Feeding Your Baby

What should I feed my baby, how should I feed my baby, when should I feed my baby. These are questions that I hear all the time. In fact the other day, after coming home from work, where I heard some variation of all these questions, a friend was visiting who has a little one and these exact questions came up again. Wow, they’re universal and they’re important.
 
Every family has their own set of circumstances that determine the optimal answer to these questions. After 20 years, I’ve learned, one size doesn’t fit all, and the way I approach these questions is to start by listening, then asking more questions, then listening again.  Only after trying to determine what the circumstances are, what challenges are present and what the highest priorities are,  do I then offer a menu of options that might work.  
 
For example, for a mom delivered a full-term healthy infant and whose highest priority is to breastfeed exclusively for 1 year is going to be interested in different advice from a mom who had breast surgery and delivered a premie who’s in the NICU.  One mom might have to pump to provide some breastmilk and one might have an abundance.  No two moms are alike and no two babies are alike.  I guess that’s why this site exists, moms have the freedom to feel that no matter how they feed their babies, they are doing what’s best in their circumstances.