Feeling awful...

[rachelleigh]

Yesterday at a lactation consultant appointment my husband mentioned something offhand about the baby's bottles being cold and the nurse said "You give him cold milk??" UGH! Totally did not even occur to us amidst all of the feeding struggles we've been having since day 1 to heat up the milk.... I store whatever I've pumped in the fridge and bottles are usually made up and brought to me by my husband... I feel just horrible that we've been making him drink the milk chilled. He's taken it fine but he doesn't know any different... We have had so many problems so far with nursing, we are at the lactation clinic practically daily... This is just one more thing to make me feel like a bad mom.

Will start warming the bottle from here on out... But fingers crossed we get to stop using bottles on a regular basis soon!

 

[Tacey]

Sorry if this is a silly question, but if it's breastmilk, does it need warming? What are the benefits of it?

 

[rachelleigh]

I'm really not sure other than making it body temp so it's like how they'd get it from the breast? Maybe it's more pleasant for the baby? I'm not really aware of any benefits other than comfort... And the nurse didn't give us any reasons...

 

[shanny]

dont feel bad

i give/gave mine room temp milk so that i did not have to warm up when out

 

[sheldonsmommy]

Babies have poor temperature regulation, so their body temperature can drop if the milk is cold (or heat up if the milk is too hot), then have to work extra hard to bring the temperature of the milk to body temperature. Potentially it could use up lots of calories.

It's probably not a big deal (I won't lie, I've definitely done it in a pinch), but baby may be a little more comfortable with a belly full of warm milk

 

[krysb]

That's silly. Breastmilk is good at any temperature. My second son will only take it warm, but my first son would drink it warm, room temperature, or ice cold right out of a fridge or cooler.

 

[DianaB]

I exclusively pumped for DD#1 and she would take it at any temperature. In the hot summer months I deliberately gave it her cold to help her cool down. I don't think it really matters with breast milk.

 

[rachelleigh]

Thank you ladies!! I feel so much better!

 

[Grateful365]

I gave DS a few cold bottles as well and although he seems to prefer them luke warm, he drank them down.

As for feeling like a bad mom...just the fact that your at the Lactation office so much and trying SO hard to be successful at breastfeeding just shows that the opposite is true...your a great mother!!!

I also had a very hard time in the beginning with breastfeeding and was at the lactation office constantly. Baby wasn't gaining weight for a while and I felt like a failure. We ended up sticking with it and things got much better over time. I'm so glad I didn't give up on it.

Stick with it and great job!

 

[TMonster]

Some will take it ice cold. Zoe sleeps better when its warm but when she is starving I will stick it in hot water and if she cries too much I will just give it to her cool or as close to room temp as she will let me before she goes nuts. When I give it to her cold she will lick at it for a while and spit it out but if the baby takes it I don't see the issue.

DH asked me why we warmed it the other day because he said that cows milk tastes gross at room temp but good when its cold. I told him that is just conditioning.