Infant Feeding Day
Nurturing tiny appetites, providing essential nourishment with care, fostering healthy beginnings for precious lives to flourish.
Of course infants need to eat. Everyone does! It’s just that newborns and infants need to eat very often and they require a bit more care and attention to get the nutrition they need. In recent decades, popular opinion and various trends have sometimes created stigma and negative experiences for people who feed their babies in different ways.
Infant Feeding Day is here to set aside judgment and promote a worldwide community of encouragement and support – no matter which way a parent chooses to feed their baby!
History of Infant Feeding Day
Infant Feeding Day was founded in 2019 by an independent charity in the UK called Feed. The day was started to provide an opportunity to draw attention to and celebrate all of the different ways it is possible to feed an infant and provide them with the sustenance they need.
Whether through “bottle, boob or tube”, everyone who feeds an infant is looking to offer them the nutrition they need to thrive in the best possible way. On Infant Feeding Day, people who feed their babies in different ways, whether through personal preference or unexpected circumstances, can be honored for the great job they are doing with their infants!
Each year, the folks over at Feed choose a unique theme that encourages people to celebrate and consider different aspects of this topic in honor of Infant Feeding Day. Some themes that have been named for past years’ celebrations include:
- Compassionate Feedership in 2023
- Feed It Forward 2022
- Feeding Friendly in 2021
- Feeding Forecasts in 2020
How to Celebrate Infant Feeding Day
The way a family feeds their baby is a personal choice and the community can rally around to show support no matter how an infant is fed. Share the love and show some care by celebrating Infant Feeding Day with some of these activities:
Make Feeding Friendly Spaces
One of the important programs that has been introduced through Infant Feeding Day is the Feeding Friendly scheme. The purpose of this is to create more safe spaces where parents can feed their children in clean and safe spaces, particularly while normalizing breastfeeding in public. Business owners, politicians, community leaders and others can work locally to create and support places where moms and dads can feed their infants without judgment or stigma, whether breastfeeding or bottle feeding.
Share Infant Feeding Stories
An excellent way to build community support and get others involved with Infant Feeding Day is to share various stories and experiences, whether in person through parents’ groups, online through social media or in some other way. Having an infant can be a particularly difficult time and letting parents know they are not alone can be a very helpful way to provide encouragement. Feed encourages the sharing of stories and photos to raise awareness and draw attention to this important day.
Learn More About Infant Feeding
Those who are pregnant or who are thinking of having children soon can get more information about infant feeding from their doctor or other medical professionals. In addition, there are many support groups that can help each family make the choice that is right for their particular circumstances.
