Infant feeding Olivia

Infant feeding Olivia Providing specialist infant feeding support to families in and around Farnham, Surrey.

10/05/2026

Part 2 - managing oral aversion
This is a short video as I could talk for hours about ways to help your baby!

But here are 2 quick interventions you can do:
Make sure the baby is happy and content prior, or when they are being tube fed.

1️⃣ Oral touch with your finger. Use a clean finger to lightly touch your baby's lips, this will help baby associate touching with happiness and not fear. Stop if the baby becomes distressed.
Only do it for a few seconds as a time to not overwhelm baby with the experience - go at your babies pace and development

2️⃣ Oral play - allowing your baby to play with the bottle teat in a calm happy environment. Helping them reach their mouths with it. This can help them build new happier associations with objects in/ near their mouth.

This video is for information purposes only. Please reach out to your local feeding team or SALT team if you are concerned about your baby's development

It's been a week in the world of unregulated professionals. For years myself and my registered nursing peers have been b...
10/05/2026

It's been a week in the world of unregulated professionals.

For years myself and my registered nursing peers have been baffled at how some "professionals" can call themselves nurses! This ranges from nurses in schools to maternity nurses hired in your homes!
None of which have to hold a professional body qualification, which means no one is making them accountable for their actions, or their training!

I have been a registered nurse since 2009! (I know I'm not old enough!)

We have, and will continue to be held accountable for our practice. We have to provide a lot of evidence every 3 years to show our registered body we are fit to practice.

I feel so fortunate to also have the expertise of during my time as an infant feeding specialist. Dee's training and course are top notch 🫰 in keeping me up to date with all things infant feeding.
Mentoring + peer support is also highly important, it's amazing what you can learn from listening to others that can change the way you practice.

Here's hoping there'll be a change coming for those not registered. The majority of which are fabulous and do a wonderful job at keeping their practice safe.

09/05/2026

This is a subject that came up in my question box the other day: Oral Aversion.

So what is Oral Aversion?

👉 It is when a baby has difficulties in feeding from a bottle/ breast
👉 This can be screaming / refusing anything in their mouth, or coming near their mouth
👉 It can be gagging when things are placed in their mouths

The majority of Oral aversions start when babies are new born and have required medical interventions for a prolonged time.
This can include;
👉 Breathing tubes
👉 Feeding tubes
👉 Blood tests / cannula placement
👉 Surgeries

Babies start to associate oral stimulation with pain and discomfort.

Follow along for Part 2 where I discuss how you can help your baby with oral aversion

09/05/2026

🫣 you never go head first into a new skill without any prep right?

Feeding your baby should be no different.

It doesn't matter if you're planning to breastfeed or bottle feed.

You need to do some preparation. And I don't mean buying all the gadgets

I mean information, education and guidance. All the good stuff that's going to get you through the hard days, all the stuff that's going to make you feel empowered about the choice you make!

📑 Complete feeding guide available now!
🔗 In bio!

Follow along for more infant feeding advice + support

04/05/2026

I was reading some research the other day and it linked this too.

£72.3 million spent per year in 2014/15 (£49.1 NHS + £23.2 parents over the counter remidies) 😯

So what is Functional Gastrointestinal disorders in infants?

⭐ Gas/ bloated
⭐ Vomiting
⭐ Diarrhea
⭐ Abdominal pain

But the question is how do we diagnose this in infants and how much of it is normal infant behavior or linked to feeding positions and issues?

Just imagine what the costs are today. I expect they're more.

And just imagine we spent 1% of this costs on education for health care professionals and give them the time to spend passing on this knowledge and advice to families 🤯

This amount would most likely drop significantly

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29138194/

30/04/2026

Come find either me or at Haskins in May.

Pop in for feeding support or just a chat and a cuppa

27/04/2026

You do not need to suffer with sore cracked ni***es to make breastfeeding a success.

Hormones can make ni***es more sensitive when breastfeeding, but you do not need to suffer with cracked sore ni***es. It is not a right of passage!

If you are suffering with sore ni***es look at the following:
👉 Position of you
👉 Position of baby when feeding from you ( use your photo to record a feeding)
👉 Baby's latch at the breast
👉 Professional support for position and attachment.

25/04/2026

Bottle feeding can be hard too.
It's not the easier route

👇Here's what I want you to know 👇

🍼 Stomach size/ age of infant - for Mls or Oz per feed (not what the formula packaging says)
🍼 At least 8 feeds in 24h
🍼 Pace feeding
🍼 Learn your baby's feeding ques

💥 Avoid over feeding by following these steps 💥

25/04/2026

Why "the latch looks fine" gets me worried!

This is a phrase I hear a lot from families who have already sought help and support with feeding their baby. But they come to me with the same issues and cannot understand why when they've been told "the latch looks fine"

There is more to an infant feeding then just the latch

⭐ Position of mum + babies bodies together
⭐ Suck swallow pattern
⭐ Transfer of milk from breast to baby

💥 Baby could have a perfect looking latch but without suck/ swallow + transfer of milk they're getting nothing 💥

The latch can look shallow or a little wonky, but if mum has zero pain or issues and baby is transferring milk well and growing as expected then don't fix what ain't broken

23/04/2026

Why "the latch looks fine" comment makes my heart sink.

Because a feeding assessment is more than just how the latch looks.

Part 1 - A holistic feeding assessment

This starts before I've been seen parents or baby.

As a practitioner I want to know all about my clients, fundamental information - which may be boring to some, however this information can give key insights into why this family might be having feeding issues.

Sometimes a feeding assessment starts with listening to my family's journey.

Follow along for part 2

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