Newborn feeding cues

by Cordelia Uys, Breastfeeding Counsellor

September 2020

From the moment a baby is born, every one of their neonatal reflexes is designed to enable them to make their way to the breast. They bob their head like a woodpecker, move their head from side to side, search with their mouth (known as rooting), open their mouth, stick out their tongue repeatedly and circle their arms and legs. If placed on their mother's abdomen, newborn babies can crawl up to the breast and latch on without any assistance from their mother. They continue to be able to make this journey, known as the breast crawl, for several months after birth.

It seems that whenever a baby gets peckish, they start to imagine this journey in their mind's eye. They will open their mouth in what can look like a yawn, stick out their tongue, put a hand up to their mouth and turn their head from side to side. If being held, they will turn towards the adult's body and bob their head, as if looking for the breast. As they get hungrier, they will stretch, and move around more. If their mother doesn't respond in a timely fashion, the baby will get more and more agitated, until they are crying, at which point, their mother will need to calm them down before latching them. It's impossible to latch a crying baby because their tongue won't be in the right position.

If a mother believes that she needs to wait until her baby is crying before feeding him or her, she will miss the opportunity of latching them when they are merely peckish, and end up with a 'hangry' baby. Most adults get quite unreasonable when they're 'hangry', and babies are no different. Several hundred thousand of years of evolution have ensured that there are few things more stressful for a mother than hearing her baby crying.

When a mother breastfeeds her baby as soon as she is aware of any feeding cues, not only is latching is less stressful, but even more importantly, the baby will have the opportunity to breastfeed more often. And very frequent breastfeeding, particularly in the early weeks, is essential for establishing a good milk supply.

Above is a video I took of a baby showing early feeding cues - they're quite subtle and easy to miss.