Is Your Baby Hungry?

Whether breastfeeding or bottle feeding, typically a baby eats about every four hours. Those four hours in between feedings can be blissful if you are sleep deprived and feel as if you could sleep for a week. I recall that having a new baby was a combination of the most exciting, happy time and the most exhausting time because of the feedings in the wee small hours. Based on babys' birth weights as well as weight they gain in their first weeks and months, you may find your baby awakening more frequently and demanding to be fed. Different doctors have different opinions and advice about when to start adding a little rice cereal to baby's formula. Sometimes breast milk and/or formula are just not sufficient to satisfy a baby's hunger for four hours. Talk to your pediatrician about adding a bit of rice cereal to baby's diet or whatever type of baby cereal he recommends. I have a friend who has just experienced this with a five-week old baby boy who had a hefty birth weight and just was hungry all the time. Formula replaced the breast milk, but he was still exercising his little lungs every two hours instead of the previous four. A little addition of rice cereal (his grandmother is an R.N.) to his formula, and he is sleeping 4 to 6 hours at a time and allowing his mom and dad to get some much needed sleep. Babies are wonderful blessings, and sleep is a wonderful blessing too so talk to your health care professional to be sure your baby's hunger is being satisfied.