The best way to feed your newborn baby is to breast-feed. Even though breast-feeding doesn’t work for every mom, I always encourage moms to try it. But whether breast or formula feeding, every mom needs to know that babies are born fed. All term infants lose weight in the first days of life because they are born with extra water and nutrition. Nature knows that mom and baby both need a day or two to recover from birth. Mothers are told to breastfeed their baby within the first hour of life. Sometimes the baby latches on and the feeding goes well, but I have found that often the baby is not hungry, sucks twice and falls asleep. Many times I walked into a mother’s room and found her frustrated and in tears because “my baby won’t feed” or “I can’t wake my baby up” when the baby was less than 24 hours old! Mothers are also told to wake the infant up every two hours to feed. Trying to wake and feed an infant every two hours on top of the stress of labor and delivery can often leave a mother exhausted.
If your infant is a healthy, term infant, don’t make the initiation of feeding a “succeed or fail “situation. Think of feeding in the first days of life as practice. During the day, it is okay to try to feed your newborn about every two or three hours. If he acts hungry and latches on, fine, but if he is too sleepy to wake up, he isn’t hungry, he is tired. Let him sleep and get some sleep yourself. You are going to try to feed him again in 2 hours and he won’t get malnourished in two hours. After 10 p.m., however, sleeping babies belong in the crib. If the baby gets hungry, he will wake up and cry and you will feed him. You don’t need to wake up wake up a healthy, term infant during the night to feed. What you and your baby both need is rest and recovery. Every day of life, your newborn should spend more time awake and feed more actively but it takes three to four days to get feeding going well.
It has also become a fad to advise mothers not to “overfeed” their infant. Only the baby knows how much he needs. If he is acting hungry, feed him. When he is full, he will fall asleep and drop off the breast or stop actively feeding. If he is sucking once or twice and falling asleep, he is not hungry; he is tired and you need to put him in the crib (co-sleeping is dangerous). Babies are smarted than grownups – they don’t overeat.
If your baby is premature or ill, none of the above information applies and he may need special feedings or a more regulated schedule. If your infant was awake and feeding well but then becomes less active, you need to consult with the baby’s caregiver right away.
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