Tandem Breastfeeding Tutorial

Video Transcript

"Greetings! My name is Asma Hanif. I am a certified nurse midwife with a private practice in Baltimore, Maryland and this segment is on tandem nursing. Tandem nursing is the art of breast-feeding two children of different ages during the same time period. Sounds difficult, doesn’t it? Despite all its advantages, breast-feeding even one child is physically demanding. A proper diet is crucial to the mother’s well being. The mom who is tandem nursing must make every food a nutrient dense food, one that provides as much nutrient as possible per calorie. These moms should concentrate on foods high in calcium, zinc, iron, folic acid and protein. You have to put the candy bars down, you have to put down the cookies and the potato chips. Your body needs the nutrients that will allow you to be able to adequately nutritionally breast-feed two different children. Tandem nursing does have an advantage, in that it helps a child to accept a new baby. Toddlers who could be jealous about the time moms spend with nursing the new baby. This will not be an issue because they still have the comfort of the breast, and thus where this whole system came into play because of the jealousy of the other children. A huge benefit of tandem nursing is the opportunity it gives the mother to rest and relax while nursing. On behalf of Expert Village, my name is Asma Hanif, and I would like to thank you for watching."