Let’s talk about demand feeding for breast fed bubs and some bad feeding practises to avoid.
I have always understood DEMAND feeding to mean 2 to 4 hourly, with the timing gagged from when the feeding began. When I hear that mothers are told to feed bub whenever it cries or to start feeding 20 minutes each side straight away, I cringe. These practices can lead to ‘snack feeding’ and cracked nipples. Firstly let’s look at demand feeding for newborns upto 6 weeks of age. Then I’ll take you through some feeding practices to avoid.
During the first few days of life, a newborn’s stomach capacity is small and requires feeding 2 to 4 hourly. Most newborns do not need feeding more often than 2 hourly. When the milk comes in, about the 3rd or 4th day for most mothers, feeding may take place about every 3 or 4 hours in healthy babes. About the 6 or 7th week expect your bub to have a 'growth spurt'. This will cause unsettled behaviour and a change to the feeding routine for a day or so. Your baby may drop a feed and have longer sleeps at night. Excellent! As always, be prepare to be flexible in your routine and you will be fine.
The first poor practise you should avoid is snack feeding. Snack feeding is when a baby is fed more frequently than 2 hourly. Small, frequent feeds means your bub will take more 'fore' milk than 'hind' milk. Fore milk is high in Lactose and low in fats. Lactose requires a proportionate amount of Lactase for digestion. When bub receives high amounts of Lactose, but does not have sufficient Lactase to cope, your little one will be unsettled and have more colic bouts.
A snack fed baby will not sleep or settle well. After a snack feed, a bub falls asleep quickly, but when put back to bed, it wakes quickly with more crying. And so it goes...one stressed and very tired mother (and father) topped off with one very unsettled baby.
Another poor practise to avoid is feeding bub for 20 minutes on each breast straight after the birth. Your nipples need time to adapt to breast feeding. Having bub feed for 20 minutes straight away will give you VERY sore, cracked, even bleeding nipples. I recommend slowly building up to longer feeding durations. Not starting with long feeding durations. When your milk comes in on the 3rd or 4th day it will enhance the feeding process. Until then, practice attaching your bub and feed for as long as it is comfortable.
In short, demand feeding is between 2-4 hourly. Feeding bub more than 2 hourly can cause bub discomfort and an increase in mum’s stress. Do not snack feed your bub. Your nipples need time to adapt to breast feeding. Increase the duration of each fed slowly to avoid cracked nipples.
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