What to do if your baby is slow to eat

Babies do not all feed at the same speed. Under normal circumstances, twenty minutes of feeding at a time is enough to satisfy a baby. However, there are also many children who feed very slowly, often taking an hour. If this continues for a long time, it will inevitably make the mother very tired and may even cause malnutrition in the child. So, what should we do if the baby eats milk slowly? Let’s take a detailed look at the solution below.

1. If the mother's milk secretion is insufficient or the milk hole in the bottle is too small, the baby will feel tired when sucking too hard, and then will not want to breastfeed. The breastfeeding speed will slow down and the breastfeeding time will naturally be longer. In this case, the baby's weight gain performance is generally not ideal, and green stools will appear due to hunger. To solve this problem, mothers who exclusively breastfeed should stimulate milk production as soon as possible. If the milk supply is really insufficient, they should add formula to the baby's feeding. For mothers who bottle-feed their babies, it is best to replace the nipple with a larger milk hole. The size of the nipple hole should be such that milk can drip down continuously when the bottle is inverted.

2. When the baby grows to 2-4 months old, he will pay more and more attention to changes in the surrounding environment. If the surrounding environment is noisy while the baby is breastfeeding, the baby's attention will be easily distracted and he will refuse to breastfeed properly, causing the baby to breastfeed slowly and for a long time. If this is the case, the mother just needs to leave the noisy environment and choose a quieter environment to feed the baby.

3. There are also some babies who try very hard during feeding but still take a long time to finish. If the baby is easily choked by milk or sweats profusely after feeding, it is best for the mother to take the baby to the hospital for a check-up to see if the baby has heart or respiratory disease.

The above is an introduction on what to do if your baby eats slowly. I hope it will be helpful to mothers. There are many reasons why children eat slowly. Parents can identify them one by one according to the actual situation of the child. If the child suffers from heart or respiratory diseases, it is best to go to a regular hospital for examination in time and then take effective measures for treatment.