How long should i demand breastfeed

If you're worried that your baby is spitting up too much, call your doctor. When babies go through a period of rapid growth called a growth spurt , they want to eat more than usual. These can happen at any time. But in the early months, growth spurts often happen when a baby is:. During these times and whenever your baby seems extra hungry, follow your little one's hunger cues. You may need to breastfeed more often for a while. That's a personal choice. Experts recommend that babies be breastfed exclusively without formula, water, juice, non—breast milk, or food for the first 6 months.

Then, breastfeeding can continue until 12 months and beyond if it's working for you and your baby. Breastfeeding has many benefits for mom and baby both. Studies show that breastfeeding can lessen a baby's chances of diarrhea , ear infections , and bacterial meningitis , or make symptoms less severe. Breastfeeding also may protect children from sudden infant death syndrome SIDS , diabetes , obesity , and asthma.

For moms, breastfeeding burns calories and helps shrink the uterus. Every baby is different. Here are a few things to know about how much and how often babies breastfeed during the first days, weeks, and months of life. At first, babies need to eat about every 2 to 4 hours to help them get enough nutrition and to grow. This means you may need to wake your baby to feed. You can try patting, stroking, undressing, or changing the diaper to help wake your baby to feed.

If you have concerns about how much your baby is sleeping or eating, talk to his or her doctor or nurse. Babies go through different patterns of feeding as they grow. Letting them feed when they need to will ensure they're content and getting the milk they need, when they need it, and will also stimulate your milk supply. Responsive feeding is also to do with your needs. You may want to offer a breastfeed if your breasts are uncomfortably full, or if you need to fit in a feed around other commitments, or if you just want to sit down and enjoy spending some time with your baby.

Yes, you can. Make sure you get a skin-to-skin cuddle with your baby as soon as you're able to. A midwife may help you have a skin-to-skin cuddle while you're still in theatre, or in the recovery room.

If you keep your baby close to you and maintain lots of skin-to-skin contact, you'll be able to put them to the breast often and this will stimulate your milk supply. After a caesarean, you might find the "rugby hold" where the baby's body is around to the side of your body, supported by your arm on the same side is preferable to having them lie against your stomach.

Ask a midwife about pain relief so you can feed your baby more comfortably. Very occasionally, there are sound medical reasons for not breastfeeding.

For example, if you have HIV or, in rare cases, you're taking a medicine that could harm your baby, such as drugs for treating cancer. If you're not sure whether you should breastfeed your baby, speak to a midwife or health visitor for information and support. Twins, triplets and other multiples can be breastfed. In fact, because multiple babies are more likely to be born prematurely and have a low birthweight, breast milk is especially important for them.

Your baby will "cue" you, or tell you she needs to be fed, by sucking on her hands, making mouthing movements, rooting with her mouth wide open, making little sounds or crying.

It's often best to breastfeed when she signals you with the earlier, more subtle feeding cues, rather than waiting for her to cry. Once she's crying, you may find it's harder to get her onto the breast and you may need to calm her first before she can breastfeed. It's expected and normal for your baby to choose a time when she wants to have very, very frequent feedings. This is commonly called "cluster feeding," during which she typically has long feedings with short breaks between.

She might breastfeed almost nonstop for several hours. She may also be fussy or unsettled during cluster feeding time. Understandably, some parents get the wrong idea about this behavior and think that it means Mom has a low milk supply. It's important to remember that the way your baby behaves is not a reliable sign of how much milk she's drinking. The most dependable way to judge the milk supply is by your baby's growth pattern and diapers.

If she's gaining well then she's getting enough milk, no matter how fussy she might be or how long she might cluster feed in the evening. On a daily basis, your baby's diapers are the best indicator of whether she's had enough to eat. From age five days up to six to eight weeks, she should have at least five or six sopping wets and three or four palm-sized yellow bowel movements every 24 hours.

After six to eight weeks, some babies develop a pattern of fewer bowel movements but should continue with at least five or six sopping wets along with a good weight gain.