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MELISSA NAGIN: Hi, I'm Melissa Nagin. a lactation consultant. In the first few precious weeks
of your baby's life, you wanna get your baby's growth on the right path. How do you know
when he's hungry for milk? And when he's had enough? I discuss this with one new mother.
MELISSA NAGIN: We have Jake here, who is two weeks?
IOWA: Oh, three weeks.
MELISSA NAGIN: Three weeks? Good, growth spurt number two, uh, he would've passed one at
two weeks and now we're, we're either coming up on another one or in the throes of it right
now. What has your experience been so far? What's been happening for the last couple
of weeks?
IOWA: In the beginning, uhm, like a two weeks ago, I was [INAUDIBLE] lotta milk and he couldn't
drink a lot
MELISSA NAGIN: Mmmhmm
IOWA: but right now, he go to three weeks, he drink a lot
MELISSA NAGIN: Mmmhmm
IOWA: that's my experience [INAUDIBLE] from two weeks to now
MELISSA NAGIN: It's a huge jump iand it's interesting and he's waking
up now. We're gonna feed him in a minute, too
IOWA: Mmmhmm
MELISSA NAGIN: and it's interesting that you say this just about not being able take enough
at first and now taking plenty; you were concerned about knowing how much exactly he's getting
and you know, how were you able to tell as a breastfeeding mother, it's a really, really
good question. Usually, the key ingredients here are frequent frequent feedings, every
two to three hours during the day, uhm, but more we want to see their weight gain shooting
up and we also want to see uhm, lots of pees, lotsa of poop uhm, and so, how's he been in
that department?
IOWA: Well, every time when I feed him, he got [INAUDIBLE] make a poop
MELISSA NAGIN: Perfect! Perfect! That means something's working there
IOWA: [INAUDIBLE]
MELISSA NAGIN: And when we're talking about the poop, while we're getting really graphic
about it, what color is it? Is it
IOWA: It's a yellow
MELISSA NAGIN: Yellow, mustard-y seed-y
IOWA: Mustard
MELISSA NAGIN: Beautiful, beautiful. we know he's getting to that hindmilk, then, it's
okay every now and then if you get a green, almost salad-y looking poop, that's okay,
it just means that there was more foremilk in the prior feed. When your breast is very,
very full and you're saying, "Oh my god! I can't wait to feed!" that's a lotta foremilk.
it's definitely filled with all the nutrients but it's very thin and watery, almost like
skim milk, and then the further and further the baby gets into the feeding, then we get
to the point where it sort of changes over and the hindmilk, which is very high in fat,
is really where we wanna get. The foremilk is very, very high in lactose as well, so
if you have a baby that is being timed and you're doing a limited amount of time on one
breast and switching them to the other very quickly, you might have a baby with too much
lactose in their system and THAT'S when we get that cramp-y, gas-y baby so we really
wanna ensure that we're getting the perfect balance of the foremilk and the hindmilk,
the lactose and the fat as well. And hunger cues are also important to to sort of note,
uhm, when a baby is very, very hungry, crying is very, very late cue, we really would love
to avoid the point where they're crying 'cause then it's sometimes very, very hard to latch
them on, it's very difficult to calm them down. So when we see that they're waking up
and they're sort of quiet and alert, that's the ideal time to put the baby on. A lot of
times, if they are starting to get hungry, uhm, they might start trying to eat their
fist uhm, or, or, if they're, if you're holding them, they might start pecking at your neck,
these are all early cues that they might be hungry.