Breastfeeding: precise times or “on request”?

When you are expecting a child, the firstborn, you are led to fantasize, to let your imagination fly. We will do so, we will do this. But then…

Sleeping only in his bed, we would miss it. And at fixed times, woe betide him if he exchanges day for night. Even feedings will be scheduled, table in hand.

The ball of schedules to be respected is typical of young couples of parents, it seems to give hope that, good as they will be, their life will undergo a change but it will certainly be wonderful and, above all, well organized.

Here, it is a certainty that will be disappointed.

It’s not just milk

Breastfeeding, in fact, is not an activity that can be booked, but a vital physiological function that has allowed humanity to survive over the millennia following the only possible rule: the newborn cries, the mother breastfeeds him.

And, surprise, the milk is there because the mammary gland is activated by producing milk thanks to the call of the baby and the sucking mechanism.

In practice, the more the baby attaches to the breast, the longer the mother produces milk since it is through sucking that prolactin is activated.

Being breastfed, however, does not only mean filling the tummy: offering the breast to the crying child also means satisfying different needs such as, for example, thirst or the need to be pampered and reassured. Is there a precise time to be respected for this type of need?

When you decide to breastfeed following the schedule, you do not take into account the maternal instinct (it exists) that very difficult to tolerate the crying of your baby without torment. As a result, if for feeding it is still early, you will resort to the bottle with an herbal tea.

Result: the baby will learn to suck the teat and “pastry” with the nipple, making breastfeeding until then serene, problematic.

Not only that, with the tummy already full of water, he will take less milk leaving us the satisfaction of thinking that then he did not have all this hunger.

Signs of hunger

Crying is the last and you need to know that before you can successfully attach a desperate baby to the breast you need to take him in your arms and calm him down.

She “dreams” of her mother’s breasts when the eye movements under the eyelids become faster or when, when awake, she begins to bite her hands or a flap of the sheet: it’s time to breastfeed her.

Times and times: five things to know

• A healthy newborn, born at term, needs to be suckled every 2/3 hours or so. It means that, throughout the day, she will look for breasts between 8 and 12 times. However, you should never let more than 3 hours pass between meals because the child may become dehydrated.
• Gradually, the number of feedings will decrease, eliminating first night ones.
• A feeding can last between 10 and 20 minutes but there are more voracious babies and others slower. It is good to allow the baby to empty the udder since the composition of the milk is more liquid at the beginning of feeding and richer in fat at the end.
• The number of daily feedings tends to decrease progressively until the introduction of foods other than milk (around the 6th month of life) but each mother-child pair has its own rhythms.
• Gas colichette, vaccinations, eruption of teeth, mild discomfort can affect the number of feedings.