Learn to understand the child

"As a rule, Walker recommends, you should feed the newborn 8-12 times a day. But do not feed it by the hour. When you feed by the clock, you do it mechanically, regardless of whether the baby is ready for feeding or not yet very hungry. You feed him on arbitrary signals, as if you are dealing with a factory production line. "
Moms who are fed "on demand" usually believe that the "demand" is expressed in tears, but authoritative experts believe that this is not always the case. "When they cry, they are already very hungry, warns Walker. Children suck inefficiently when too hungry, the so-called. Feeding on the signal, which is preferable, should occur 20 minutes before the baby begins to cry. "
Feeding on a signal suggests that you will be able to perceive the unobtrusive signs that the child is hungry. When sleeping children and mostly newborns sleep a lot, they start to get out of deep sleep, this is one of the signals. You can catch rapid eye movements, increasing anxiety, the child begins to make movements with the mouth. Waking up children are also restless and make instinctive sucking movements. "Learning to recognize baby signals is easier if you carry your baby with you in special devices such as a seat in front or in a sling-type device, because, clinging to your mother, the baby will smell the milk and feel the proximity of her breast," Walker said.
You should also monitor whether a child who seems to be sucking hard swallows milk. "Infants attached to the chest are used to sucking for a while without swallowing milk, Walker says. They lazily bliss, small jaws move, but they do not swallow. Usually newborns suck one to three minutes effectively, and then you need to observe and listen if they swallow milk. If mothers do not know this, they, according to what is written in the books, put the baby to their chest for 15 minutes and believe that they are all right, and when two weeks later they come to the doctor for examination, they discover that the child does not Gained weight or even lost weight. "