As a Certified Breastfeeding Counselor (CBC) you learned or will be learning about typical newborn feeding patterns. Many new parents ask, “how often do newborns eat?” because they’re surprised by how often they eat.
Perhaps you’re wondering how to best explain to your clients the reason for frequent feeds. There are many reasons for this, but it’s not always easy to help parents understand. It’s even harder when parents are erroneously led to believe that formula might help baby to sleep longer.
Here are ways you can help your clients understand frequent feeds:
Breastfeeding Is About More Than Just Nutrition
While the primary purpose of frequent feeds for newborns is to demand milk, there are additional reasons for frequent feeds. Certainly, the supply demand process of feeding is important.
However, breastfeeding is about more than just nutrition. A baby has spent about nine months never feeling cold, tired, hungry, or overstimulated. A newborn is thrust into a world of bright lights, noise, heat and cold, and that scary hospital bassinet.
When a newborn is skin-to-skin and breastfeeding they:
- Reach an optimal temperature
- Positive sensory integration and experience without overstimulation
- Sense of security
- Familiar scents
- Positive oral stimulation – important for babies who experience any suction, breathing assistance, etc.
- An easy start for their digestive system with the optimal infant food
Yes, early and frequent breastfeeding is important for a newborn to help establish supply. However, it provides more than just nutrition. Frequent feeds help create security, improve breathing patterns with closeness, and helps with temperature regulation.
Frequent feeds aid in baby’s transition from womb to world. When we help parents understand that breastfeeding isn’t only about nutrition, we can help them understand why their baby eats frequently.
Use Visuals For Baby’s Stomach Size
When parents are creating their baby registry, many add bottles to the list which are four to eight ounces in volume. While preparing for baby, many will request a breast pump from their insurance company, the pumps have about eight ounce bottles. At the hospital or pediatrician’s offices, they receive samples of formula bottles often two to four ounces in size.
When parents see these large bottles, understandably, many assume babies consume that volume of milk early on. However, on the first day of life baby’s stomach is only about the size of a blueberry or a marble. Using a visual to show parents this can help them understand why their newborn eats often.
Providing visuals for parents makes it easier to understand that baby’s stomach fills up quickly and empties quickly. They cannot be comfortably “tanked up” in the early days to stretch feeds. Fortunately for tired parents, by day ten the baby’s stomach is about the size of a chicken egg. At this time, baby might begin to go a little longer between feeds.
Many newborns can spend a total of 16 or more hours at the breast the first week of life. This can be exhausting, but a great time to remind parents this won’t last forever. The visuals help parents understand that their baby’s stomach will in fact grow.
Help Parents With Coping Techniques
You’ve grown this entire human for nine months. You’ve given birth to this entire human. You must now heal from that plus nourish this baby several hours a day. Good luck!
That’s sort of how many new parents feel. Having a newborn can be utterly exhausting. As a CBC, you can help provide problem solving and support to make early feeding manageable for new families.
Teaching different feeding positions, such as side-lying, is an excellent way to support new parents. Help parents find ways to rest, relax, and enjoy feeds as much as possible. Nothing can quite take away the exhaustion or hard work that is early breastfeeding, but you can help them do more than just white-knuckle survive it.
As a CBC, you have the unique skills to help families have a more positive breastfeeding experience. Education and support can be vital in the early days of breastfeeding.