What's the best way to store breastmilk? How long will it stay fresh?

You can store your breastmilk to keep it fresh for your baby in a number of ways:

• At room temperature (no more than 25 degrees C) for up to six hours.
• In a cold box with ice packs for up to 24 hours.
• In a fridge (at four degrees C or colder) for up to five days.
• In a fridge’s freezer compartment for two weeks.
• In a home freezer (at -18 degrees C or lower) for up to six months.

If you're returning to work, it's a good idea to get into the routine of expressing and storing breastmilk. Then your baby can continue to get the benefits of your milk, even though you're not around.

How you store your breastmilk depends on how soon you want to use it. If you plan to use it within a few days, refrigerating is better than freezing. This is because freezing destroys some of the substances in your milk that fight infection. Frozen breastmilk is still a healthier choice for your baby than formula, though.

Whether you choose to refrigerate or freeze your milk, you should:

• Use sterilised containers. The best choices are plastic bottles, or plastic breastmilk bags. Glass containers aren’t recommended. It's thought the infection-fighting white blood cells in breastmilk may cling to glass.
• Label and date your bottles and bags, and use the oldest ones first.
• Keep your breast pump clean. Wash the parts in hot, soapy water and rinse them thoroughly before sterilising.
• Wash your hands before expressing. Keeping everything as clean as possible will lessen the chance of bacteria growing in your stored milk.

You can add freshly expressed milk to breastmilk that’s already in the fridge. Bear in mind, though, that you can only keep it until the original milk is five days old.

If your milk has been stored for some time, you may notice that it separates. This is normal. Just give it a gentle shake.

If you want to freeze your milk, do it as soon after expressing as possible. Leave a gap at the top of each bottle or bag, as your milk will expand during freezing. If you’re storing your milk in bags, watch out for tears. You may not notice any until you start to thaw the milk. Bear in mind, too, that plastic bags tend to fall over when thawing.

You can add freshly expressed milk to frozen milk as long as the fresh milk is chilled for at least an hour first. Make sure the amount you’re freezing is smaller than the frozen portion.

Frozen breastmilk should be defrosted in the fridge, and can be stored there for 24 hours. Once it has defrosted, though, it mustn’t be refrozen.

Don’t be tempted to defrost or warm your breastmilk in a microwave. If you need the milk in a hurry, defrost it under cool, then warm, running water. Dry the outside of the container before you open it.

Source from BabyCentre.com

Wind

Written for BabyCenter Arabia

Approved by the Medical Advisory Board

Source: http://arabiaenglish.babycenter.com/baby/newborncare/wind/

• What is wind?
• How do I know when my baby has wind?
• Do breastfed babies get wind?
• How can I help my bottle-fed baby to avoid wind?
• How do I burp my baby?
• Why do some babies have more trouble bringing up wind than others?
• Can gripe water and other medications help?

What is wind?

Wind is simply the air in your baby's tummy. Much of it will be swallowed along with her milk when she feeds, but it also gets there when she cries and even as she is breathing. It can make her feel full before she has drunk enough milk and can also make her feel very uncomfortable.

How do I know when my baby has wind?

Some babies really suffer with wind and need burping after every feed. Others are fine and hardly ever have wind. During a feed, your baby may stop sucking on her bottle and cry, or resist going on the other breast. There may be a pained expression on her face and she may squirm and grimace, particularly if you try to lay her down after a feed.

Do breastfed babies get wind?

Breastfed babies tend to get fewer problems with wind than those on bottle feeds. This is because they can control the flow of milk at the breast and so suck at a slower pace, swallowing less air with the milk. They are also more likely to have smaller and more frequent feeds and may be fed in an upright position, both of which can reduce wind. Yet, even breastfed babies will often need to be burped, especially if they are fast feeders and/or your milk flows particularly quickly.

How can I help my bottle-fed baby to avoid wind?

The flow of milk from a bottle can make babies take in gulps of air between closely-spaced swallows. You can help reduce wind by giving your baby her bottle in as upright a position as possible and making sure that the bottle is tilted enough for the milk to completely cover the entrance to the teat.

How do I burp my baby?

If your baby is sucking happily, don't stop her feeding to wind her. She will probably cry and will swallow more air as a result. Make the most of any natural breaks in a feed, when your baby lets go of the teat in a bottle feed or during a breast change-over in a breastfeed. Wind her again when she is finished.

Patting or rubbing your baby's back is the most effective way to get her to bring up wind. (Remember: she may bring up some of her feed with it so always have a cloth or muslin handy to protect your clothes.) There are three positions most commonly used for burping a baby. Try all of them as most babies find one more effective than the others.

Over-the-shoulder: place the baby over your shoulder with her bottom supported by your arm on that side. As your baby is stretched out and upright, this is often the easiest position to get her to burp. With your other hand, pat or rub her back.

Sitting up: Sit your baby on your lap so she leans forward with her chin supported on your hand as you hold her far shoulder. Pat or rub her back.

Face-down on your lap: place your baby face down on your lap. Hold her firmly with one hand and pat or rub her back gently with the other.

Why do some babies have more trouble bringing up wind than others?

If your baby has not burped after a couple of minutes it probably means she doesn't need to. However, some babies do seem to have real trouble bringing up wind and will be obviously uncomfortable in which case you will need to persevere. It may be that your baby's immature digestive system is allowing air to travel further into the gut, making it harder to get out. You may have to try some good back patting and changing positions before she will give a resounding burp. Some babies seem only able to get rid of wind through hiccupping.

Can gripe water and other medications help?

If your baby seems to have a severe case of wind, your health visitor or doctor may suggest medication such as Infacol, which is also sometimes used to treat colic. Infacol contains simethicone. This is an "anti-foaming agent" that works by allowing the gas to be released in larger bubbles rather than lots of smaller bubbles that can get trapped in the stomach.

Gripe water is an old-fashioned remedy containing herbs (dill, fennel, ginger etc) and sodium bicarbonate. The herbs are said to warm the baby's tummy and break down air bubbles while sodium bicarbonate neutralises acid. Gripe water used to contain alcohol. Some experts believe it was the sedative effect of this that made gripe water successful in helping to sooth babies troubled by wind. Alcohol is no longer an ingredient, but many parents still swear by gripe water so it may be worth a try.

Most babies outgrow the need to be winded as they become able to move and find a comfortable position for themselves.

 

Sleep & Newborns

"Does your baby sleep through the night?" is one of the questions new parents hear the most. And the bleary-eyed moms and dads of newborns almost always answer: "No."
Newborn babies don't know the difference between day and night yet — and their tiny stomachs don't hold enough breast milk or formula to keep them satisfied for very long. They need food every few hours, no matter what time of day or night it is.

How Long Babies Sleep

A newborn may sleep as much as 16 hours a day (or even more), often in stretches of 3 to 4 hours at a time. And like the sleep all of us experience, babies have different phases of sleep: drowsiness, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, light sleep, deep sleep, and very deep sleep. As babies grow, their periods of wakefulness increase.
At first, these short stretches of 3 to 4 hours of sleep may be frustrating for you as they interfere with your sleep pattern. Have patience — this will change as your baby grows and begins to adapt to the rhythms of life outside the womb.
At first, though, the need to feed will outweigh the need to sleep. Many pediatricians recommend that a parent not let a newborn sleep too long without feeding In practical terms, that means offering a feeding to your baby every 3 to 4 hours or so, and possibly more often for smaller or premature babies. Breastfed infants may get hungry more frequently than bottle-fed babies and need to nurse every 2 hours in the first few weeks.

Encouraging Your Newborn's Sleep

You can help adjust your baby's body clock toward sleeping at night by avoiding stimulation during nighttime feedings and diaper changes. Try to keep the lights low and resist the urge to play or talk with your baby. This will reinforce the message that nighttime is for sleeping.
Overly tired infants often have more trouble sleeping than those who've had an appropriate amount of sleep during the day. So, keeping your baby up in hopes that he or she will sleep better at night will not necessarily work.
Consider establishing some sort of bedtime routine (bathing, reading, singing) to help get your baby to relax in the coming months. Even though your newborn may be too young to get the signals yet, setting up the bedtime drill now can keep you on the right track later.
What if your baby is fussy? It's OK to rock, cuddle, and sing as your baby is settling down. For the first months of your baby's life, "spoiling" is definitely not a problem. In fact, studies have shown that babies who are carried around during the day have less colic and fussiness.
The first months of a baby's life can be the hardest for the parents because you are potentially getting up every few hours to tend to the baby. Each baby is different in terms of when he or she will sleep through the night, and parents differ regarding when they're comfortable with encouraging their newborn to do so.
By 2 months most babies are sleeping 6 to 8 hours through the night. If your baby isn't sleeping through the night by 4 months, talk with your doctor about how you can help this to happen.

When to Call the Doctor

While most parents can expect newborns to sleep or catnap most of the day, the range of what is normal is quite wide. Check with your doctor if you have questions about how much (or how little) your baby is sleeping.
You may want to talk with the doctor if your baby seems overly irritable and cannot be adequately soothed. In addition, if your baby is difficult to rouse from sleep and generally seems uninterested in feeding efforts, speak to the doctor immediately for reassurance or further medical guidance.

Reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD

My Little Princess - KeYing Photos

You are my princess my angel my little star ,
You are so beautiful and perfect just as you are,
Because you have been sent down from heaven and been given to me ,
You are the soul light of my life just as you can see ,
You make me glow with laughter when I see the sweetness of your smile,
And I thank the lord for my gift of a daughter because its all been worth while,
And as you grow older in a sweet and glorious way ,
You blossom like a flower forever and a day.