Over the past decades, families have developed a certain stereotype of a “comfortable” child. One of the key points in this image is the continuous night sleep of the baby. That is why a young mother is often asked whether the child eats at night, and if so, the mother receives a list of tips on how to make the baby sleep all night and not disturb parents.
Why is nightly feeding normal?
In fact, it is worth worrying just for those parents whose children are capable of 8-10 hours of continuous sleep and not ask for breasts. For a child up to a year to eat 3-4 times a night more than normal. While in the mother’s stomach, the baby was continuously fed with blood flow, therefore, having been born, it is not so easy for him to switch to the “adult” mode. In addition, breast milk is quickly absorbed, so several times a night the baby needs to eat.
In cold weather, the frequency of nightly applications can increase, since central heating dries the air very much, and the baby begins to thirst.
If the child sleeps continuously for 8-10 hours, parents should pay attention to this. For breastfed babies, this is only possible with deep stressful sleep. Usually a child gets used to sleeping like this after several times the mother categorically refused to feed at night, that is, she ignored the need of the baby.
Another case where children really hardly wake up at night is the artificers. They are actually able to sleep longer than babies, because the mixture they receive instead of breast milk is difficult to digest. After the mixture, the child quickly falls asleep and all the forces of his body are transferred to the digestive tract. True, there is nothing useful for the crumbs in this, because the mixture does not even half reproduce the composition of mother's milk.
The benefits of night feedings
The benefits of night feeding are palpable for both mom and baby. If mom is set to breastfeed and maintain lactation, she definitely needs to know what is the value of nightly applications.
- The most important and tangible plus is maintaining lactation. The production of milk in the female body is controlled by the hormone prolactin, which is produced 2 times more at night than during the day. The time for increased prolactin production is from 3 nights to 8 in the morning, therefore, during this time period, you must always put the baby to the chest. No matter how simple this rule may seem, it is very important to observe it, because you won’t go against physiology. At night-time feedings alone, lactation can be maintained even when during the day the baby is almost no longer sucking. (See more tips on how to increase lactation)
- Night feeding saves mom from overflowing breasts and lactostasis. For the chest, especially at first, such long intervals between sucking are not at all useful.The most harmless consequence is simply a painful feeling of overcrowding. However, lying in an uncomfortable position with a full chest, you can squeeze the ducts and get lactostasis, and this is a more serious problem. Sometimes women can not cope with stagnation and breasts themselves, you have to go to a doctor or consultant for GV. (read about how to properly express breasts hands or how to express breasts with breast pump)
- The baby, who has the opportunity to eat at night, completely saturates his needs for food and drink, as well as sucking and tactile contact with his mother. The latter is especially important if during the day the mother is often forced to be distracted by household chores or absent from work, leaving the baby with her grandmother or nanny.
- Night feedings help mom with minimal losses for herself to cope with childhood ailments or restless sleep. Usually, children do not sleep well during teething or during illness, some respond to weather changes, the full moon. With breasts, babies calm down easier and fall asleep again. It can be difficult to calm a baby without breasts: mothers and fathers have to rock the baby in their arms for a long time, so that after an hour he wakes up again with a cry.
Night feed video
A breastfeeding consultant talks about night-time feeding, how to improve lactation, and how it is more convenient to feed a newborn.
Night Feeding: A Compromise
Some babies get out of the general statistics and wake up 10 times a night, organizing real night marathons by the chest. In such a situation, it is difficult for mother to get enough sleep and stay calm, so you need to find a compromise between the needs of the child and mother's capabilities. You can slightly reduce the number of nightly applications with some tricks.
- If the baby quickly fell asleep after receiving the breast, do not wait until he releases the nipple himself, carefully remove the chest yourself. Sometimes the baby just needs to feel that mom is nearby.
- If you go to bed later than the child - offer him a chest before falling asleep herself, as if outstripping his need. This will help delay awakening and give mom several hours of continuous sleep.
- If the baby is already getting lure - shift the lure time for the evening. He sleeps better on a full stomach, so at night the baby will wake up less often than usual.
These measures are designed to only slightly reduce night feedings, but not to completely remove them. By the way, during weaning, night-time feeding is the last thing, and this does not always go away calmly. Only the awareness of the importance of nightly attachments helps mom to be patient and not to deprive the baby of such an important link.
And finally, see the article on how to start weaning a baby from night feedings -https://kid.htgetrid.com/en/kormlenie-grudyu/nochnoe-kormlenie-grudyu.html
Now everyone is changing, and doing something very scientific! I think nature created everything the way it should really be, and changing something is wrong. The child himself changes the schedule, at first, when he is tiny, often wakes up and asks to eat. With growth, the need for night food disappears. It is clear that it’s more convenient for mother to sleep all night to rest, but it’s difficult for the baby to change everything drastically, he gradually switches from intrauterine life to real life and he needs to help in this and not create unnecessary stress with the regime and cancellation of night food.
I absolutely agree with the foregoing! Very often, mothers ask for advice on how to make a baby sleep all night and not ask for breasts 🙁 Yes, many mothers get tired during the day so that they just need a night's sleep. But to keep the child for 5-8-10 hours without food, during the period of the most active growth, this means increasing the risk of slowing it down in development, weakening immunity, increasing stress, etc. Even many adults get up at night to eat, although and eat for dinner quite plentifully. The child does not yet realize his eating behavior enough to eat enough in the evening, to endure until the morning. He eats to physical satiety, and when he is hungry again, he asks for food. If, however, a child is forcibly transferred to such a regimen that he will not be allowed to eat at night under any circumstances, then this is the first step towards his future eating disorder, and as a result - overeating, obesity, anorexia, bulimia. Moms need to think not only about themselves, but try not to harm the child in this most important period, up to 2 years.
What to do? We all go through this. Very, very difficult with young children, especially at night, but somehow necessary. No wonder there is even such a title - a mother-heroine. I myself suffered with two children, and I wish all the mothers great patience.
To become very informative and detailed. I am a supporter of feeding on demand. At the beginning, of course it’s difficult. But gradually the baby chooses after what time it is better for him to eat. We turned out that after feeding the clock at 23 approximately the child made a break of the hours by about five. And I had time to relax peacefully. But during the day I drank two cups of LactoMama tea, maybe it helped. As part of it there is lemon balm and oregano, they have always had a sedative effect on me. I love herbal decoctions, I always drank them before delivery. Here they are are part of lactation tea.