Remember not to feed newborns milk powder! What is overfeeding?

After the baby is born, you finally breathe a sigh of relief. The next thing you worry about is if the baby is not full. So you quickly add milk powder. This is a big mistake! If you add milk powder to the baby right after birth, the baby's appetite will be enlarged, and the road to breastfeeding will become more and more difficult. Most people even give up breastfeeding and feed the baby artificially.

Early sucking and early milking

Many mothers prepare milk bottles and milk powder before giving birth, saying that if they don’t have milk or don’t have enough milk after the baby is born, they can use milk powder to feed the baby first, so that the baby won’t be hungry...

Nature is magical, and so is human evolution. Why do other mammals have milk to feed their offspring? Because it is a natural instinct. Why do humans have to eat milk powder? Because humans are advanced mammals with thoughts, and they believe that if they have no milk, then they really have no milk.

Newborns know that their mothers secrete less breast milk within 3 days after delivery, so they will reserve enough water and nutrients in the late pregnancy, and this reserve can last for about 72 hours. The sucking reflex reaches its peak 10-30 minutes after the fetus is delivered, which is the best time to start breastfeeding. After 1 hour, it will enter the inhibition period and the child will basically fall asleep. The key to successful breastfeeding is early contact, early sucking, and early breastfeeding.

Newborns have very small stomach capacity

Many mothers are worried, but what should I do if my milk supply is too low? What should I do if my baby doesn’t have enough to eat…

When a baby is born, the stomach capacity is 5-7 ml. I have heard that obstetric hospitals require 30 ml of milk powder to be added to newborns, and some better hospitals recommend adding 10 ml (which is considered conscientious). In other words, most babies are overfed when they are born, but countless elderly people and new parents still feel that their children are not full. This is a very sad thing. As for the so-called hypoglycemia mentioned by the doctor, it scares the parents and grandparents who love their children, causing overfeeding to continue and worsen.

There was a case in which a newborn baby was fed more than 120 ml of milk powder. The most direct harm was heart failure, because all the baby's blood was supplied to the stomach and intestines, which put too much burden on him and caused a serious lack of blood supply to the heart and brain.

Therefore, don’t worry about having too little milk or insufficient milk, or your baby not being full. As long as the baby sucks in time, breast milk is enough. Never add extra milk powder.

The harm of adding too much milk powder too early

The harm of adding too much milk powder too early is "nutritional programming" and "metabolic imprinting", that is, during the critical period of growth and development, the intake and metabolism of nutrients will have a long-term impact on the body's structure, function and material energy metabolism. The reason why breast milk does not overfeed is that the leptin concentration in breast milk is positively correlated with the leptin concentration in infant plasma, which acts on the feeding center of the hypothalamus, sends out satiety signals, and inhibits feeding.

For newborns, excessive milk powder will directly affect the mother's milk production. The first two weeks are the critical period for the establishment of the lactation reflex, and the establishment of the lactation reflex depends on the baby's sucking on the nipple, which stimulates the anterior and posterior pituitary of the hypothalamus to secrete prolactin and oxytocin. The newborn's brain is not fully developed, so they sleep more. In addition, excessive feeding with milk powder will indeed make people feel that the child is very "well-behaved" and sleeps very "well". The child is drowsy and does not suck enough, which directly leads to insufficient breast milk from the mother. The child's appetite is also enlarged, and the road to breastfeeding in the future will become more and more difficult. Most people even give up breastfeeding and rely on pure artificial feeding.

Questions about baby's hunger

Newborns do not feel hungry because there is amniotic fluid in their stomachs when they are born. So even if they cannot get milk, it does not matter. They do not feel hungry. One hour after they are born, they will basically enter a period of inhibition and sleep, so they will not feel hungry. The feeling of hunger comes from the emptying of the stomach. For example, adults have experienced being too hungry. People feel hungry when the stomach goes from full to empty. When it is full and after it is empty, they will lose this feeling. So if the baby is not fed with milk powder, he will not feel hungry. He will naturally cooperate with the mother's lactation, stimulate the mother's lactation by sucking continuously, and then let the mother's milk meet his needs. If you add milk powder after birth, and the amount is large, then the baby's hunger center will work in advance artificially. The stomach is too big, and the retraction after emptying will be very uncomfortable. The child will definitely cry violently, and adults can't stand seeing the child crying, and continue to use milk powder to support it, and the vicious cycle will become more and more intense.