WIC Nutrition

Evidence-Based Breastfeeding Information for Health Professionals Who Counsel New Moms

This information is based on the most current breastfeeding updates and recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Texas WIC trains all WIC breastfeeding counselors at routine in-service trainings to follow these recommendations. New moms often complain that the information they receive from various health professionals is inconsistent and, therefore, confusing. The intent of this handout is to assist health professionals in offering current, accurate, and consistent information on common breastfeeding topics when they counsel women and their families about breastfeeding. To review the AAP Policy Statement: Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk, go to http://www.aap.org/policy/re9729.html. For free DSHS breastfeeding brochures and posters for your health facility, go to http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/wichd/bf/bfpubs.shtm. Click on the training materials you would like to view, print, or download. For your convenience the download size of all of materials is listed.

Click on a link below for a fuller explanation:

• Human milk is the healthiest food for human babies.
• Nursing a baby within 30 minutes of birth is ideal.
• Newborns should be nursed every 1½ to 2 hours around the clock.
• Colostrum may not change to mature milk for 3 to 5 days.
• A baby should be fed when demonstrating early hunger cues.  
• Parents can tell if their baby is getting enough to eat by counting the number of wet and soiled diapers he produces.
• A newborn should be given only breastmilk the first few weeks.
• Avoid pacifiers the first few weeks.
• A mother should nurse her baby on one breast until the baby ends the feeding.
• Breastfeeding may help prevent pregnancy during the first 6 months postpartum.
• If a woman is breastfeeding one baby, and becomes pregnant with another child, she does not have to wean her older baby. 
• A breastfeeding mother does not have to wean her baby from the breast at one year of age, as she would wean a baby from the bottle.
• The only food a baby needs for about the first six months of life is his or her mother’s breastmilk.
• Breastmilk helps protect babies from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
• Mothers do not have to stop breastfeeding for any of the following reasons.
• It is all right to give a baby both formula and breastmilk.