Introduction
Breast milk is the one of the universally accepted foods for the newborn to start with. It provides all the vital nutrients needed for the survival of the baby. Conversely, it is also beneficial to the mother. The WHO (World Health Organisation) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months, which can be continued till two years. Despite its benefits, breastfeeding can be challenging, especially for working and new moms. Development of the applications aid in saving the data regarding breastfeeding.
What Does a Breastfeeding Application Do?
Breastfeeding apps provide information to new mothers about breastfeeding both during and after pregnancy. Additionally, it offers health care professionals, trained volunteers, and support groups for nursing mothers as therapy services.
Such infant feeding monitoring apps work just how you would like them to. These apps help you keep track of all the information important to your child, such as the food and feeding routine. The apps can manage your nursing schedule, log feedings, communicate information with a spouse or other caretaker, keep track of your baby's weight, and much more. Some of them can even monitor milestones in development, sleep patterns, and diaper changes.
What Are the Salient Features of the Breastfeeding Applications?
The following capabilities and features might be found in the top baby tracking apps:
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Keeps track of bottle feedings, nursing sessions, and pumping sessions.
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Timer to keep track of the length of feeding sessions.
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Observing the changes your infant is displaying as time passes.
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A memo in which you can write notes that you want to keep in mind.
Why Should We Track Breastfeeding?
Breastfeeding apps help the mom learn about the infant's health. All the information like time, duration, and which side of the breast are noted. The lactation consultant or midwives can track this to know how well are the mom and infant doing, and if any disparities happen, they can clear it on future appointments. Apart from this, some apps also track the baby's sleeping session and output by taking the count of wet diapers.
Some applications provide the facility to note the fluid intake in feeding mothers, which helps track the mother's health.
What Is the Use of the Breastfeeding Application?
The use of the infant feeding app is advantageous in a variety of ways. It keeps mothers informed of all information pertaining to their infants.
A few advantages that help women have a calm and trouble-free lives are:
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It informs the mother whether the infant is consuming enough milk.
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Also, they can know which side of the breast needs nursing.
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The mothers can also learn when their children are taking naps.
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By monitoring the infant's feed, you can determine whether you require pediatric advice or not.
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In addition, the mother can communicate with doctors using the best breastfeeding tracker app.
What Are the Available Applications to Track Breastfeeding?
The apps available to track breastfeeding are:
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Baby Feed Timer: It is available both in the Apple app store and Google play store. The feeding time is logged into the app, and it reminds of the next feeding due and which side of the breast to go first. It also facilitates logging the data through the watch, which is useful during the night feeds. The pediatrician can analyze the cumulative data to check for daily, weekly, or monthly infant health checkups.
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Medela Family Baby Tracker: It is available both in the Apple app store and Google play store. This app has the facility to contact the breastfeeding expert 24/7 and a virtual milk storage. It also has a nursing tracker along with voice command, so it is user friendly and loaded with educational videos that the supporters and caregivers can use.
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Baby Daybook: It is a very good nursing app, available in the play store of iOS and android. This app features the facility for customization, nursing duration, milk volume, doctor visits and vaccination. Using the inputs, it creates statistics, making the track incredibly easy.
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Baby Tracker Newborn Log: It’s designed for busy parents. With one tap, logging the data is possible with personalized notes. It documents the milestones and memories with the baby. It holds the record of important events like a baby's first tooth, first smile, first step and has the ability to sync with all the available devices. The available data is printable too. The pattern feature is nice and available in both android and iOS.
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Ovia Parenting and Baby Tracker: This app logs the breastfeeding sessions, keeps a note on diaper changes, bottle feeding, pumping and developmental milestones. It features the possibility of creating individual profiles for the children. One interesting thing about this app is, it provides a chat option so breastfeeding is made easy even in the midnights.
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Huckleberry Baby and Child: This app customizes the sleep schedules of the baby along with a nursing tracker. It has a 'Sweet Spot' feature that predicts the next nap time.
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Glow Baby Tracker and Growth App: Beyond tracking the nursing, sleep pattern and diaper changes, the app provides the facility to connect with other parents. It is also synced with other caregivers and supporters.
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Nara Baby Tracker: Like other apps, this app features to track the activities for mom. The activity of the mom and baby is tracked under one place.
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Sprout Baby: This app strictly sticks to the WHO guidelines, and devices all the facilities provided by other apps and available only in the apple app store.
Conclusion
The smartphone-based breastfeeding education dramatically increased the breastfeeding self-efficacy of new mothers. With the help of this app, all working mothers and caretakers can benefit. The health of the infant and the mother is very important and can be tracked using the app. The gadgets can also reduce frequent hospital visits.
