastfeeding will provide young infants with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development.
- Colostrum - yellowish sticky breast milk, produced at the end of pregnancy, is highly recommended as the perfect food for the newborn, and feeding should initiate within the first hour of birth.
- Breastfeeding is strongly advisable up to six months of age, with continued breastfeeding along with necessary additional foods up to two years or beyond.
- Breast-feed babies have limited chances to have hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes later in the life.
- Evidence that who were breastfed performs better in intelligence tests.
- Infant’s formula does not contain the antibodies normally found in breast milk and is linked to water-borne diseases.
Breastfeeding also benefits mothers - Limits the risks of breast and ovarian cancer later in the life, helps women back to their normal weight faster, and lowers the chances of obesity.
You have to learn breastfeeding properly, and many women come across difficulties at the beginning. Such as nipple, pain and fear that there is not enough milk to sustain the baby are common.