Newborns cry and they do it for many different reasons: hunger, sleepiness, heat, boredom, a dirty diaper or colic. What we must remember is that crying in these first months is never a whim, but always represents a request for help to be satisfied.
However, for understand if a newborn is hungry, there are some "tricks" that all parents can keep in mind to anticipate the child's need. In fact, the newborn hunger cues they arrive before the crying itself, which when it occurs it is already too late.
How much should a newborn eat?
The number of daily feedings in the first days and months of life ranges between 8 and 12 (sometimes even 14), the amount of milk that the tables usually suggest month by month should be considered indicative, since the situation of each newborn is different. Worrying that your baby isn't getting enough to eat is one of the most common among new mothers, whether she is breastfeeding or formula-fed.
If the baby gains weight, if he shows signs of satiety at the end of the feeding, there is no reason to worry and, less, to try to prolong a few extra bottles with formula milk for fear that he will not take enough from the breast.
This practice, which unfortunately some mothers naively try, is wrong; it should only be done if the pediatrician suggests it for a valid reason should be implemented. What really happens? The baby, despite having finished eating, experiments with this new solution, fills up more than necessary and skips the next feeding or even regurgitates the milk. While breast milk changes throughout a feeding, becoming fattier and richer, formula is the same from start to finish;
The importance of breastfeeding on demand
Well yes, a newborn can be hungry before the canonical 3 hours, just as it can happen that it sleeps peacefully for a long time without requiring milk. There is nothing wrong with not strictly following the schedules, in fact it is increasingly recommended breastfeeding on demand, which has many advantages: the baby develops healthy eating habits and self-regulation behaviors towards food, with a lower risk of adult obesity. There is also no fear of too many feedings, precisely because, especially with breastfeeding, the newborn perceives when to stop.
What signs of hunger does the newborn give?
We have said that crying is only the last resort that the newborn tries to make us understand that it is hungry. Before reaching this moment, the child sends a series of signals, made up of movements and sounds, which follow a certain order. Here we show you how to tell if your baby is hungry
- initially the child is still calm, but gradually becomes more alert and attentive, looks around
- then the newborn begins to make movements with the mouth: sticks out the tongue, seems to chew, swallows
- the baby then tends to turn to the sides and search for a breast with his face. There is also an instinctive and innate reflex in the baby, whereby when touching the cheek to the mouth, the baby puts the lips in the direction from which the stimulus came. For this reason, this phase can be confused with a normal reaction of the newborn to something that has touched him.
- The baby, after the first signs, now moves faster and faster; he stretches, stretches her little hands. We are at the point of full activation. The newborn, not yet aware of the difference between himself and her mother, searches for her on her own border, reaches out to find her.
- at a later stage, the newborn will take its little hands to its mouth, chewing on them, as if seeking some kind of comfort.
- just before bursting into tears, the last of the newborn hunger cues are the cries that begin to emit, accompanied by nervousness and an increasingly red complexion
The baby cries of hunger
Only after doing everything possible to let us know that he is hungry will the newborn begin to cry. Obviously it is not always possible to observe the signs on time, perhaps because they are busy preparing the food. Also, each child is different: not all children perform the steps at the same speed and this depends on their temperament. Over time, it's nice to learn to interpret our son as well, beyond physiology.
What to do at this point? First of all, hungry crying baby needs to calm down . In this way, he will understand that we have listened to his needs and he will not be nervous about feeding. The risk, in fact, is that you find yourself eating with great enthusiasm, because you reach a point where you can no longer control the hunger you feel.
It happens then that feeds insufficiently at the breast, because he drinks the first milk (less nutritious) and then gets tired; while he will stuff himself with a bottle, with colic problems, because the newborn swallows air, and reflux, because the stomach -very small- fills up in an instant. To find out if the child has fed enough, just look at him: you can clearly see a satisfied child, satisfied, with his eyes closed, relaxed. The child who cannot find enough breast milk or finds it difficult to extract it from the bottle will not come off as calmly.