However you choose to feed your baby, we have the advice and support set out below to help.
Infant Feeding Café
Havering Children’s Centres have an in-person Infant Feeding Café at St Kilda Children’s Centre every Wednesday from 1.30pm-3.00pm If you would like to have a chat, ask any feeding related questions and receive support and information about all aspects of feeing your baby with an experienced infant feeding practitioner, then you are welcome to drop in. A Health Visitor is in attendance every other week to answer any infant feeding enquiries you may have.
We provide advice and support to all Havering families in the antenatal period, following birth of a baby and for as long as they require infant feeding support including solid food introduction.
Please remember if you have a feeding related issue or query that you need support with right now, you can book a one to one telephone appointment. You can contact the Infant Feeding Advisors by Email: childrenscentres@havering.gov.uk
Breastfeeding support groups
Breastfeeding support is also available from local community organisation LatchOn and La Leche League.
LatchOn Havering provides free drop-in sessions for mums-to-be and mums and their families. The sessions are staffed by trained peer supporters who host a welcoming, evidence-based and non-judgmental space to give mums comprehensive breastfeeding support and information. More information can be found in the leaflet on this page.
La Leche League Brentwood and Havering run online group meetings. For more information, email - lllbrentwoodhavering@gmail.com.
Latch on Havering Breastfeeding support sessions
Support from online and telephone services
Health Visitors
- 0300 300 1635 (9am - 5pm, Monday – Friday)
- nem-tr.haveringhv@nhs.net
- Havering Children Services webpage on the NELFT NHS website
Families can call or email a duty health visitor to get instant advice. The duty health visitor can also send a message to your named health visitor requesting further support.
Starting Solid Food Workshop:
An interactive workshop to provide information to help with understanding when and how to introduce solid foods to your baby. The Starting Solid Food Workshop is delivered virtually and is aimed at parents with babies aged between 4 & 6 months. The workshop helps parents decide on a number of key questions, including; When is a baby ready to try solid food? What foods should they start with? When is a baby hungry and when have they had enough? How can you make meal times an enjoyable experience for both parent & baby?
The 1 ½ hr workshops is delivered by the early years practitioners virtually via Microsoft Teams. Parents are given useful web links where they can download resources including Start4Life’s‘Introducing solid foods’ which you can find here and First Steps Nutrition’s ‘Eating well: the first year’ which you can find here: https://www.firststepsnutrition.org/
If you would like to join a workshop please e-mail childrenscentres@havering.gov.uk