How often should the newborn be fed with breast milk?

Young moms often have a question about how often one needs to feed a newborn baby with breast milk. Breast milk is digested in the baby's stomach pretty quickly. Therefore, after literally 1,5-2 hours, the child can demand a new portion.

How often is it necessary to feed a newborn baby?

Generally it is considered that feeding kids from 8 to 12 times a day is the norm. However, this value can vary, both in large and in smaller side. Only after some time (2-3 weeks) any regime will be adjusted. Most often, the interval between feedings is 2-3 hours.

How do you know if the baby is missing enough milk?

Many mothers often think about how often it is necessary to feed a newborn baby with breast milk. Do not always know if it's full or not. The following signs may indicate that the child is hungry:

• the appearance of anxiety, capriciousness, tearfulness;
• attracting mom's attention with smacking sounds;
• The proposed baby dummy does not change the situation.

During the first few weeks of life, the baby shows signs of hunger not often and not regularly. So, the gap between requirements can fluctuate within 2-6 hours. Therefore, most mothers breastfeeding, adhere to a time interval of 3 hours.

As the child grows and develops, the child passes through several stages that differ in activity. So, between 7-10 days of life there is an intensive growth, which is accompanied by an increase in appetite in the baby. This is also observed at 4-6 weeks, 12 weeks, and also in six months. The mother's body quickly adapts to these changes. Therefore, many nursing mothers note a greater allocation of milk at these time intervals.

Thus, each mother should know how often it is possible to feed a newborn baby with breast milk to avoid overfeeding.