Hannah Croft IBCLC, Infant Feeding Support

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Hannah Croft IBCLC, Infant Feeding Support

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•IBCLC Infant Feeding Support in Canterbury, Kent & SE Kent.
•1:1 support available.
•Home vists
•Online and phone support
•Group support
•Antenatal Sessions

12/08/2025

Being able to spot the swallows during breastfeeds is really helpful.

When your baby swallows it means they have enough milk in their mouth to warrant a swallow: the milk is going into their tummy, and making room in your breast for more milk. The drinking is active and effective.

But being able to differentiate the sucks from the swallows can be tricky, and can take practise to spot.

Sucks are smaller, faster movements whereas swallows are slower and deeper.

Have a look at this video of this lovely little baby doing some great breastfeeding. It’s towards the end of the feed so swallows are slowing as you might expect.

But how many swallows can you spot?

Please comment below and let me know what you think!

**les ***s

11/08/2025

I N F A N T F O R M U L A

If families are in the position of needing formula milk to feed their baby the choice available can often be overwhelming.

In the absence of human milk, formula made from cows or goat milk, when prepared and used correctly, offers human babies nutrition to grow and develop.

A first stage formula will be required to meet your baby’s needs and you’ll use it until your baby is one year of age when they can move to full fat cows’ milk.

It’s important that families are empowered to make informed decisions about what they feed their babies.

In the UK we have regulations about what is in infant formula milk; if it’s recognised as important to your baby’s growth it will be in there.

Some companies will try and make their product more attractive with scientific claims or newly discovered ingredients, but ultimately if it needed to be in formula to help babies grow appropriately, it would be in them all.

More expensive formula milk doesn’t mean better; it just means companies have spent more on marketing and packaging to make their product seem more high end.

Information used to be to stay on the same formula throughout your baby’s infanthood but there’s no evidence that’s necessary; however if you’re considering changing it would be worth talking to your health care practitioner. For more info on formula milk please visit First Steps Nutrition’s website for really useful and accessible help.

The safe preparation of formula remains one of the most important parts of formula feeding; making sure everything is sterile and the formula is prepared as the instructions on the packet suggest so it’s safe for your baby.

11/08/2025

If you know you’re having a c section to deliver your baby you may feel anxious about how to get breastfeeding off to a good start, here are some ideas of ways to help your baby and you establish breastfeeding....

-Include your wishes for feeding in your birth plan. Ask that bottles and dummies are avoided where possible.

-Consider expressing and storing some colostrum incase your baby and you are separated after the surgery, or incase you’re not able to breastfeed directly.

-Think about where your IVs are placed so your mobility and ability to hold and position your baby aren’t too impacted.

-Consider what you’re going to wear in your surgery so you can get baby skin to skin quickly. Some mums choose to wear 2 gowns, one back to front, so the top one can be quickly pulled down once baby is delivered

-Try and have skin to skin as soon as possible after your baby is delivered so you can both benefit from the post birth hormones and encourage those early feeds.

-If your baby is given a hat, remove it if possible so you smell their head and help the bonding hormones flow for you both. Babies don’t need hats to keep warm as long as you keep them skin to skin with you.

-Ask for help in finding comfy feeding positions which are possible with your scar.

-Plan some practical support for the weeks after the operation, and arrival of your baby, so you have lots of help around you; even if it’s as simple as someone handing you your baby to breastfeed.

-Find out about local breastfeeding support so you know who to contact if breastfeeding feels difficult.

What was helpful for you in starting breastfeeding after a caesarean?

Thank you to L & E for allowing me the use of this wonderful photo!

10/08/2025

📣 Some kind words 📣

Can I help your baby and you with feeding?

Please get in touch!

Support from just £15.

10/08/2025

Another win for laid back breastfeeding/upright positioning yesterday afternoon. Thought this deserved a permanent place on my grid 🙂

Research has shown that using laid back feeding positions are more likely to initiate a newborn’s feeding reflexes, and lead to successful breastfeeding, in comparison to other feeding positions.

Research has shown that feeding in the cross cradle position leads to a 4 fold increase in ni**le trauma in the early days of breastfeeding…why is this so often the default taught position?

Using laid back feeding positions means families can adapt and adjust their positioning according to their own anatomy to help make feeding comfy and stable for their newborn and them, without worrying about ‘rules’ and steps to follow which are often given when using other positions.

What was your experience of using laid back feeding? Were you shown it in the early days of feeding your baby?

09/08/2025

Not all babies latch immediately.

It might be they’re a bit shocked after birth, they may have been exposed to some drugs during labour, they may have a headache or stiff neck or it could be a multitude of other reasons.

Sometimes it takes time to get babies breastfeeding, but it’s absolutely possible!

If your baby doesn’t latch right away you can help get breastfeeding on track by…

1. Keeping your baby close. Lots of skin to skin creating opportunities for feeding.
2. Hand expressing your colostrum/milk and feeding it to your baby using a syringe/spoon etc. This will help protect your milk supply
3. Keeping your baby fed; ideally with your milk.
4. Being patient!

All is not lost if breastfeeding doesn’t happen straight away.

Skilled breastfeeding help will also be helpful.

09/08/2025

Being told your baby’s latch ‘needs’ to look a certain way can be unhelpful and confusing.

No one has ever fed your baby with your breast before so we don’t know for sure how it’s going to look. How it feels is more helpful!

Hope this is reassuring.

Need some more help? Please get in touch. I can help with online and phone consults if we’re not near each other.

08/08/2025

What’s involved with a home visit?

-You contact me via message, phone call, email or even Insta!

-We arrange a day and time that works for your family. Often within 48 hours of your initial contact.

-I send a confirmation of the appointment and my intake form so I have a little health history ahead of our time together

-I arrive at your home. You don’t have to go anywhere. It’s absolutely fine (and encouraged) for you to be home in your comfies or PJs!

-The visit itself will be led by what you need: whether that be positioning support, help with a feeding plan, help using a tool like a shield or a supplementer, reassurance and encouragement, or something else.

-I can weigh baby if necessary and plot their growth so we have clear info to work from.

-Home visits usually last around an hour and a half/2hours but sometimes are shorter.

-I can show you different feeding positions around your home to help you be comfy. And we can take photos and little videos of them together to help you remember what we do.

-After the visit we’ll keep in touch via a WhatsApp chat. I’m happy to offer ongoing WhatsApp support for 2 weeks after the visit. And we can extend this if you’d like to too. The WhatsApp chat can be really helpful for sending videos and photos too, hopefully as things improve for your baby and you.

-I’ll also send you an invoice after the visit that can be paid via bank transfer.

Please get in touch if you’d like to chat about this more, or even better get a visit booked in!

07/08/2025

World Breastfeeding Week 2025

As we come to the end of World Breastfeeding Week, I wanted to reflect on WABA’s messaging around this week’s theme.

“Breastfeeding is a natural, renewable food that is environmentally safe. Breastfeeding is produced and delivered without pollution, packaging or waste and is the sustainable solution that is good for the planet and its people. Prioritising and supporting breastfeeding will reduce the growing climate impact of artificial infant feed supply chains. However, breastfeeding can be challenging when parents are not fully supported.”

When you’re struggling with breastfeeding, it’s vital you can access effective support quickly.

If every feed is hurting, your baby isn’t latching, your baby isn’t gaining weight like we’d hope, or you’re seeing the amount of formula you’re using increasing, along with a multitude of other feeding situations, time really is of the essence.

One of the lovely things about being in private practice is I am often able to see families either in person or online within 48 hours of them contacting me, often sooner.

Another big part of what I do, and feel strongly about the importance of, is the follow up-families and I keep the conversion going even after our consultation had finished. We exchange messages, photos, videos and resources to help and empower them to be able to feed their baby in the way they’d hoped.

My weekly groups also gives families a chance to ‘check in’ without having to pay for a whole consult, as well as an opportunity to meet other families, and have the whole rollercoaster of the baby experience normalised by others going through similar things!

06/08/2025

World Breastfeeding Week 2025

Parents often express to me how surprised they’ve been by breastfeeding.

It may be they underestimated how important it would be to them to make it work.

Or it may be it’s been much harder than they anticipated, with lots to learn.

Breastfeeding can take time to fall into place. It’s normal and natural, yes, but it doesn’t come easily to every mother and baby, and grit, perseverance and determination can be very much needed!

Support, too, is crucial. Surround yourself with people who are positive about breastfeeding, and professionals who are trained to give you evidence based information and suggestions to help feeding go the way you’d like it to, however that looks for your family.

IBCLCs have hours and hours of experience in supporting families to breastfeed, so if you’d like more info about getting breastfeeding off to a good start, or if you’re struggling with breastfeeding, then please consider finding an IBCLC.

How did you find starting breastfeeding?

Address

Canterbury

Website

http://www.hannahcroft-ibclc.co.uk/

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