Is the baby getting enough colostrum or breast milk maybe you need to supplement it with a mixture? These questions concern mothers, starting from the hospital. Many children are restless from birth. They may have stomach ache. But usually everything is attributed to the lack of mother's milk. When should you be concerned?

Signs of a lack of breast milk and measures to restore lactation

We immediately note that certain features of the child’s behavior are not a reason to immediately introduce supplementary feeding with a mixture, just pay more attention to breastfeeding, perhaps reconsider putting the baby to the breast, remove the feeding schedule, if it exists, feed at night, etc.

1. When a nursing mother has little milk, the baby often and for a long time sucks at the breast. Especially often this feature is observed in children of the first three months of life. Older babies tend to suck more actively and satiate faster, and besides breast sucking, other interests appear.
Solution: leave everything as it is, let the baby suckle as much as he wants. If you see that the child dozed off during sucking, but he did not actively suck before, swallowed a little (that is, he did not suck milk enough) - do not rush to put him in the crib. If the baby has a fast sleep phase, and it is characterized by rapid eye movement under the eyelids, trembling, awakening due to the slightest rustle, you can try to lightly pat him on the cheek, or move the nipple over his lips, he will wake up and start sucking breast again. By the way, this technique is especially active for use at night, when the child sucks little by little, but very often. Let him suck 1-2 times a night, let him suck for 40 minutes and a little more than he wakes up every hour.

Please note that the baby may ask for the breast more often during teething. In these difficult days for parents and the baby, he rarely eats complementary foods, replacing it with breasts. Babies will have enough milk even after the introduction of complementary foods, so you don’t have to think about how to increase lactation and don’t worry.

2. Insufficient weight gain. There is a certain framework in which the child must fit. So, the minimum weight gain per month is from 500-600 grams in the first months of a baby's life. If he gained less than 500 grams, this is an occasion to consider the next item more carefully.

3. Restless behavior of the child, poor sleep, frequent breast demand. Here's how it behaves infant if he does not have enough mother's milk. However, this behavior may be due to other reasons. For example, teething, illness, overwork, violation of the daily routine.

3. A small amount of urination and their pungent smell, a rare stool. A peculiar study is to count wet diapers. For one day, parents refuse to use disposable diapers, use reusable gauze, and count the number of wet ones. normal child infancy urinates 10 times a day. But this is the case if he eats only mother's milk, does not receive supplementary food and does not drink water.
If there are 8 or fewer wet diapers, something needs to be done with nutrition. The pungent smell of urine is a sign of the presence of acetone in it. And it appears when the body is dehydrated. If a mother has been trying to increase the amount of breast milk for more than a day, but there is still no result, it may make sense to introduce supplementary feeding. But it should be given only after breastfeeding. And it is better to purchase or independently make a supplementary feeding system, using which the baby will suckle the breast at the same time as receiving the mixture. You can find diagrams and photos of these simple devices on the Internet. If you decide to buy, then it is produced by Medela. Prolonged bottle feeding will sooner or later lead to a full transition to artificial feeding.

It is impossible to say unequivocally about whether the baby is full of breast milk by the frequency of the stool. But sometimes, when the baby is underfed, the stool becomes rarer. This sign does not make sense to take into account when the child eats only mother's milk, since the absence of stool can be a manifestation of the complete assimilation of nutrition by the body.

Important! It is impossible to know whether there is enough or not enough milk during breastfeeding by the type of mammary glands, their size, texture, sensations during feeding. With established lactation, and this happens within a few weeks after childbirth, the mammary glands of a woman outside of feeding are soft and painless, it even seems to someone that they are empty. But it's not. Milk is stored outside of feeding in special bags - alveoli. When the nipples are stimulated, the hormone oxytocin begins to be released, and milk from the sacs enters the mammary glands. This is called the rush of milk. Only these “tides” may not become very noticeable over time. But it is not The best way How do you know if your baby is getting enough breast milk? Many long-term (more than 2 years) women report that they have not felt hot flushes at all for many months, nevertheless they continue to feed their children, and quite often.

Also incorrect data gives a test for determining the amount of milk, by expressing it and analyzing the amount. As we wrote above, milk is released directly during the sucking of the baby, stimulation of the nipple, but pumping causes most women, rather, pain. Thus, the hormone of pleasure - oxytocin is not released, and milk from the alveoli does not enter the glands. They remain "empty".

Another similar test used by pediatricians is called control feeding. Mother and child come to the clinic before feeding, the child is weighed. Further, the mother feeds the child, after which he is weighed again. See the difference. This difference is the amount of milk that the baby sucked. This test is often uninformative because on-demand feeding babies may suck different amounts of milk. It seems that the child hangs on the chest for 40 minutes, but he practically does not suck it. Dozing.

When Your Baby Can't Get Enough Breast Milk

1. If a woman does not feed her baby at night. During night feedings, the hormone prolactin is released, due to which the production of breast milk is possible. If the child wakes up at least once at night, do not give him a dummy to calm him down and do not pump up, it is better to breastfeed.

2. With large intervals between feedings. If they make up more than 2 hours in the first months of a child's life, milk will begin to decrease over time.

3. With abundantly introduced complementary foods. If the baby begins to eat about 800-1 kg of complementary foods per day, and in fact these are full-fledged 4-5 feedings of a 9-12-month-old baby, then he no longer needs milk as food. At least he doesn't feel hungry. However, WHO says that every child should receive breast milk or formula until at least 1 year old. If you do not want to lose milk, feed your baby at night, early in the morning, try to breastfeed your baby after feedings, especially if the baby ate a little less than usual.

4. During lactation crises. What to do if the baby does not have enough milk at 1, 3, 6, 9 months? Only breastfeed more, do not give pacifiers, mixture. The amount of milk produced depends on the stimulation of the nipples, the number and frequency of feedings. Babies will have enough milk until they are one year old. This is very convenient, but it requires some effort and correct actions from the mother during critical periods.

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With the advent of a child, any mother has many questions. One of them sounds especially often: “Does the baby have enough breast milk?”

A baby cannot tell you that he is hungry. He can only cry. But crying is not only a sign of hunger. Babies cry when they are cold or hot, when they feel diaper discomfort or stomach pains, when they just want to be closer to their mother.

The main indicator of whether there is enough breast milk is the baby's weight gain. Doctors believe that healthy baby must gain at least 125 grams of weight each week for first three months of life. If the baby is gaining weight according to the norms, then he has enough milk. But do not forget that these figures are advisory in nature. Your baby may gain less, but still be completely healthy and calm. Each person has a different body constitution, a child is no exception.

Most main feature the fact that your baby has enough breast milk is his excellent mood. A healthy and happy little man is a little capricious, grows quickly and develops well. His skin is clean and smooth. And when the baby wants to eat, he loudly and actively demands breasts.

But what to do if you notice that the baby is naughty, turns away from the chest and constantly demands to eat? How do you know if a baby is getting enough breast milk?

The baby must swallow and smack

Your baby can spend an hour or two at the breast and still be hungry. And can get enough in 15-20 minutes. If you do not hear the sound characteristic of swallowing, then this may mean that the child does not eat. He can just calm down at the chest, feeling that his mother is nearby. It can even sleep, but at the same time make sucking movements. Children are warm, calm and comfortable next to their mother. It is quite natural that the baby calms down better and faster on the chest than even on the hands. Watch if your baby's chin tenses up while eating. The longer the moment of tension lasts, the more milk he will swallow at a time.

Should I give my baby both breasts at one feeding?

It all depends on the amount of milk. If there is a lot of it, then one breast is enough for the child. But do not rush to give him a second breast, as soon as he began to fidget and get nervous.

The female breast is designed so that the milk in it is produced by the anterior and posterior lobes of the mammary gland. The milk of the anterior lobes is thinner, sweeter and contains fewer nutrients. We can say that this milk is more of a drink, not food. If the baby gets only foremilk, then he is saturated quickly, but the feeling of hunger will return to him quickly.

The milk of the hind lobes is thick, almost like cream. All the most useful is in it, but it is also more difficult to eat it. The child needs to make a lot of effort to get it. Some babies, especially weak ones, fall asleep at the breast from fatigue before they get to the hind milk. And his mother seems to have run out of milk in this breast, and she is already offering another.

What to do in this case? During feeding, let the baby rest a little and offer the same breast again. If he almost immediately starts to get nervous, bend over and show his discontent in every possible way, then it's time to offer another one.

What can a child's chair tell about

A breastfed baby goes to the toilet more often than a formula-fed baby. For some children, this may happen once or twice a day, for others - after each feeding. However, this is not so important.

Much more can tell you the type of chair. If it is creamy, homogeneous, has a characteristic yellow the baby has enough breast milk. But too thick stool dark color may indicate malnutrition or malnutrition. That is, here we can say that the child does not have enough breast milk.

Too is not always diarrhea. In this case, it is possible that the baby receives mainly foremilk, and because of this, he remains hungry. A change in color, smell and consistency, the appearance of mucus or blood in the stool is a signal to contact a pediatrician.

It is also worth paying attention to the urination of the child. A baby who has enough breast milk pees at least once every three hours. Urine should be clear and practically odorless. If it darkens, then the child is dehydrated.

However, do not force the baby to drink water. Children on breastfeeding do not need water. You can offer your child bottled water. Will drink - excellent. No, it's not a problem either. That means he's getting enough breast milk.

If the baby is slowly gaining weight, then you should not give him a lot of water. The fact is that ordinary water can increase weight, but will not bring important micronutrients to the child's body.

Weighing after meals

If you want to know exactly how many grams your baby eats per feeding, you can try the weighing method.

Before feeding, undress your baby and place on the scale. This will be the weight before feeding. After eating, weigh the baby again without clothes and a diaper. The difference you will see on the scale will be the amount of milk your baby drank.

For a reliable result, this procedure must be carried out during the day at each feeding. But remember that this method is not very efficient. Weighing indicators may vary depending on how long ago and how much the child ate in the previous feeding. As a rule, such weighing only annoys the mother of the baby, which can negatively affect milk production.

Blood analysis

One of the signs that a baby is not getting enough milk is a rising level of bilirubin in the blood. This is the so-called physiological jaundice of newborns. This is a harmless disease, it only applies to children under 28 days old.

If there is enough breast milk, antibodies are actively produced in the body of the crumbs, which contribute to a decrease in the level of bilirubin. That is why neonatologists advise not to supplement breastfeeding with formula milk, but to try to establish breastfeeding as correctly as possible.

Indirect signs of a lack of breast milk

• There is no feeling of a full chest. In some women, milk comes very actively, and the breast quickly becomes hot and heavy. For others, milk comes gradually, and the feeling of fullness in the chest cannot be determined. But on this basis, it is impossible to make sure whether the child has enough milk or not.
• After feeding, the mother does not feel empty. If the child eats little, you will not feel relief after feeding. The chest will remain full and firm. But this does not mean that the baby was hungry. Maybe you just have too much milk. After a few weeks of feeding, the level of milk production will decrease to the required level.
• After feeding, it is impossible to express anything. Mom concludes: there is no milk in the breast. Which is not always true. You won't be able to pump as well as your baby will. No hands, no breast pump. You may have enough milk in your breasts, you just can't get to it.
• The child began to ask for food more often. This may be a leap in his development. As a rule, this stage lasts about two days. And kids are so anxious. This may be due to the growth of teeth or a change in the weather.

Regardless of the reason for the lack of breast milk, do not rush to introduce powdered milk formula into the baby's diet. Be sure to contact a lactation specialist or pediatrician. Understanding the exact reason will save you from possible mistakes.

First, make sure the baby is properly attached to the breast. Be sure to stay calm. If you are nervous, then the amount of milk will only decrease. Keep eating well and eating right. Drink plenty of warm liquids and feed your baby on demand, not by the hour. Try to walk for as long as possible fresh air.

Feel free to ask for help: caring for a newborn baby is hard work, so a woman needs to take a break from time to time in order to physically and emotionally recover.

Now you have complete information on how to find out that your baby is getting enough milk. And what if it's not. Let your baby grow up healthy and strong, to the delight of mom and dad!

Lyudmila Sergeevna Sokolova

Reading time: 4 minutes

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Article last updated: 01/23/2017

How to know if a newborn is getting enough breast milk

You can find out that a child does not have enough milk by a number of characteristic signs. Timely measures will help to solve problems with lactation and provide good nutrition.

At the start breastfeeding Many mothers are concerned about whether the child has enough breast milk. Concern is natural, because it is not possible to determine the exact number. And if the baby is anxious and naughty, then suspicion develops into confidence, and mothers decide to supplement with formula.

You should not rush to make such a conclusion, first you need to observe the baby and carry out a series of simple manipulations.

How much milk does a baby need under one year old?

In their desire to feed the baby, many people forget that the child eats exactly as much as he needs. Breastfeeding on demand will provide it necessary quantity food. For full feeding, you should not give a second breast until the first is emptied. This will ensure that you get the rich "hind" milk you need to satisfy your hunger.

You should not give formula to a baby unless it is clearly established that his anxiety is caused by hunger. Constant overeating of a newborn can form into a habit, which subsequently leads to obesity and health problems due to excess weight.

Signs indicating a lack of milk

Crying, sleep deprivation and whims are often not related to hunger, but have completely different reasons. He may be disturbed by loud sounds, harsh light, colic, cutting teeth. To understand that the child does not have enough breast milk, you can by the following signs:

1. Within two weeks of birth, the baby's weight increased by less than 500 grams.
2. The milk in the breast ends before the baby has time to let it go. He begins to show excitement, not releasing the nipple from his mouth.
3. The number of urination becomes less than 10 times in one day.
4. Fecal masses become dense and thick.
5. At the end of feeding, the baby does not calm down, but continues to look for the breast.

To know for sure if the baby is getting enough breast milk, you can use several tricks.

1. Count wet diapers. The method is not effective if the baby is in a diaper all day, so you should set aside one day and save him from being in it. More than 10 urinations must occur during the control time. If there are fewer of them, you should think about the insufficient nutritional value of breast milk.
2. Weigh the child. Experts have calculated that with a normal feeding regimen, weight gain should occur in the range of 0.5 to 2 kg per month. By six months, the weight of the child should double from the original, and by the year it should triple.
3. Count the number of bowel movements. If the baby eats willingly and satisfyingly, then its number of emptyings should reach 4-5 times a day.

Not all doctors support this rule. Many experts believe that with well-established feeding, breast milk is completely absorbed. If the child is cheerful, active and calm, the absence of feces for up to 5 days is considered the norm.

Observe and listen carefully to the child during feeding. With proper breast capture and active nutrition, the child makes characteristic swallowing movements with a certain frequency. If the throats are not audible or extremely short, the chest grip should be changed to achieve the correct position.
If, when analyzing the information received, it turns out that the child does not receive enough food, several simple steps should be taken to increase it.

Do not rely on the method of weighing an infant before and after feeding. The duration and amount of breast milk consumption is influenced by many factors, the indicators may vary with each feeding, and it is impossible to determine the exact value.

How to increase breast milk production?

If the mother decides to postpone artificial nutrition and try to improve breastfeeding, then the following measures will help her:

1. Increase in application frequency. Everyone knows the axiom: the more milk the baby eats, the more its production will increase. Lactation is directly dependent on the number of attachments, so the exclusion of nipples and pacifiers would be a reasonable solution.
2. Feeding from one breast to the end. Many mothers are faced with a situation where the baby, actively eating for the first 5-10 minutes, suddenly begins to act up, and calms down if you offer him another breast. This is due to the fact that the "hind" milk is more fatty, and it takes more effort to suck it out. Toddlers, being lazy, prefer to get lighter, but energetically less valuable “front” milk, which negatively affects their saturation.
3. Increased night feedings. It is the nightly attachments that play leading role to ensure sufficient breast milk. No need to worry about the fact that this can be harmful, food does not stay long in the baby's stomach, moving into the digestive tract. Feeding from 3 to 8 in the morning provides the strongest release of the hormone prolactin, which is responsible for the formation of breast milk.
4. Increasing fluid intake by the mother herself. To female body function properly and produce the required volume of breast milk, it should be provided with a sufficient amount of liquid. A breastfeeding mother should drink at least two liters of water daily.
5. Expression of milk after feeding. The same principle applies as with increasing application frequency.
6. Calmness and relaxation. Lactation disorders are often associated with psychological problems, therefore it is recommended to discard all negativity, focusing only on positive emotions and images. Tea with mint or chamomile flowers will help to relax only if the baby is not allergic to these components. Drinking warm liquids also stimulates the flow of milk.

If you have problems with attachment or doubts about insufficient saturation creep in, you should contact a breastfeeding specialist. In the maternity hospital, the answer to this question can be obtained from the neonatologist, who will help determine the degree of saturation and resolve the concerns that have arisen.

Conclusion

To find out if a newborn has enough breast milk, you should watch him for a while and make sure that whims and irritations have other causes. By counting wet diapers and the number of bowel movements, you need to make sure that they are not lower than those that neonatologists and pediatricians adhere to.

When in doubt, the best solution is to contact a breastfeeding specialist who will help resolve these issues. If in the process of observation there is an opinion that the child does not have enough breast milk, you should wait a little with feeding with an artificial mixture, and try to establish a full breastfeeding.

Every minute guardianship, caring for the baby can sometimes bring unnecessary anxiety and excitement to the mother, and unreasonable changes in care, changes in nutrition, and even prescription of unnecessary medications to the child. This also applies to a very common situation when a woman Seems that her baby is not getting enough milk.

Possessing some elementary knowledge and not succumbing to panic, such a “lack” is very easy to distinguish from the true lack of milk - hypogalactia, which any nursing mother can perfectly handle.

Artificial mixture is not always good!

To begin with, let's answer one simple question: what's wrong with the fact that a nursing mother, suspecting a lack of milk, will switch to additional artificial nutrition?

If the lack of milk really takes place, then this will only benefit the child.

But this phenomenon is not very common - according to statistics, it is observed in less than 3% of women.

Much more often for a lack of milk take various indirect signs observed in the child and mother - the color of milk, the "loss" of weight in the baby, his tearfulness and anxiety, etc. In this case, a woman, trying to feed her child with artificial mixtures, exposes herself and her baby to certain risks:

1. A child receiving artificial nutrition will be deprived of a significant part of the vitamins, nutrients and immune defense factors contained in mother's milk;
2. A woman, reducing or stopping breastfeeding, deprives herself of all the beneficial benefits of breastfeeding - for example, preventing the development of osteoporosis, reducing the incidence of cancer.

In this regard, it is very useful to know how a lack of milk really manifests itself and what can be mistaken for a lack of it.

Signs of a lack of breast milk

Milk insufficiency (hypogalactia) is manifested in a child by four main signs: restlessness of the baby, rare urination, stool retention and insufficient weight gain. It should be noted that with true hypogalactia, these signs occur all together, which is usually not observed with an apparent lack of milk.

weight loss

Weight loss is the most common reason that can alert a young mother. The usual physiological weight loss that is observed in every (!) newborn is usually taken for weight loss associated with milk deficiency.

This phenomenon is observed during the first 3-5 days and is associated with the loss of fluid through the lungs and skin, the loss of the remnant of the umbilical cord, and other phenomena. Usually by 7-10 days the weight of the child should be restored. The maximum weight loss due to physiological loss should not exceed 8% of body weight. For example, if a newborn weighed 4000 grams at birth, then the loss should not exceed 320 grams.

• After an initial weight loss in the first week, newborns normally gain an average of 125-150g per week during the first few weeks.
• Then, on average 450-900g per month for the first 6 months.
• In the period from 6 months to a year, 450g per month.

Typically, babies gain 2-3 cm in length per month during the first 6 months.

It should be noted that weight gain and height are partly dependent on the type of physique of the child.

There are children who receive enough milk but not enough calories(as evidenced by poor weight gain). At the same time, such a child does not have signs of dehydration, he has a sufficient amount of urination per day. At the same time, the child's stool is infrequent - less than once a day, while the norm is 2-3 times a day. The reason for this phenomenon is the lack of hind high-calorie milk.

Experts call the most informative way to check the amount of milk in a mother - control weighing. The essence of the method is the weighing of the baby immediately before and after feeding. The difference in weight is the amount of milk received by the child. But the experience of breastfeeding mothers calls into question the objectivity of this approach.

Practice shows that the most reliable picture is given by weighing the child in a period of a week.

Crying and restless child

Indeed, after childbirth, the child sometimes behaves restlessly and often asks to suck. This, however, is not always a sign of poor nutrition.

Modern science considers this behavior of the baby as a protective reaction to childbirth - getting into a strange, unfamiliar world after being in a cozy mother's womb. Experienced stress, fear, temperature fluctuations, unfamiliar sounds and smells make the baby seek protection from the mother in the only way provided by nature - breast sucking. By the way, in the body suckling baby special substances are produced - endorphins, which have a calming effect and reduce postpartum stress.

Anxiety of the baby can be associated with malnutrition only if it occurs immediately after feeding or during feeding - then it is explained by a feeling of hunger.

The “hungry” cry of a child has its own characteristics. It starts with a draft - the child cries for a short time for 5-7 seconds, then falls silent. During the pause, the child opens his mouth wide. Further, crying resumes with an increase in crying time and becomes continuous. With a lack of milk from the mother, the child shows anxiety during feeding, at the end of sucking he wiggles his legs.

The number of urination and the child's stool

Decreased urine output and stool retention may indeed reflect malnutrition in the child.

In the first week, the baby's stool should turn from black to green; as soon as the mother has fatty hindmilk, the baby's stool will become more yellow.

In the first month, a baby who gets enough fatty hindmilk has at least 2-3 stools per day. In the first 3 days, urination is relatively rare - 4-5 times a day. But the number of times increases and in the second week is up to 12-25 times a day.

If you decide to check whether your baby is peeing enough, you will have to put aside diapers for one day and use ordinary cloth diapers.

Video - Does mom have enough milk

Situations of temporary lack of milk

The occurrence of such a situation is possible for every young mother, what are they caused by?

Child's growth spurt

The child has a periodic increase in appetite, which is associated with uneven rates of increase in his energy needs, the so-called growth spurts. Such "exacerbations" of appetite are observed at 3 and 6 weeks, and later - at 3, 7, 11 and 12 months of life.

Naturally, on such days the activity of the child increases, but this does not mean at all that this is due to a decrease in the production of mother's milk!

lactation crisis

lactation crisis is a temporary and completely reversible phenomenon

A lactogenic crisis is a temporary condition of insufficient milk production. Once again, it should be emphasized: the lactation crisis is a temporary and completely reversible phenomenon, therefore, when it occurs, one should not panic, but take all necessary measures to find the causes of the crisis and eliminate them. For an ordinary child normal set weight in this situation is nothing to worry about.

Most common causes lactogenic crises are:

• Rare feeding;
• putting the baby to the breast;
• Early and unreasonable introduction of supplementary feeding with artificial mixtures;
• An age jump in a child - the need for milk increases;
• The need to go to work;
• Stress, discord in the family;
• Chronic intoxication (smoking, drinking alcohol).

A lactation crisis usually occurs in the first 3 months after childbirth, but sometimes it is also observed in a later period - at 5-7 months. Its duration is from 3 to 8 days. Any nursing mother should be aware of the possibility of developing a crisis, and most importantly, of what needs to be done to prevent the development of a crisis.

What to do in the event of a lactation crisis

To stimulate additional milk production, you must:

• Elimination of all identified factors that support reduced lactation;
• Breastfeed your baby more often co-sleeping with a child, night feeding (especially at 3-6 in the morning).
• The combination of a hot shower (water temperature is about 44 0C) with a circular massage of the mammary glands with movements from the periphery to the center; More about breast massage
• Caraway drink, dill seed infusion
• homeopathic pharmaceutical products- Mlekain, Laktosan, as well as the use of the preparation of royal jelly Apilak.

Read more about ways to stimulate lactation read

It should be noted that all of the above points will work only if the number of attachments of the baby to the breast is increased.

It is undesirable, but as a last resort, the child can be supplemented with a mixture, but not from a bottle, but from a spoon or from a syringe (without a needle!).

Once again, we note: the periodically observed decrease in the amount of milk in the mother - phenomenon is normal and with proper prevention and correction - absolutely reversible and safe for the child.

Prevention of lactation crisis

• Complete nutrition already during pregnancy (!), As well as during breastfeeding; Read about the dietary habits of a breastfeeding mother.
• The use of a nursing mother at least 2 liters of fluid per day. By the way, the idea that tea, beer, milk or oatmeal increase the amount of breast milk is nothing more than a myth: in fact, its volume directly depends on the amount of liquid consumed, and in this regard, tea, compote or plain water will have an equivalent effect. for lactation.
• Eating dill. The effect of dill on lactation is indirect: it gives the milk a pleasant taste, the child is more willing to suckle the breast, due to which the amount of milk increases. In contrast to this, cauliflower, celery, onion, garlic, and asparagus detract from the taste of milk and have the opposite effect on lactation in the long run.
• The correct mode of a nursing woman. This includes emotional peace, stress prevention, outdoor walks, good sleep for at least 8 hours a day, including 1-2 hours during the day. You need to rest 15-20 minutes before feeding;
• Restriction of the use of any medicines, except when they are absolutely necessary; About admission medicines read while breastfeeding
• Complete cessation of smoking and drinking alcohol.

About others possible reasons lack of breast milk read

Video - lactation crisis

Newly-made mothers very often ask themselves the question, how to understand if the baby has enough breast milk? There are many reasons for this, because it is on healthy feeding that further mental and physical development crumbs. There are basic principles, following which, every mother will be sure that the baby is always full and full of energy.

How much should a baby eat

In the first time after birth, the baby sleeps a lot. He eats very little at this time, going through the process of adaptation. The volume of his ventricle is only 7 ml. It is at this stage that it is very important to feed the baby with colostrum, as it is incredibly nutritious. Of course, over time, the baby's ventricle increases in volume, which allows him to eat more.

How to understand whether a baby is getting enough breast milk depends on many factors. This must always be remembered. It is very important to properly organize the baby from the first days of life. Gradually, the baby will be able to control the amount of food that he needs for development.

Most experienced professionals are confident that a baby cannot undereat or overeat while breastfeeding. Moreover, after a certain period after childbirth, the mammary glands in the mother's breast produce exactly as much milk as the baby needs for proper nutrition, this is how nature works.

However, there are some reasons why the baby may be malnourished. Most often this is due to the fact that for some reason a nursing mother has little breast milk, due to the physiological or physical characteristics of the body.

If the feces of an exclusively breastfed infant are light mustard in color, this indicates sufficient feeding. The chair should be quite voluminous and frequent.. By the end of the first week of life, the baby should poop about 3 times a day.

A baby who only poops brown stools is most likely malnourished. This indicates that the nursing mother does not have enough breast milk.

2 Feeding colostrum does not contribute to the accumulation of a large amount of fluid in the baby's body. For this reason, the baby pees quite rarely. It will be enough to change the diaper 2 times a day. You can find out from the article at the link.

When a child begins to eat fully, the situation changes dramatically. Much more fluid enters the body of the crumbs, which provokes frequent urination. Within one day, he can urinate up to 12 times.. Now you need to change the diaper 6 times a day.

The above nuances can be paid attention only when the baby is exclusively breastfed. This method of determining how to understand that there is not enough breast milk does not work when supplementing with mixtures.

What to do if the baby does not eat enough

A fairly common problem when the baby has little breast milk, what to do in this case? First, you need to figure out if this is really the case. As a rule, the following factors indicate malnutrition:

• the baby looks lethargic;
• rarely asks for food;
• gaining weight poorly (what weight gain depends on, see);
• problems with stool and urination.

Treat feeding your baby not as an ordeal, but as something natural for mother and baby

All of the above factors indicate that the child is malnourished. However, it should be remembered that absolutely no supplement is more beneficial than breastfeeding.

In this regard, doctors recommend not to switch to artificial feeding, but to continue breastfeeding and increase the frequency of attachments. What to do if there is not enough breast milk? First of all, the following rules must be observed:

1. It is necessary to reduce the intervals to a minimum between feedings. Try to keep the child longer at the chest.
2. Offer both breasts at each feeding. Let the baby be applied first to one, and then to the second breast. At this point, it is important to monitor the swallowing reflex, if it is not there, then it is time to give another breast for feeding. This will allow the baby to eat more fully.
3. Stop feeding only when your baby wants it. Be patient, lie down comfortably. After the child is completely satisfied, he will soon stop eating on his own and fall asleep. Never stop breastfeeding on your own.
4. Apply correctly. Make sure that your child does not experience discomfort during feeding. The baby's lips must cover the halo. Otherwise, the baby will suckle the breast inadequately and experience significant discomfort.
5. If sluggish sucking is observed, try to change breasts more often. During one feeding, this should be done several times if the baby does not have a swallowing reflex.
6. Avoid pacifiers. This is extremely important to restore good nutrition. The fact is that nipples reduce the intensity and productivity of sucking, which contributes to malnutrition. If you notice that your baby is underweight while breastfeeding, limit his access to pacifiers and nipples. tells a separate article.
7. Take care of yourself. One of the main factors. Protect yourself from stressful situations. After all, everyone knows that nervous disorders, stress and anxiety significantly reduce the level of lactation. You can learn more about it in our other article. Eat a healthy diet, consume more and protect yourself from bad habits.

In no case do not refuse natural feeding. Try to follow the above recommendations, and supplement the baby with mixtures after each application to the breast.

How to feed a child if there is not enough milk? There is nothing difficult in this. To determine how much mixture to feed the baby, it must be weighed before and after applying to the breast. This way you will know how much he ate. The missing volume must be compensated.