Bread feeding baby

Breastfeeding Basics | WIC Breastfeeding Support

Breastfeeding is natural, but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot to learn! At WIC, we've got the info you need to make breastfeeding successful. Let's start with some basics.

How Much Milk Does My Baby Need?

Babies' tummies are tiny. It doesn't take much to fill your baby up, but you'll need to feed your newborn baby a lot: 8-12 times in a 24-hour period. Feeding your baby that often will be good for your baby. It will also tell your body to keep making milk.

How do you know if your baby is getting enough milk? One of the easiest signs is to pay attention to what's coming out the other end. The color, texture, and frequency of poops and wet diapers will tell you a lot. Other signs that your baby is getting enough milk may include:

Your baby is satisfied and content after feedings.
Your breasts may feel softer after feedings.
Your baby breastfeeds at least 8 to 12 times every 24 hours, including at night.
Your baby is gaining weight.

How much milk your baby needs will change as baby grows, and your body will adjust to those changes. If your baby has a growth spurt, your baby might want to nurse more often or for longer periods of time. Your body will adjust to that, too.

The important thing is to nurse as long and as often as your baby wants and to let your baby eat until full.

How Is Milk Made?

During pregnancy, your breasts start getting ready to make milk. As milk making tissues rapidly grow, you may notice your breasts become fuller and more tender. After you have your baby, pregnancy hormones lower which then helps the lactation hormone, prolactin, to be released. Prolactin sends a message that tells your breasts to make milk. Both your hormones and your baby's suckling cause your breasts to make milk. The more your baby nurses, the more milk you make.

When your baby suckles, another hormone, oxytocin, sends a message that tells the small muscles in your breast to contract. This muscle contraction moves the milk through the milk ducts. This is called the let-down reflex. It releases the milk into your milk ducts so you can breastfeed your baby.

What Is the Difference Between Colostrum and Breast Milk?

There are three phases of breast milk. Each one is vital to nourishing your baby.

Colostrum. This is the first milk produced by the breast right after birth. It is thick, yellow-ish, and rich in nutrients your baby needs in the first few hours and days.
Transitional milk. When mature breast milk starts to replace colostrum, it is called transitional milk. This is often what's called "your milk coming in," and it usually happens in your first week at home with the baby.
Mature milk. Mature milk looks thinner than colostrum but is still full of nutrients for baby. It starts about 10-15 days after birth. Mature milk will continue to change with your baby's needs and tummy.

What Happens During the First Few Feedings?

You should feed your baby between 8-12 times within 24 hours. There is no set time for feedings. They may be 15-20 minutes per breast. They may be shorter or longer. Your baby will let you know when he or she is finished feeding. Your baby's eating patterns may change from day to day. Just follow your baby's lead, and that will help you build your milk supply.

Try feeding your baby on the fuller breast first until your baby releases the nipple or falls asleep. Then burp your baby and offer the other breast. Some babies feed from both breasts at each feeding, while other babies are satisfied after one breast. When your breasts feel full, it is important to nurse your baby. That will keep your breasts from becoming overfull or engorged.

How Does WIC Support Breastfeeding?

Breastfeeding is a priority in the WIC program. We know just how challenging breastfeeding can be, and we are dedicated to supporting your breastfeeding journey. To help WIC moms breastfeed successfully, we offer nutritious foods, nutrition education and breastfeeding counseling, as well as referrals to other health and social services. This help may include peer counselor support, breast pumps, and other supplies. To learn more about how we can help, contact your local WIC clinic.

Breastfeeding gives babies a healthy start—and is good for moms, too.

Breastfeeding Basics

Learn how milk is made, when to nurse, how long babies nurse, and more.

Talk to Your Family about Breastfeeding

Talk about why you choose to breastfeed, and ask for your family’s support.

Many moms worry about low milk supply, even though most make exactly what baby needs.

When Breastfeeding Isn't Working

Remember, help is available and there are solutions

Steps and Signs of a Good Latch

These tips help you get a good latch—and know if you have one.

Get tips for talking with your employer about pumping at work

Your Breastfeeding Rights

Know your rights to breastfeed in public and at work.

Using Bottles with a Breastfed Baby

Planning to be apart from baby? Find tips for feeding baby with expressed milk.

New to milk expression? Here’s what you need to know before you get started.

Finding a Breast Pump

Here are options for finding a breast pump at low cost.

Making Milk Expression Work for You

Get tips and see how pumping can help solve your breastfeeding challenges.

See More in Breastfeeding 101 >
See More in Common Questions and Challenges >
See More in Going Back to Work >
See More in Expressing and Pumping Milk >

Breastfeeding FAQs: How Much and How Often (for Parents)

Breastfeeding is a natural thing to do, but it still comes with its fair share of questions. Here's what you need to know about how often and how long to breastfeed your baby.

How Often Should I Breastfeed?

Newborn babies should breastfeed 8–12 times per day for about the first month. Breast milk is easily digested, so newborns are hungry often. Frequent feedings helps stimulate your milk production during the first few weeks.

By the time your baby is 1–2 months old, he or she probably will nurse 7–9 times a day.

In the first few weeks of life, breastfeeding should be "on demand" (when your baby is hungry), which is about every 1-1/2 to 3 hours. As newborns get older, they'll nurse less often, and may have a more predictable schedule. Some might feed every 90 minutes, whereas others might go 2–3 hours between feedings.

Newborns should not go more than about 4 hours without feeding, even overnight.

How Do I Count the Time Between Feedings?

Count the length of time between feedings from the time your baby begins to nurse (rather than at the end) to when your little one starts nursing again. In other words, when your doctor asks how often your baby is feeding, you can say "about every 2 hours" if your first feeding started at 6 a.m., the next feeding was around 8 a.m., then 10 a.m., and so on.

Especially at first, you might feel like you're nursing around the clock, which is normal. Soon enough, your baby will go longer between feedings.

How Long Does Nursing Take?

Newborns may nurse for up to 20 minutes or longer on one or both breasts. As babies get older and more skilled at breastfeeding, they may take about 5–10 minutes on each side.

How long it takes to breastfeed depends on you, your baby, and other things, such as whether:

your milk supply has come in (this usually happens 2–5 days after birth)
your let-down reflex (which causes milk to flow from the nipple) happens right away or after a few minutes into a feeding
your milk flow is slow or fast
the baby has a good latch, taking in as much as possible of your areola (the dark circle of skin around your nipple)
your baby begins gulping right away or takes it slow
your baby is sleepy or distracted

Call your doctor if you're worried that your baby's feedings seem too short or too long.

When Should I Alternate Breasts?

Alternate breasts and try to give each one the same amount of nursing time throughout the day. This helps to keep up your milk supply in both breasts and prevents painful engorgement (when your breasts overfill with milk).

You may switch breasts in the middle of each feeding and then alternate which breast you offer first for each feeding. Can't remember where your baby last nursed? It can help to attach a reminder — like a safety pin or small ribbon — to your bra strap so you'll know which breast your baby last nursed on. Then, start with that breast at the next feeding. Or, keep a notebook handy or use a breastfeeding app to keep track of how your baby feeds.

Your baby may like switching breasts at each feeding or prefer to nurse just on one side. If so, then offer the other breast at the next feeding. Do whatever works best and is the most comfortable for you and your baby.

How Often Should I Burp My Baby During Feedings?

After your baby finishes on one side, try burping before switching breasts. Sometimes, the movement alone can be enough to cause a baby to burp.

Some infants need more burping, others less, and it can vary from feeding to feeding.

If your baby spits up a lot, try burping more often. While it's normal for infants to "spit up" a small amount after eating or during burping, a baby should not vomit after feeding. If your baby throws up all or most of a feeding, there could be a problem that needs medical care. If you're worried that your baby is spitting up too much, call your doctor.

Why Is My Baby Hungrier Than Usual?

When babies go through a period of rapid growth (called a growth spurt), they want to eat more than usual. These can happen at any time. But in the early months, growth spurts often happen when a baby is:

7–14 days old
2 months old
4 months old
6 months old

During these times and whenever your baby seems extra hungry, follow your little one's hunger cues. You may need to breastfeed more often for a while.

How Long Should I Breastfeed My Baby?

That's a personal choice. Experts recommend that babies be breastfed exclusively (without formula, water, juice, non–breast milk, or food) for the first 6 months. Then, breastfeeding can continue until 12 months (and beyond) if it's working for you and your baby.

Breastfeeding has many benefits for mom and baby both. Studies show that breastfeeding can lessen a baby's chances of diarrhea, ear infections, and bacterial meningitis, or make symptoms less severe. Breastfeeding also may protect children from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), diabetes, obesity, and asthma.

For moms, breastfeeding burns calories and helps shrink the uterus. In fact, breastfeeding moms might return to their pre–pregnancy shape and weight quicker. Breastfeeding also helps lower a woman's risk of diseases like:

breast cancer
high blood pressure
diabetes
heart disease

It also might help protect moms from uterine cancer and ovarian cancer.

at what age to introduce complementary foods

Bread is the product without which many families simply cannot imagine breakfast, lunch or dinner. But the product is not given to children immediately, but at a certain period of introducing complementary foods, when the baby is already ready to chew and assimilate it. In addition, there is a difference in the timing of the introduction of dark and white varieties, muffins. Some parents generally ask themselves the question - is it necessary to feed these products to children or can you do without them? Can bread or sweet pastries harm a child's digestion, weight or metabolism? All these questions require detailed answers.

What is bread, how is it baked? The simplest recipe has only water, flour, salt and yeast. But the recipe can be expanded by adding vegetable oil, whole or powdered milk, whole grains, sugar, seeds, eggs and other ingredients to the dough. This is how other types of bread are obtained. Flour can be used both wheat and rye, as well as buckwheat, corn or a mixture of several types.

Benefits and harms of bread for a child

It would seem that a product that since childhood we consider a traditional dish of our cuisine cannot have negative properties, but there are some peculiarities in relation to children's nutrition. Like any other product, bread in its different versions has both beneficial and harmful properties.

Among the undoubted advantages are:

Balanced composition. It has vegetable proteins, complex carbohydrates and very little fat.
Traditional varieties contain more vitamins - these are B1, B2, PP, B6, vitamin E, as well as trace elements - magnesium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, manganese and others.
Rye, in addition to B vitamins, also contains a large amount of dietary prebiotic fibers and minerals.
Pleasant smell that stimulates the digestion process.
Bran or whole grain, with the addition of seaweed, sesame or flaxseed, additional components - such bread supplies the body with the necessary compounds - prebiotics.
Due to complex carbohydrates, the product saturates well, is digested for a long time, allowing the child to stay full longer.

With all the positive aspects, the use of an excess amount of bread can negatively affect the state of the body. It is especially important to know the possible negative aspects for parents of babies up to 1.5–2 years old:

A large amount of oligosaccharides, due to the lack of specific enzymes, is very difficult to digest. Therefore, children under one and a half years old are not recommended to give Borodino and dark yeast-free bread.
Traditional wheat bread contains gluten. This is a cereal protein, which in some children and adults can cause two pathological conditions - allergies and celiac disease. Some children may have allergic reactions to milk proteins or eggs added to some types of bread.
White loaves, buns, rolls, made from premium wheat flour with sugar and butter, contain few useful components, since during the processing the flour loses most of the vitamins and mineral components. In addition, white rolls are a source of a large number of calories. These products are not recommended for children under 2-3 years of age.
Fresh bread, just taken out of the oven, is fragrant and tasty, but it is not recommended for children under three years old, because it contains a lot of gluten.
Toasted bread that is slightly stale can be harmful to babies who do not chew well. Large pieces can cause the child to choke.
If the baby constantly snacks on bread, he may eat other foods worse. The product is high-calorie, it suppresses appetite, so children can refuse more healthy dishes from vegetables, meat, fish.
If a child eats a lot of dark breads, the absorption of iron in the intestines becomes difficult, which can lead to the development of anemia.

When and how much bread can be given to a child?

The first products from the bakery group can be offered to your baby at the age of 7-8 months. It can be baby cookies, drying, white crackers. White bread itself appears in the diet at 8-9 months.

At the very beginning of complementary foods, it is introduced in the amount of 3-5 grams per day. By nine months they offer 5 grams, at 10 months - 10 grams of white.

From the age of one, the amount of white bread per day is gradually increased. If bloating, colic, restlessness or stool disorders occur during the introduction of a new product, the introduction of the product should be stopped for a while.

Dark varieties and various variants of bakery products with additives (bran, seeds, whole grains) are recommended to be gradually introduced from 1.5–2 years. The maximum volume of black bread up to two years is about 10 grams.

The most useful varieties for baby

Today the bakery industry can produce special varieties - gluten-free, steam-free, yeast-free, reduced in starch, protein or salt. But in childhood, especially for the first complementary foods, it is better to prefer those varieties that are baked according to the traditional recipe.

Among the most useful varieties are traditional white bread and baked bread. They are offered to the child in the first place. After two years, you can give any kind, but it is important to ensure that they do not contain various components of food chemistry - baking powder, stabilizers, preservatives.

Is it necessary to teach a child to eat the kind of bread that can be given

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Publication date: 07/06/2021. Article updated: July 6, 2021.

Parents themselves eat bread, and they think that it is good for children. This is a misconception that can lead to health problems. Like all food products, bread must be introduced into the diet correctly and at a certain age.

Is it necessary to teach a child to eat bread

Contents

Is bread really necessary for a child
- What kind of bread to give to children and when
- Buzzers - fast food generation
- What kind of bread to choose for a child

Parents may find it difficult to answer. Indeed, our generation is accustomed to eating bread since childhood, because our parents forced us to eat it. Explanations were vague or intimidating: hair wouldn't grow because only bread had the right vitamins, and so on. In fact, this desire to eat everything with bread is explained by the fact that it was the cheapest and most affordable product. Meat, fish, sausage, few can afford. Therefore, they offered children bread with pasta, potatoes, cereals, soups.

Nowadays, the attitude to food has changed significantly. Parents care not only about the health of their children, but also about their own. Switch to a nutrition program from natural and environmentally friendly products.

Bread contains: yeast, starch, sugar, which are not absorbed in the child's body! The product is 70% carbohydrates. Yeast causes fermentation in the body. This leads to gas formation, colic, pain in the tummy. Constant consumption of bread is a possible tendency to be overweight.

It is not worth accustoming a child to bread especially. Young children are well fed with the first and second course at lunch. For many, even one is enough. If he, seeing how you eat, also asks, you can give. But! Be sure to follow the age guidelines.

What kind of bread at what age to give a child

What kind of bread to give to children and when

You can give bread to children after a year.
From 1 to 4 years old, the diet should be only wheat bread, not more than 80 grams per day (a piece per day).
From the age of 4, you can introduce your child to rye bread - 50 grams per day.
The consumption of black bread in our usual sense begins at the age of 7.
Eating white bread is not recommended until 5 years of age.

When can you feed your child chicken soup

Buzzers - the generation of fast food

The modern generation of children prefer fast food, sandwiches. It is difficult to force them to eat cereals, soups, dairy products. Experts often hear such phrases from parents. Behind them lies a little laziness. It’s easier to give something to a child in a quick way, go to a food court, than to prepare a healthy meal. Do you agree?

Yes, the rhythm of life is such that it is easier to buy ready-made food than to waste time on cooking. But if you have small children, let's instill in them the right eating behavior. Then, in adolescence, they will thank you for the absence of excess weight, serious problems with skin and hair.