Feeding your baby
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Infant feeding support is part of the Luton health visiting service, and delivered in partnership with Flying Start Luton.
Breastfeeding
We recognise the importance of breastfeeding in improving the health of Luton’s population. Therefore we provide services informing pregnant women about the benefits of breastfeeding, as well as supporting mothers in breastfeeding and starting their babies on solid foods.
As well as being cheap and convenient, breastfeeding has many benefits for both mums and babies:
- breast milk is perfectly designed for your baby
- breast milk protects your baby from infections and diseases
- breastfeeding provides health benefits for you
- breast milk is available for your baby whenever your baby needs it
- breastfeeding can build a strong emotional bond between you and your baby
Check out this 'Human Milk, Tailor-Made For Tiny Humans' video to find out more about the benefits of breastmilk.
Formula milk does not provide the same protection from illness and does not give you any health benefits.
Breastfeeding is something mum and baby learn together and there’s lots of support to help you start your breastfeeding journey.
Breastfeeding support
Breastfeeding is hugely rewarding but it can sometimes take some time before you start to feel confident with it. So it's really important to get help, information and support in the early days so you get breastfeeding off to a good start.
The health visiting service aim to call you before your baby is 5 days old, offering you phone support or home visits.
If you are in need of breastfeeding advice and support, please contact the Health Visiting team via the Health Hub by calling 0300 555 0606 for information or to arrange a home visit.
You can also attend a Breastfeeding Café run weekly with Flying Start Luton and Health Visiting for support. Details of Cafés in Luton can be found on the Flying Start’s Timetable Webpage.
All women and their children should be free to breastfeed in public, anytime, anywhere. This is the vision of the #FreeToFeed campaign, launched in July 2019 to support mothers across Luton and Bedfordshire to raise their confidence and understanding among the public, businesses and venues. Look out for the free to feed stickers across Luton and Bedfordshire to find breastfeeding friendly places.
For more information, visit the following websites:
NHS Cambridge Community Services - Free to feed
Flying Start - Flying Start Luton
The NHS Start4Life breastfeeding website offers tips from mums and experts on breastfeeding and also provides additional information and links to resources that can help support breastfeeding mums.
Alternatively you can also call the National Breastfeeding Helpline on 0300 100 0212.
Starting solids
The Department of Health recommends introducing solid foods at or around six months of age with continued breastfeeding for at least one year or beyond.
Further starting solids advice or support can be obtained through the health visiting service and Flying Start.
Starting solids information sessions are available for Luton parents/carers of babies who are 3 to 6 months old who have not yet started solids. There is a short recorded video version available too, for those unable to attend live dates.
Flying Start also have a ‘Starting Solids: Next Steps’ session for parents/carers of babies who are 6 to 12 months old that have already started solids.
Details of these sessions in Luton can be found on the Flying Start’s Timetable Webpage. Alternatively, you can contact Flying Start on:
Telephone: 01582 368245
Email: [email protected]
Bottle feeding support
A guide to bottle feeding is available on the Unicef website.