The Breastfeeding diaries...

Day 4 on the Breastfeeding Diaries is a tip from Beth Peat, mum of 2, on tandem feeding.

My little ones are 22 months and 3 months. I breastfed my daughter all through my pregnancy, and we're still feeding at bedtime. Obviously, your newborn is your priority and we did some work with Lucy to reduce the number of feeds in the day before Sam was born. We were down to just bedtimes before I went into hospital - I had a planned section - but I fed her at naptimes for a few weeks after as well as she needed the comfort. Then, we cut out naptimes as it wasn't feasible to feed her to sleep without someone to take Sam, and as I'm home most of the day by myself... I think my biggest tip would be to not be afraid to give it a go, and to be flexible and sensitive to needs of both children. And, if you need to wean the older one because it's not working out, that's ok too - they've had a lot of benefit from extended feeding, and you can substitute other activities for the feeding - reading or singing together for example. There's also a book called 'Adventures in Tandem Feeding' that was a good resource - I borrowed it from the counsellor at my local Breastfeeding Network.

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