The signs of hunger in babies are different, new moms often ask questions like?, how do I know my baby is getting enough? I don’t want to overfeed my child, how often should I feed? or, how do I tell if my baby is hungry?
How do I know my baby is hungry?
Babies themselves can tell if they are hungry or not and they understand their internal body system and they respond to the signs of hunger naturally, so whenever they are hungry the communicate through many cues,
As long as you know the cues and being able to recognize them it makes it easy to understand your baby and respond to signs and give the feeding on time
The cues are categorically divided into three stages, which are:
The early, middle, and late signs or hunger cues.
1. Early Hunger Cues
- Sucking of fingers, lips nearby objects like clothes or toys, hungry babies like to suck so they can suck on anything available at the moment.
- Rooting reflex: The movement of turning the head side to side, you can test the rooting reflex by using a finger, stroke your finger gently on the baby’s cheeks either left or right he turns toward the direction of your finger this natural reflex always occurs during the first and second week of birth.
- Sticking and bringing out their tongue.
- Continous opening of the mouth.
- Lips smacking.
2. Mid Hunger Cues
- When a baby tries to the breast by pulling your clothes.
- Smiling during or after breastfeeding, this shows their interest indicating that they want more babies usually 4 months old or older may show this sign.
- Tuning of the heads towards the chest when being carried.
- Fussing
- Breathing fast
- Constantly hitting on your chest
- Stretching or continued increase in the movement of arms and legs
3. Late Hunger Cues
Crying: This is the last sign of hunger the baby crying sound is usually in a pitched short and rise and fall tune, and try to sooth your baby before feeding.
Knowing your baby’s feeding cues help build a positive feeding relationship between you and your little one and satisfies your baby’s hunger on time its always good to look for cues signs your baby gives instead of feeding your baby randomly.
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About the Author
Ayodeji is a co-founder at Mumslove, an entrepreneur, digital marketing professional, writer and mechanical engineer by education, his experience of marketing baby & childcare supplies for several years and his passion for the baby industry has led him to the creative mind behind this website, apart from being a business geek he also loves to connect with people.