How to Know If Your Baby Is Getting Enough Breast Milk

The best way to determine if a mother’s milk is sufficient is to monitor the infant’s weight gain and growth curve. In this regard, doctors and medical staff can be asked to draw the infant’s growth curve on their growth chart at each visit.

Milk production is a process in which the mammary glands are capable of secreting milk. this stage begins with childbirth and is a continuous series of changes that occur over four days to complete milk production. which is a sensitive and vital stage in milk production and during which the volume and concentration of breast milk increase significantly.

Infants naturally lose 3 to 8 percent of their birth weight in the first few days of life, and if they are well-fed with breast milk, they will regain their birth weight within 10 to 14 days.

The child’s Monthly weight gain is an important factor in child growth, and breastfed infants gain the most weight in the first three months of life. each infant gains about 600 to 800 grams of weight per month during the first three months of life.

Another method used to determine if a mother’s milk is sufficient for the infant is the number of times and the volume of the infant’s urine and feces. generally, on the first day of birth, the infant should have one or more urinations and defecations per day. also, on the second and third days, the infant should have three or more urinations and two to three or more defecations per day.

Signs that the infant has not received enough milk

If the infant wants to breastfeed again after feeding or spends more time chewing milk, it often indicates that they have not received enough milk. therefore, in the early months of life, leave the duration and amount of breastfeeding to the infant, as infants often feed on breast milk as much as they need.

The stool color of an infant is another factor that indicates the adequacy of breast milk. The number of bowel movements gradually decreases from one month of age, and the infant may defecate once every few days. In this case, if their stool is soft and bulky, there will be no problem, but dry or green stool in infants can indicate insufficient breastfeeding from the mother.

NOTE: Infants fed formula have bulkier stool than breastfed infants because cow’s milk protein is twice as much as human milk protein, most of which is indigestible (casein). The extra protein is excreted from the infant’s body, increasing the volume of their stool.