As you embark on the journey of parenthood, decoding your newborn's silent signals becomes paramount.
Lacking verbal communication, your baby expresses their needs through reflexes, movements, sounds, and expressions. Understanding these cues is essential to meeting their needs.
Researching reflexes present from birth is invaluable in deciphering your baby's language. These reflexes offer insights into whether your baby seeks sleep, sustenance, or simple curiosity.
Remember, while each baby's development is unique, these reflexes offer a basis for discussing your baby's progress with your pediatrician. Equally significant is identifying hunger cues, the early signs of nourishment seeking. Let's delve into the world of interpreting your baby's hunger cues.
Cracking the Code of Early Indicators
Hunger cues evolve as your baby grows. Newborns and young infants use sounds and movements, often reflexes, to signal hunger. Recognizing these cues empowers you to feed your baby before they become fussy or distressed. Initial cues that your baby is hungry include:
Placing hands near the mouth
Turning towards a breast or bottle and opening their mouth (rooting reflex)
Licking lips
Making sucking motions or sounds
Sucking on nearby objects
Puckering or smacking lips
Opening and closing the mouth
Sticking out the tongue
Clenching fists
Turns his head to the side and tilts it back, opening his mouth
Wriggles his mouth
Rolls tongue sideways (classic "hungry" movement)
The baby puts the palms of his hands to his mouth, tries to suck them (hungry if the child has not been fed for the last 2.5-3 hours; otherwise just wants to suck something)
Child arching his back, looking around for a breast or bottle
Flexing arms or legs
Subsequent to these cues, your baby might become more restless, fidgety, or squirm in your arms.
Faster breathing and fussiness might arise. These are signs your baby is hungrier and discomfort is setting in.
Beyond this, crying emerges as the final and most assertive hunger cue.
Deciphering the Cry
Contrary to popular belief, crying is not your baby's initial signal of hunger.
In fact, crying tends to emerge as one of the last cues. However, crying remains a versatile form of communication, conveying various needs.
Relying solely on cries to establish a feeding schedule might be less effective.
Familiarizing yourself with the earlier hunger cues provides a more nuanced understanding of your baby's needs.
Responding to these cues can often prevent crying due to hunger. Instead, cries might indicate other factors such as a soiled diaper, a desire for comfort, temperature discomfort, fatigue, or a need for cuddles.
Colic, a common cause of early crying, could also be at play. Here are tips for soothing colicky babies.
As time goes on, you'll become more adept at discerning your baby's cues.
Hunger cues may shift and become more pronounced as your baby grows.
For babies aged six to 23 months, hunger cues might include pointing at food, showing excitement at mealtime, and using specific hand gestures to convey hunger.
Nourishing Nutritional Needs
Among the many concerns of new mothers is ensuring adequate nutrition for their baby.
Recognizing and responding to your baby's hunger cues ensures tailored feeding aligned with their stomach capacity and digestion.
Babies generally need to be fed every two to three hours, considering the digestion rate of breast milk and the metabolism of newborns.
This interval increases as they grow. Monitoring hunger cues and feeding times helps ensure your baby's nutritional intake.
Fostering Sleep Patterns
In the early weeks, your baby's days largely consist of feeding and sleeping. If your baby is very tired, they might not wake up when hunger strikes.
Waking your baby for regular feedings every two to four hours helps ensure they receive essential nutrients. As they grow, intervals between feedings lengthen.
Around four weeks, longer sleep stretches can be considered, as long as weight gain and diaper usage remain within norms.
Weight gain is an important indicator of healthy physical development. Working with your pediatrician ensures your baby's growth is on track.
Consult your pediatrician if weight gain or diaper usage, deviates from expected patterns. Responsive feeding based on hunger cues creates a balanced schedule, with approximately eight to 12 feedings within 24 hours.
Navigating Growth Spurts
Growth spurts may lead to increased feeding frequency during short periods. Cluster feeding, common in younger infants, indicates a higher demand for nutrients to support growth and cellular function.
Rest assured, overfeeding is unlikely. Observe signs of satiety, pausing until hunger cues reappear. Growth spurts and cluster feeding are temporary disruptions.
Recognizing Signs of Satisfaction
Similar to hunger cues, contentment is conveyed through discernible signs. Identifying these cues enables you to tailor feedings to your baby's needs, preventing overfeeding and potential discomfort. Common cues indicating satisfaction include:
Pulling away from the breast or bottle
Closing the mouth gently
Not responding to latching or sucking
Relaxed, open hands
Comfortable body posture
Heightened interest in surroundings
Smiles during nursing
Displays of contentment during nursing
Drowsiness, happiness, readiness for sleep
Once these cues are present, end the feeding session.
As long as your baby shows healthy developmental signs, following hunger cues is more reliable than adhering to rigid feeding schedules.
For queries about feeding duration, consult your doctor or pediatrician.
Julia Aoun
Pediatrician
M
Megan
18 Apr 2023
If y’all pay attention to a baby’s cues for different things, you can prevent a lot of unnecessary crying. Babies do give cues before crying due to hunger or sleepiness. People are always so surprised how calm my baby is and that’s because I catch anything before she starts screaming.
“I wonder how uncomfortable a diaper must be after 9 months suspended naked in fluid.
I wonder how cold a crib must be after 3 trimesters of warmth.
I wonder how unpleasant hunger must be when your belly was always full in the womb.
I wonder this, and I stop wondering why newborns want to be held and fed so much. You are their security and safe place. Their warmth. Their whole world.
So when you see me holding my sleeping newborn, no, I’m not “spoiling” him. I’m being his comfort, his warmth, his security.”
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