Breastfeeding in the First Six Months: A Mother's Practical Guide
A practical first-six-months breastfeeding guide for Pakistani mothers: the golden first hour, colostrum, skipping ghutti, and knowing baby is fed.
Breastfeeding in the First Six Months: A Mother's Practical Guide
Breast milk is the one food perfectly matched to your baby — always the right temperature, free, and, in a country where clean water isn't a given, the safest option by a wide margin. The World Health Organization advises nothing but breast milk for the first six months, then breastfeeding alongside family food up to two years and beyond.
Start in the first hour — and keep the first milk
Put your baby to the breast within the first hour after birth if you can. That early, thick, yellowish milk — colostrum — is packed with antibodies; think of it as your baby's first vaccine. Sadly, many families still throw it away as "gandi" or "purani" milk. Please don't. It is precisely what a newborn's gut and immune system need.
About ghutti and honey
There is a strong custom of giving a newborn a "first taste" — ghutti, honey, ghee or ark-e-gulab — before breastfeeding begins. These prelacteal feeds fill a tiny tummy, make the baby less keen to suckle, and can carry infection. Honey is especially risky and must never be given under one year — it can cause infant botulism. The best first feed is the breast, nothing else.
How often, and how to tell it's working
- Feed on demand — roughly 8 to 12 times in 24 hours in the early weeks, day and night.
- Let the baby finish one side before offering the other, so they reach the richer hind milk.
- You can't overfeed a breastfed baby, and you rarely need a strict clock routine this early.
You don't need to measure millilitres. Instead, watch the output and the baby:
- Six or more wet nappies a day once your milk is in
- Regular, soft stools
- Steady weight gain and a baby who is alert and growing
- Settling, more often than not, after feeds
"I don't think I have enough milk"
This is the number one reason mothers reach for a formula tin — and most of the time supply is fine. Milk works on demand: the more the baby feeds, the more you make. A baby who cluster-feeds in the evening, or during a growth spurt, is building your supply, not proving it has failed. Before topping up with formula, get your latch checked — a poor latch is behind most sore nipples and "slow" feeds.
Look after the mother, too
- Eat regular meals and keep a glass of water at every feed — our summers dehydrate you fast.
- Rest when you can and accept help with chores; feeding is the one job only you can do.
- Most everyday illnesses do not mean stopping; just ask before taking any medicine, and say you're breastfeeding.
A lactation counsellor or your own doctor can untangle most early feeding troubles in a single sitting — reach out before a small latch problem grows into a supply worry.