![]() Infants have the ability to suckle very fast and efficiently when they finally get to feed. Mothers produce milk that is high in fat, and high in protein - what we might call super-fuel.Ģ. But it only works if there’s a way to keep the babies from starving during those long separations. It’s a strategy that allows the mother to go foraging without the fuss of a tag-along infant. In some species, mothers “park” or “cache” their young in nests, and leave them there. But they don’t all time their feedings in the same way. Mammal babies everywhere begin life on a diet of milk. The infant feeding schedule in evolutionary perspective So it seems that the best infant feeding schedule is the one that babies devise for themselves.īut what is the evidence? Let’s take more detailed look. It might support better cognitive outcomes. It might affect an infant’s emotional functioning. Research hints that responsive feeding benefits babies in additional ways. That’s probably why responsive feeding is associated with healthier growth trajectories in babies (Chen et al 2020 Fuglestad et al 2017).Īnd that’s not all. Feeding on cue makes it easier for infants to increase or decrease their intake as needed (Tylka et al 2015). And it can help any infant cope with the challenges of getting enough to eat during a growth spurt.Īll babies experience fluctuations in their energy requirements.It can help bottle-bed babies avoid overfeeding.It can help breastfed babies adjust to natural variations in milk quality (Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences 1991).But feeding responsively - on cue - remains the ideal approach. ![]() So the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises parents to feed infants at least once every 2-3 hours - whenever babies show signs of hunger (AAP 2015).ĭuring the subsequent months, babies may be able to go longer between meals. It begins in the newborn period. If newborn babies aren’t fed frequently enough, they are at higher risk for dehydration and underfeeding. There are a number of reasons, but the simple answer is this: When we let babies determine the timing and the length of their own feeds, they are more likely to get what they need: Not too little, and not too much. In the past, Western “baby experts” often instructed parents to feed their babies at regularly-spaced intervals of 3- or 4-hours. Today, official medical recommendations have shifted in favor of letting babies decide. © 2009 – 2021 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved
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