Breastfeeding Challenges: Growth Spurts

One of the many challenges we face as part of Breastfeeding is the Growth spurts, which are stages where the baby behaves “weird” eats constantly, in a desperate way as if he never eat enough and often act fussier than usual, this leads to the misconception that milk production is not enough and can lead to the use of formula as a supplement or even to end breastfeeding completely.

The best way to overcome them is knowing what to expect, arm ourselves with The best way to overcome them is knowing what to expect, arm ourselves with patience and understand that it is normal, all babies go through this crisis, it is how a baby increases the production of breast milk as it grows and at the same time breast milk is changing its constitution to meet the needs of the baby at each stage.

Around 3 weeks old:

• The baby is fussier
• Wants to be eating all the time
• Cry desperately if is not eating
• Regurgitates a considerable amount of milk but wants to continue eating immediately after.

This happens shortly after both, mom and baby have adapted a little bit to their new routine and the hours where the baby eats become more regular. On this stage babies nurse more often than usual (sometimes as often as every hour) and often act fussier than usual. The milk demand increases, that’s why the baby eats constantly, more stimulation = more milk production. This only lasts one week, after which, the things go back to normal.

At 6 or 7 weeks old:

• Nurse much more often than usual
• The baby is upset
• He fights with the breast while eating, crying, pulling and arching

Once again the milk intake increases, the baby wants to eat more often to stimulate the milk production, plus at this time the milk taste changes, becoming saltier, the baby takes a while to get used to the new flavor since it was used to a sweeter taste, this is why he seems to ¨fight¨ while is eating. Again this only lasts one week more or less to get back to normal.

At 3 months old:

• The milk intake decreases
• After a -little while of nursing starts to cry
• While nursing the baby get distracted and stop eating
• The breasts feel softer like there was no milk on it

This is the stage where it is more frequent to give up Breastfeeding, unlike the first two crises, the demand for milk decreases, takes longer to the baby to eat and the time eating is much less than usual, the baby gets distracted and loses the interest of eating easily.
At this point the baby has become an expert in suction, so he gets the milk he needs in a matter of minutes, that’s why he last much less eating, his growth also becomes a little slower, so It is normal that the weight gain is not the same as in the first months.
Until now, milk was available when the baby wanted since the milk “went down” every so often making the breasts feel “full”. At this stage the way in which milk is produced has changed, it is no longer from time to time, now it is produced at the time, it takes approximately 3 minutes after the baby begins to suck, so it is common for him to despair and start crying when there is no milk immediately after he starts to suck as usual.
The baby’s field of vision is widened at this stage so it is common to be distracted during nursing, and lose interest in continuing to eat at that time and then cry desperately when he remembers that he is hungry
This crisis is the longest, it can last up to a month, so you have to be very patient.

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