Being a mother is one of the happiest experiences in life. However, with a pleasant experience comes a lot of responsibility. Whenever a woman becomes a mother for the first time, along with her newborn baby, comes many responsibilities of taking care of the baby. The biggest responsibility lies with the feeding of the infant. If there is an elderly mother or mother-in-law in the house, then everything is easily handled. But if you live in a nuclear family, you have to look after all the responsibilities of the child. When the baby is hungry, you have to take care of all these things when you breastfeed him.
Often, the baby is crying continuously, and you think that the child is hungry, and providing him, again and again, is the wrong way. The baby may also cry due to gas problems and abdominal pain. There are other ways to remove gas problems in babies. As the newborn baby grows in age, its feeding needs also increase. In such a situation, it becomes your responsibility to take care of every need of the child.
Breasfeed the baby
Why is mother’s milk necessary for a child?
In TV or newspaper advertisements, it is often heard that immediately after the child’s birth, only breast milk should be fed by the mother to the child for six months. Mother’s milk is the complete and best food for the baby. For the development of the newborn baby, there are essential nutrients to win. They all get from the mother’s milk. Breastfeeding a baby has a positive effect on both the mother and the baby. When a child is born, his body has no immunity at all. He gets this immunity from his mother’s milk. According to research, babies who drink mother’s milk for six months do not become fat in the future because they do not have the habit of overeating from the beginning. Therefore, as a mother, you should know how important mother’s milk is for the baby.
How to know a baby’s hunger?
It is your responsibility to find out whether your baby wants to breastfeed or not. A newborn baby cannot tell his hunger by speaking, so by his gestures and signs, and you can find out when he is hungry. For example, when the child cries loudly, he may be hungry, or there may be some other reason. When he is hungry, he looks for the nipple by holding the baby in his arms. Apart from this, when a finger is put in the mouth, he starts sucking. So it is a sign of his hunger. But always keep one thing in mind: never put a finger in the child’s mouth with a dirty hand.
How often to breastfeed the baby?
- Mother’s milk is very digestible, so it gets digested quickly. In such a situation, the child starts feeling hungry in 3 to 4 hours. Therefore, from 1 to 3 months, a newborn should be breastfed 8 to 9 times in 24 hours.
- When the baby is small, he drinks the mother’s milk slowly and in small quantities. That’s why the child gets hungry quickly. A three-month-old baby should be breastfed at least 6 times in 24 hours.
- When the baby is six months old, he starts drinking bottled milk or some liquids like lentils in addition to his mother’s milk. Then the dependence of the child on the mother’s milk starts decreasing. Therefore, it will be enough to breastfeed such a child 4 times a day.
- Normally a child can be breastfed by a mother for up to two years. Mother’s milk is so important to the child that it is necessary to feed the child even when the mother is ill. You can guess this because even in typhoid, malaria, tuberculosis, jaundice and leprosy, doctors do not recommend stopping breastfeeding. That’s why you must breastfeed your baby on time.