How often should a newborn baby be breastfed?

We all know that for many inexperienced parents, taking care of a baby is a particularly difficult task. Babies are often relatively small, and we need to pay special attention to their diet and daily life, especially breastfeeding. We must pay special attention to the baby's feeding frequency and feeding time. We cannot feed the baby all the time, and we cannot let the baby feel full. This will have a certain impact on the baby's growth and development. So what is the number of breastfeeding times for newborns!

Breastfeeding frequency of newborn

Babies can start breastfeeding half an hour after birth. The first hour after a baby is born is a sensitive period, and the sucking reflex is strongest 20 to 30 minutes after birth. If you don't get the sucking experience at this time, it will affect your sucking ability in the future. It is not advisable to set the time and frequency in the first two weeks after the baby is born. It should be adjusted according to the actual situation. Because the baby's stomach is small, the amount of milk inhaled each time is not much. Breastfeeding on demand can make the baby full and grow faster.

At the same time, frequent sucking can stimulate the mother's prolactin secretion, making milk secretion more abundant. It can also help eliminate the mother's breast engorgement and prevent mastitis. But breastfeeding on demand does not mean feeding the baby as soon as he cries. There are many reasons why babies cry. They cry when they wet themselves, when they want to be held, and when they are frightened. Mothers should observe carefully and make accurate judgments, and not feed their babies as soon as they cry. It is not good to breastfeed too frequently. On the one hand, it will affect the mother's rest. On the other hand, it will prevent the milk from being fully secreted in time, causing the baby to not be full every time. In this way, the baby will want to eat again before long, and a vicious cycle will be formed over time. 15-20 minutes per feeding on the first day; 4 minutes per feeding on the second and third days; 8-10 minutes thereafter; 4-5 times during the day and 2 times at night after the second week

Precautions for breastfeeding newborns

1. Do not use a microwave to heat milk. When heating milk for your baby, it is best to soak it in hot water or use a special milk warmer to heat it. Try not to use a microwave to heat it. Because microwaves generate heat by exciting food molecules, the bottle is not hot, making it difficult to control the temperature of the milk. Moreover, microwave ovens heat unevenly, and it is likely that the temperature at the mouth of the bottle will be different from the temperature in the center of the bottle. The esophageal mucosa is more delicate than the skin, and temperatures around 45°C are enough to cause burns. Esophageal burns can cause scar contraction, narrowing the esophagus and making swallowing difficult, and the baby will refuse to drink milk. Moreover, the pharynx is the site of pronunciation, and damage to it will affect language development.

2. Don’t breastfeed while lying down. Taking care of a baby is a very tiring task. In addition, the new mother’s physical strength has not fully recovered, so she is easily tired. If you lie down to breastfeed and accidentally fall asleep, your breast may press on your baby's mouth and nose, causing suffocation.

3. Burp the baby after drinking milk. After the baby finishes drinking milk, don’t rush to let him lie down. Burping him will help get the air out of his stomach and prevent him from spitting up. If your baby spits up milk frequently, you should let him lie on his side to prevent the spitted milk from blocking his mouth and nose and causing suffocation, or entering his respiratory tract through his nasal cavity and causing aspiration pneumonia.

To take care of a newborn, we need to master more experience and methods, especially for feeding the baby. The above is an introduction to the number of breastfeeding times for newborns. After understanding it, we know that two weeks after the birth of the newborn, the baby should be fed regularly and in fixed quantities. This has many benefits for the healthy growth of the baby and the mother. I hope that the above content can bring certain help to many new mothers.