Feeding Cues

Parents are often taught feeding cues in prenatal classes and in the hospital or birth center postpartum.  However, parents can unfortunately end up mistaking some behavior as “cues” when infants are older and end up overfeeding a baby that is already very well fed (which leads to symptoms like gas, blow out diapers, throwing up).  If a very early newborn is eating its hands ravenously and rooting around, this is hunger.  But as babies grow and have been determined to be gaining weight well with mom having appropriate milk production, babies past the newborn stage will start to explore their hands out of curiosity.  They may “root” out of a reflex after being stimulated by considerable amounts of burping.  They lack head control for months and will bob/root their heads just because they are having trouble holding upright.  They also may take some time to wiggle and squirm and settle themselves down after a feed.