Breast is best
Breast milk is the best milk for babies. Breast milk provides the ideal balanced nutrition and protection for your baby. Maternal nutritional requirements increase during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Therefore mothers’ diets should include a wide variety of nutritious food and healthy snacks.
If you are considering bottle feeding, always seek professional advice as once bottle feeding has commenced it can be difficult to revert to breast feeding. Partial bottle feeding may also adversely affect breastfeeding by reducing the supply of breast milk. Always use and prepare infant formula as directed by the manufacturer; unnecessary or improper use of infant formula can be hazardous to the health of your baby.
Before using infant formula, always consider the social and financial implications, such as issues of convenience and cost to the household of using infant formula for at least 12 months. If you are considering using infant formula, it is important to discuss this with a health professional.
This information concerning the use of infant formula is provided to you for educational and informational purposes only. Please click “I accept” if you would like to proceed.
Walking in grown up shoes: baby’s first steps
By the time one year rolls around, your baby is officially classed as a toddler. They’ll probably be crawling well, curious, eating finger foods and generally bringing a whole lot of fun to your world. Now you can start looking out for that glorious milestone, their first steps.
Every toddler is different, yours may already be walking, or they might still seem a long way off - this is all absolutely normal. And if you are currently waiting with baited breath, your camera in hand, here are a few things to look for.
- Sofa support – before they learn to walk your toddler will probably learn to stand by supporting themselves on various pieces of furniture.
- Cruising – once your toddler can support themselves on furniture, you might see them move by sliding along side the couch or coffee table. They can also move from support to support, working their way around your home. Try to imagine yourself in a really unstable pair of roller skates, hanging on for balance. That’ll give you some idea of what your little one is up to.
- All by myself – eventually they’ll be able to stand on their own, without support from you or the furniture. Again, the timeline varies but you can expect this to happen somewhere between nine and 14 months.
- Shaky steps – once they’ve conquered standing, it’s a matter of waiting for those first baby steps forward. Be patient, it might take a while and there could be a few spills along the way. Eventually you’ll see that tiny person take a slow, shaky step towards you. That’s a moment you’ll never forget!
- Bow legs – don’t worry if your toddler seems to be bow legged when they first stand as nearly all babies and toddlers are. Even if they stand with their feet together their knees probably won’t touch. They might stay bow legged for another year yet, and that’s perfectly normal.