My Latch Diary -combining breastfeeding and bottles

Breastfeeding is one of those things that before you have kids, you think is easy and straightforward. For some of us it is, for others, it doesn’t always go to plan. I had a hard time with my three girls, while I started off breastfeeding all of them, lack of support and PND made it tricky. I ended up combination feeding for a few months with each of the girls, then they were all exclusively bottle fed. My breastfeeding journey with Beastie has been entirely different. We’re working with Munchkin Latch Bottles to share our latch diary and talk about our journey.

Beastie is almost 23 months old and still breastfeeding. After my struggles with my three girls, this time around I didn’t put any pressure on myself. He was always a fantastic feeder, we never had any issues with latch or sore nipples, or any of those problems that can get in the way of breastfeeding feeling easy and natural. I’m so grateful that this time it has been so straightforward, as I always felt so guilty for giving up in the past.

When he was a couple of months old, I introduced a bottle of expressed milk. He used to have it in the middle of the night – this was daddy’s job so I could get a longer stretch of uninterrupted sleep! We carried this on for a few months, and I really wish we’d had these Latch bottles then as they would have been so good. They are designed to mimic a boob – making the transition from breast to bottle and back much easier. I think they’d be great if you want to breastfeed but have one or two bottle feeds a day. Beastie struggled sometimes with that switch from boob to a bottle.

While we haven’t tried out the bottles, as Beastie only has boobie these days, I’m really impressed with how they look. After having bottle fed three kiddos, I’ve tried so many different bottle designs over the years! The Latch bottles have a unique accordion teat that mimics the way a breast moves, and they also have an anti-colic valve that prevents air bubbles in the milk.

Beastie has been trying ou the http://www.munchkin.co.uk/latchtm-transition-trainer-cup.html, that has a silicone teat similar to the bottles. Although he’s bigger, he’s really loved the cup and I think it would be fantastic for smaller babies learning to hold their own cup and make the transition from bottle to cup.

We made a little video latch diary too if you’d like to take a peep!

This is a collaborative post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.