Is My Baby Still Hungry? Top Tips from a Lactation Consultant to recognize when your baby is full or they need more (breast & bottle)
Babies are incredible. While they cannot speak, they do have their own language and it’s pretty easy to learn, if you pay attention. Hungry babies have telltale ways to express, “I‘m hungry“!
They will send you their hunger cues until their need is met. Cues start calmly and subtly and they will escalate to stronger cues, if these earlier ones are not responded to.
Babies experience hunger differently from adults. When adults are still a bit hungry, we don’t have an instinct telling us that we are in trouble - we are not looking to double, triple or quadruple our size! Babies are trying to get bigger quickly, and their instinctual behaviour protects this.
Check for these signs to see if your baby is ready to start a feed. Then check again to see if your baby is full, if you’ve been feeding them already.
Look at your baby and notice:
Licking Lips
The tongue sticking out of the mouth, is your baby letting you know that they are ready to eat!
Hands to Mouth
In utero, your baby brought their hands to their mouth before swallowing amniotic fluid. Any time your newborn is actively bringing their hands to their mouth, they are hungry.
Rooting
Rooting happens when a hungry baby’s lips or cheek touch something. They will actively shake move their head to wherever the touch is coming from. This is your baby trying to latch on to a nipple.
Quiet Alert State
Newborns sleep so much. A baby that’s just waking up, is likely hungry.
Crying
Crying is a LATE sign of hunger. As much as you can, you’ll want to get your baby fed before they escalate to crying. If you didn’t manage (it happens to everyone, at some point!), calm your baby down, with shushing, rocking etc. before attempting to latch them on the breast or the bottle.
Here’s where I find many of the people I work with get stuck. This is what I hear:
I’ve fed my baby and I’m confused. I was told to feed my baby on each breast for 15 minutes. I did that and they are still showing hunger signs.
OR
I fed by baby by bottle, with the exact amount I was told to, from the hospital staff. But they’re still showing me hunger signs!
Watch the Baby, Not the Clock (or volume).
The clock does not indicate what a baby is doing at the breast or how much milk they've taken in.
Generally, a newborn will fall asleep at the breast by 15 minutes, as most people’s milk flow will have slowed by then. It is much more valuable to watch your baby's technique, behaviour and their drinking (read all about that here), rather than the time.
The same goes for the volume in a bottle. We want to watch the baby, noticing their rhythm of drinking and notice if they’re full after the amount we’ve offered.
If your baby is showing you hunger signs, they need more. Likewise, if there are no hunger signs, you won’t need to re-latch at the breast or offer any remaining amount in a bottle.
FACT:
It's inaccurate to say that a newborn baby is just nursing for comfort, habit, or to pacify. If a young baby is searching for food, they have a genuine need to eat.
So, Is My Baby Still Hungry?
After you’ve made sure you understand the key elements of drinking versus nibbling, you’re going to watch your baby again and ask yourself these questions:
Do they have limp limps, with no tension?
Hungry babies will have closed tight fists and tension in their arms. They will gradually relax as they become more and more satiated.
Am I able to put my baby down?
Babies love the closeness of their parents and will want to be held A LOT. Holding your baby close and getting in skin to skin time is immensely valuable. However, a hungry baby will stir very soon after being put down. A hungry baby may be squirmy and hard to settle.
Is my baby licking their lips, sticking out their tongue, bringing their hands to their mouth or rooting?
These are telltale signs of hunger. Try brushing your finger on the side of your baby's mouth and across their cheek. If your baby is still hungry, they will turn their head towards your touch.
Likewise, try putting your baby on your chest. Are they relaxed, calm and sleepy or are they bouncing their head around, searching for food?
Bye, Bye Hunger Signs - suppress them with milk and not swaddles or pacifiers
We want hunger cues to be suppressed, naturally, with breastmilk or formula. Even if your baby has gotten 98% of what they need, if they have not become completely satiated, they will still be searching for food and expressing to you, via hunger cues and eventually crying, that they need more.
Before using any tools like swaddling, pacifiers, skin to skin, rocking or bouncing, put your baby on a safe surface check for hunger cues. We need a broad tool kit as parents - babies change things up on us quickly! Just be aware, that many soothing techniques have the ability to cover up hunger cues, particularly if babies have gotten MOST of what they need but not that full amount.
When your baby is born, you both have to learn how to interact with each other. It is all so new for everyone.
Keep your baby close and aim to watch them, rather than our external ways of measuring. We are capable of understanding the language free communication of our infants.
Also remember, just like when we are using words, the meaning isn’t always clearly expressed or we’re too tired or distracted to get the point. We all fumble around and make mistakes. Just keep on doing your best, which I know you’re doing.
Kate is a Childbirth Educator, Birth & Postpartum Doula, Lactation Consultant, Infant Sleep Educator and Movement Expert, living in Toronto, with her 3 children.
She provides care privately, in homes, and through a pediatric clinic.
She loves babies, movement, smoothies, green tea and sunshine.
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