Sunny Gault 0:00
Your baby is hungry, and perhaps crying. So where do you feed him standing, sitting lying down on the floor in a chair. The possibilities are endless, but what is best for your baby? I'm Sunny, guys. I'm with New Mommy Media and today I am joined by Mallory Millet, she is an infant feeding specialist and her website is called The Feeding Mom. Hi, Mallory. Thanks for being with us today.
Mallory Millet 0:27
Hello.
Sunny Gault 0:29
All right, Mallory, I realize that where we feed our babies, it really depends on the age of our babies, and probably how much you know, next support that they have. But assuming they can hold their heads up, what would you say is the best place to feed your baby?
Mallory Millet 0:45
Wherever yet to be, you know, it doesn't matter where you are, you can feed baby. Now sometimes baby needs more support, right? So putting him in a carrier, if you're walking around, even bottle feeding babies, they do great with that. So put them in a carrier where you're holding the bottle. It doesn't, it doesn't matter. It's whatever you need, whatever baby needs and where you're at is where you feed.
Sunny Gault 1:19
Yeah. I mean, do we have to worry at all about babies being completely flat, like I know I don't like to drink completely flat. If I'm laying down, do we have to worry about anything like that, that would cause indigestion, GERD, things like that.
Mallory Millet 1:32
Some babies tolerate it really well, especially for breastfeeding moms who use that lay down sort of sideline position during the night time. Babies can tolerate that really well. If you're laying down for digestion purposes, the left side for them is better than the right or on their back. But it's it works. If it works. If it doesn't, then then we need to elevate a little bit, right? The only time I would say that you're laying flat. Now if we're holding baby out in public, we always want them a little elevated, right? I don't ever like to see a baby flat on their back with a bottle in their mouth that takes away control from them. So we we always want to consider their body position. And support that as much as we can. But I don't know of any situation where I always have a carrier. I think that's the number one thing to remember with bottle feeding parents too, as you always see a lot of breastfeeding parents on in the carrier feeding bottle feeding parents can do it too. And that's really supporting baby.
Sunny Gault 2:46
Yeah, and you're talking about a carrier that you would wear right?
Mallory Millet 2:50
Oh, yes. Body carrier? Yes. Not like a baby carrier. Yeah, good. distinguisher.
Sunny Gault 2:57
And you mentioned baby being on the left side is better than the right. Why is that? Is there something anatomically going on there? Yeah.
Mallory Millet 3:04
So even for adults, so adults who have reflux, you sleep on your left, right, because of the way the stomach is positioned in the body with the esophagus. If you're on your right, it flows back up easier. So being on the left side kind of stabilizes that.
Sunny Gault 3:21
Okay, let's talk a little bit about moving kids from wherever they're at to being more at the table, right, this kind of transition to bring them closer. So perhaps they can even kind of sit there when the rest of the family is having a meal. So how do you know when your child is at that point where they're ready to sit at a table and some sort of maybe a high chair or system where they're at the table.
Mallory Millet 3:47
So at four months, we start prop sitting them right, they kind of sit up with their hands between their legs, and they're they're like hunched into themselves, right? We call that prop sitting. So they don't have core strength where they're sitting up straight by themselves. They're still a little wobbly, they might fall side to side, but they can prop once they can prop, I'm going to start them in a high chair, even if you're not feeding them yet, like you said, we want to start that experience for them so that it's not so invasive, when we're like sitting in a highchair you give them food and it's all this at once, right? So once that prop sitting, let's put them in a high chair, and then what kind of high chair so we always want one with shoulder straps, especially at that age because it really helps support them. And we want one where they have some sort of support at their feet. That can be really hard for four months old because there some some four month olds are really tiny. And so as long as our hips are 90 degree, okay, and then whatever. our knees are dropping So if the knees aren't dropping yet, then the feet can sort of hang out. Okay. Does that make sense?
Sunny Gault 5:06
When you talk about support? Yeah, it does.... when you're about support for the feet, are you talking about like a little ledge or something?
Mallory Millet 5:12
Yeah, they can put their feet on. And if you're, if your high chair doesn't have a ledge, some of them don't, you can get. You can sort of create your own, you can get that, like a rubber band. You use it in physical therapy, you can get it at the store, trying to think of the name of it. Oh, theraband. Yes, yes. So get one of those stretches across the high chair where the feet meet, and just have them have something to rest their feet on.
Sunny Gault 5:46
I've also seen parents kind of in this in between phase when they're getting ready to go to the high chair phase. I've seen them use these little seats, and they're kind of rubbery, you set them on the floor, right? And then the baby can just kind of sit there. So you know, for parents that might be concerned about baby falling over in something that's more elevated, I feel like they they at least think that that's some sort of transitional piece. What are your, you know, expert opinions on that? Is that a good thing or should we aim more for making them you know, more part of the overall table experience?
Mallory Millet 6:19
Sometimes it's nice to have those, I mean, I've used them on my table, right? Like you're sitting there eating, and they're just kind of sitting in front of you, especially for like your three months, when they're getting into for a month and not quite at the highchair yet, I could see the purpose of them. Just make sure they're not ones that are sloping baby's hips, and a C shape. If they're some that kind of tuck baby's butt into the seat. And it creates this nice C shape in baby's body. And we don't want that when we're sitting right, we want a nice 90 degree, there are some that have that support where we're sitting up, the legs come straight out. And those are definitely better for development of those hips and core strength.
Sunny Gault 7:11
All right, good to know. Are there any no no's that you tell parents as far as where to feed their kids?
Mallory Millet 7:18
Yes, there's two. We don't want to feed in the car. Obviously, for safety reasons. There's a lot that goes into that. Especially when we start soft solids and you know, baby just needs a snack. We don't, we don't want them eating in the car. Second is, don't we don't want to put them in front of the TV. I don't want them watching any sort of TV or tablet or anything like that, especially when we're doing a routine around feeding. course if they're just sitting in the seat to play, you can have the TV on his background. But if we're eating TV comes off.
Sunny Gault 7:57
Yeah. I feel like those are the two things that parents probably abused the most. I mean, if you're like traveling in the car, you need to do something, you put them in front of the TV....
Mallory Millet 8:09
I mean my kids eat in the car, okay, they do. But they're older. I know what I'm giving them they can eat, they're not learning to eat. And I think that's, that's important, right? You know, if they're still rear facing and they're not speaking and you can't talk to them and, and they've never eaten what you've given them before. I mean, just know like, it's not worth it. The TV can really establish some negative routines around feeding and you want your routine to be positive and calm, right? The TV's very overstimulating, they're trying to learn something new. And so the TV can just impacts what they're paying attention to. So for eating something different, something funny happens or loud happens and they are looking up at the TV, and it just becomes a big distraction that we don't want. Make sense. Turn some music on.
Sunny Gault 9:14
There you go. Some nice, happy kid music. Yes. All right. Thank you, Mallory. Now if you want to learn more about Mallory, she does have her online courses. She also offers video consultation services, guys. So regardless of where you're at, you can meet with Mallory online. Her website is http://www.thefeedingmom.com. Of course, we want to thank our special sponsor today it's Regalo Baby. And if you head on over to their website and enter our special promo code, you can save 25% on anything you purchase, plus free shipping. If you want more info, check out the video description. And be sure to check out https://newmommymedia.com. That's our website. We have more great videos like this. We also have a bunch of different podcasts you can subscribe too. It's where real moms talk about real life.
