Can Youkeep Milk Production Up When Baby Sleeps Through the Night?

What is normal?
Normal newborn feeding cues
Why is my baby sleepy?
Good attachment
Wake your sleepy baby to nurse
Other ideas
Biological nurturing™
Breast compression
Express milk for your baby
Avoid bottles and dummies
When to offer expressed milk
Don't give up too soon

What is normal?

Your newborn baby needs to breastfeed effectively at least 8–12 times in 24 hours to gain weight and stimulate your milk production. Most babies nurse every 2–3 hours from the beginning of one feed to the next, with 1 longer sleep of 4–v hours. 'Cluster nursing' is also common, where a infant breastfeeds on and off for several hours, especially in the evening. As well as breastfeeding and sleeping, your infant will probably also have periods of quiet alertness. Your newborn needs to nurse actively from ane or both breasts at each feed. Offer the second breast after he seems to have finished at the first, although he may not want both sides at every feed. Look at our folio Beginning Breastfeeding for more information.

Normal newborn feeding cues

Offering feeds generously. Don't make your babe wait until he is desperate—by that indicate he is unlikely to feed well. In order of urgency, signs your infant is ready to feed include:

Mouth movements, including smacking or licking his lips.
Sucking on lips, natural language, easily, fingers, toes, toys, or clothing.
Rooting, head bobbing or nuzzling against whoever is holding him.
Fidgeting or squirming a lot.
Fussing.
Crying—a tardily sign of hunger.

Why is my baby sleepy?

In the first few days, some babies are sleepy or uninterested in feeding. This tin exist peculiarly truthful for modest babies, later a hard labour or nativity, or if you lot received drugs for hurting relief during labour. Jaundice or an infection may make a baby sleepy. Frequent breastfeeding helps prevent normal newborn jaundice becoming a problem. Your babe may sleep to conserve free energy if he is not getting enough food. He may likewise sleep longer than is adept for him if he is apart from you.

Good attachment

Getting a deep, comfortable latch is crucial. If your baby is non latched on well at the breast, he will take to work harder to become your milk. He may tire easily and fall asleep. Sometimes just a small adjustment to the style your baby comes to the breast can make a huge difference. An LLL Leader can provide individual suggestions tailored to your circumstances. If your breasts are engorged, gently paw limited a little milk and/or ease swelling back with your fingertips to make information technology easier for your baby to latch on deeply and foreclose you lot getting sore. Detect an LLL group near you.

Seek skilled help early on if you are finding breastfeeding difficult or uncomfortable.

Wake your sleepy baby to nurse

If your babe is as well sleepy or groggy to rouse himself every few hours, you will demand to wake him to feed to ensure he gets enough milk. This will be easier if your baby is in a calorie-free slumber wheel: sentinel for rapid eye movements under his closed eyelids, arm and leg movements, sucking action and changes in his facial expression. See whether his arm shows some resistance to movement rather than existence floppy and relaxed.

Aim for him to feed at least 10 times in 24 hours.
Encourage agile nursing on the first breast, watching and listening for signs of swallowing.
Utilize breast compression (run across overleaf) to keep your baby nursing actively.
Offer the other side in the same way. You tin switch back and forth several times if information technology helps your baby stay awake and feed.
Encourage cluster nursing whenever your baby is more alert.

Laid back breastfeeding positions and pare-to-skin contact are also very effective in helping a babe to rouse and feed. Your baby volition need to feed in the night too. Proceed him close past—twenty-four hours and nighttime—then he doesn't slumber too long and you don't miss his feeding cues.

Other ideas

Dimming the lights and keeping your environs serenity and peaceful.
Keeping the room temperature at effectually xviii°C or undressing him a little if the room is warm. Being too hot can make a babe sleepy.
Unwrapping whatsoever blankets.

Biological nurturing™

A baby oft instinctively seeks the breast and attaches securely and comfortably if he can snuggle up close to his mother's breast for periods of fourth dimension, fifty-fifty when sleepy or during calorie-free slumber. Try letting your baby lie on your body as you recline so both his chest and tummy are against you. This kind of 'laid-back' breastfeeding contact is known as Biological Nurturing™ and tin can be done pare-to-skin or with you and your infant lightly clothed—whatever is more comfortable and convenient for you both. Watch for signs your baby is stirring and gently encourage feeding. Spending time relaxing like this can make a real departure to how well your babe feeds and how much milk yous make. Our folio on Comfortable Breastfeeding has more than ideas.

Breast compression

If your infant starts to doze at the chest, this technique volition help him breastfeed actively and accept more milk.

Support your chest with i hand—thumb on ane side, fingers on the other.
Wait while your baby breastfeeds actively, his jaw moving all the way to his ear. When he stops swallowing, compress your chest firmly. Hold information technology squeezed until he stops nursing actively, then release your hand.
Rotate your paw effectually your breast and repeat step 2 on different areas of the breast as needed. Go gently—this should not injure.
Switch nursing: t ry switching breasts at least 2 or three times during each feed—when he comes off the start breast on his ain or when breast compression no longer keeps him breastfeeding actively.

If your babe isn't responding

Express milk for your babe

Until he gets the hang of feeding you may need to do some work for your infant. If he is not latching at all, or is not feeding well and gaining weight, then expressing your milk will assistance establish milk production. The earlier you start, the sooner you'll produce plenty of milk. On day one, expect to express small amounts of milk at a time: about five ml every couple of hours, to mimic your infant's feeding blueprint, increasing to virtually 30–60 ml each time past day seven after birth. Manus expression is often easiest at commencement only you can combine hand expression with pumping when your milk comes in.

Avert bottles and dummies

Y'all tin requite small amounts of expressed milk using a spoon, flexible feeding loving cup or syringe. Bottles or dummies can confuse your babe's sucking technique, see our folio on Nipple Confusion. Consult an LLL Leader well-nigh breastfeeding friendly ways to bottlefeed or well-nigh using a nursing supplementer. This device delivers actress milk through a tube along your chest as your babe nurses, avoiding the need for bottles. Visit our page When Mum Can't Exist There for more data on breastfeeding friendly ways to bottlefeed.

When to offering expressed milk

Babies may sleep to conserve free energy if they are not getting enough food. Giving your baby your expressed milk after breastfeeding can help him overcome sleepiness and feed more effectively next time. Merely if you can't get him to feed well at all, a little expressed milk before nursing may give him the energy he needs to breastfeed more finer this time.

Don't surrender too before long

If your baby doesn't reply chop-chop to your efforts to go him to breastfeed more than often and more than finer, don't give up.
Bank check with your doctor to eliminate whatever medical reasons and contact your local LLL Leader to observe one-to-one breastfeeding help. Yous can notice support and encouragement from breastfeeding mothers in your local LLL Group too.

Written past mothers of LLLGB. Photos courtesy of Ellen Mateer and Suzanne Tobin.

Farther Reading
Comfortable Breastfeeding
Engorged Breasts – Avoiding & Treating
Mitt Expression of Breastmilk
My Baby Needs More Milk
Jaundice in Salubrious Newborns

Other websites
Biological Nurturing™: www.biologicalnurturing.com/video/bn3clip.html
Benefits of skin-to-skin contact: www.kangaroomothercare.com

Books
The Womanly Fine art Of Breastfeeding. LLLI, London: Pinter & Martin, 2010

This information is available to buy in printed class from our shop.

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Source: https://www.laleche.org.uk/sleepy-baby-why-and-what-to-do/