Why does my baby breastfeed so frequently? Q+A with Katie James, IBCLC

Hello and welcome back to Milk and Love with me, Katie James. I'm a midwife and IBCLC, lactation consultant. Today I'm going to be talking about “why does my baby feed so frequently?” Yes, it's probably the most common question I get. There is a very good reason why babies feed so frequently. 

The very beginning

We're going to start at the very beginning which is a very good place to start, as a very wise woman once said. I think it was Mary Poppins and she was a great nanny, so let's take in some advice from her. Okay so I'm going to start with the first few days because that is the very beginning.

So why do babies feed so very frequently in the first few days? Well if we think about the time that they have spent inside you, in your womb, they've been fed for 24/7 through the umbilical cord and they're used to being fed really frequently. They're used to being surrounded by you in this beautiful swimming pool of waters and hearing your heartbeat, and growing and just being everything with mum, and hearing your partner and the people you're close to, the voices through the womb as well. So those are the things that make babies feel calm. Of course, when they come out they want to still feel nurtured and close. Feeding is part of being close to mum so it's really normal for your newborn for several weeks if not for a long period of time to want to be held. To be held particularly in skin to skin contact on your chest, on your partner's chest, on another family member's chest, who would be more than happy for those gorgeous cuddles. This is a really normal thing for them to want to be in close contact almost continuously.

The importance of frequently breastfeeding with your newborn baby

Now this is really difficult for us because obviously we imagine that babies are going to feed every three four hours and we're gonna have some time apart. Now this does happen eventually but in this first few days, this first week, babies want to be in close, close contact almost constantly with their months and nature has designed this not only to keep babies calm and to fill them with this love hormone and to fill you with the love hormone, to help bonding but also every time the baby is going to the breast and feeding this is actually stimulating your breasts to start laying down the foundations to make enough milk for now and in the next few days but also in the future.

So what you produce and how you increase your milk supply over the first three days and the first two to four weeks is basically setting down the pattern which means the breasts know how much milk to make for the next one month to six months down the track. So these first few days and weeks are vitally important that your baby feeds frequently.

It is normal for your newborn baby to breastfeed frequently

So number one is: it's normal. Number two is: it's normal, Number three is: I'm really sorry I can't change anything because (guess what!), it's normal! It's normal for human beings to want to feed this frequently. How can I make it better? Probably the only way to make it feel better is to know that you're not doing anything wrong and babies are designed also to feed little and often because they've come out from being fed 24/7 and to suddenly expect them to go four hours and stretch their tiny tummies hugely, it's going to be a bit overwhelming it's going to overload the system. 

So the body has designed your first milk, called colostrum, to be small in quantity and to be just enough to fill baby's tummy, but what it doesn't do is it doesn't stretch baby's tummy and make baby go “Oh god, I am so full, I'm gonna sleep for two hours, three hours, three and a half hours.” Four hours is quite rare, sorry! At this stage anyway!

So your baby is designed to feed maybe every 45 minutes maybe every hour and a half, maybe there'll be periods where there is a two or a three hour period of sleep, but then there'll be this sort of cluster feeding again and typically that cluster feeding happens at night, particularly in the first couple of weeks. I'm really sorry I can't change it, it's just what we do as humans and it's really difficult to change those natural patterns and instincts because we're hardwired to do this. So the best thing is to be aware that your baby is likely to do this. Your baby is likely to feed upwards from 12, 13, 15 times a day in the first two or three days until your milk volume really increases.

The Minimum Number of Breastfeeds per day for a Newborn

Now there is also a minimum number of feeds that we want babies to have to ensure that they are getting enough glucose or sugar for their brain and to keep them healthy. The minimum number of feeds is eight in 24 hours. So that's the minimum number of feeds and really, babies can feed exceptionally frequently in the first two or three days until the milk comes in is the common language but really it means the milk volume increases.

Colostrum: Babies First Milk and Immunization

Colostrum is the first milk that you will see. You might even see it during your pregnancy a bit, leaking. You might not see it. It doesn't matter, we're all different, but it's actually being made from around 20 weeks of pregnancy and this milk is really small in volume but it's super, super sweet and it's jam packed full of immunoglobulins I can never say that word! Immunoglobulins!

Immunoglobulins basically things called secretory iga and other forms of protective factors. It's easier to remember it as the baby's first immunization. This stuff is so protective for their health and it's full of sugars to keep the brain going but it really doesn't stuff them up and make them feel full because then it allows the baby to keep waking frequently and going to the breast and feeding frequently.

Every time baby nurses, they help boost your future milk supply

Like I said, every time the baby goes to the breast they're sending messages to basically switch on the milk making cells. It's a bit like when you go into a big factory in the morning and you switch on all the machines to start ready for the day, so that the machines can work at full capacity. This is what's happening from straight after birth. 

Every time there is sucking happening it's telling the milk making cells we need to really ramp up production and start making copious or lots of milk and so until the milk volume increases and this is roughly around 60 hours after birth, three days after birth, depending on the type of birth you've had it may be a little longer. Once the milk comes in, or increases in volume, and trust me you will know when this happens, (and it might happen within a few hours!) and you'll look down and go oh my goodness Dolly Parton came to town!

Now I really do need to get myself a more up-to-date reference, but she is an icon! So I’m going with it. 

How it Feels When Your "Milk Comes In"

So, when your breasts feel fuller, they look bigger, they might feel quite warm or a hot flush. You will notice that there is something happening. The other thing you will probably notice is when your baby starts to feed, their pattern changes. 

So, instead of these lots of ‘non-nutritive sucking’ (it means sucking without milk and they do lots of this in the occasional swallow). When the milk comes in, babies change that pattern and it's more like ‘suck swallow suck swallow suck swallow’. You might start hearing these big gulps of milk. 

You'll see how the pattern changes and that's a great sign that your milk is coming in. So instead of having maybe five mls each feed, 11 mls each feed, suddenly this baby's getting 30 mls, 40 mls, 80 mls each feed and that increases over these first two weeks. What we see then is the stomach is definitely being stretched and the baby's taking in much bigger volumes. This is when babies feeding frequency starts to slow down a little bit.

Then we start to see them feed somewhere between 8 to 12 times every 24 hours. That's normal. Now that does still sound very frequent and it is. So often feeding at the beginning might take somewhere between 20 to 40 or 50 minutes. Remember you're probably going to do a nappy or a diaper change, you're going to do some settling. The whole process might take you an hour and if you're doing that round the clock and you're doing on average 10 feeds per day then that's more than a full-time job.

The First Few Weeks Can Be Exhausting

So the most important thing for all mums to do in these first few weeks is to be really cautious about doing too much or trying to achieve too much. We can't stop babies from feeding really frequently. It is normal. What we can do is concentrate on giving them lots of love, responding to their needs and sleeping. So sleeping when the baby sleeps (you will hear this mantra constantly!). There's a good reason behind it, because if you get to day three and you've been surviving on two or four hours sleep for three days, plus take into account that you've probably been awake for at least a day, in labour, beforehand, you are going to be exhausted and on your knees. It's really difficult to cope and comprehend new information and learn new things when we're that exhausted. So getting sleep, being really cautious about how many visitors you have and actually if there is a pile of dishes in the in the sink and the floor needs a vacuum, it will still need a vacuum in five days time.

You've got this one opportunity to have this first couple of weeks to make enough milk and to really enjoy your baby and learn those basics of breastfeeding. So be really mindful about self-care. Get plenty of sleep when you can and realize that it is normal that your baby is feeding frequently.

In another video I’ll be showing you and talking about how to know your baby's getting enough milk so that you know definitely that frequent feeding is normal and you are giving them all they need. So until then, keep watching and I will be back with some further breastfeeding information soon.

What was your experience in the first few weeks? How often was your baby nursing?