A new post has been published over at the Starlight Baby blog: How To Recognize Your Baby’s Hunger Cues Would love to hear your thoughts on this topic below!
The most common sign when the baby is hungry is the crying. I have learned that from my grandmother. But a baby's cry means many other things so it becomes confusing at times. But my first impulse when I hear a baby cry is to give him the milk bottle. When the baby refuses then the cry means something else.
I am not really sure if we had a particularly well-spoken (or well-cried) baby but I always found it pretty easy to tell when our little boy was hungry. Maybe I am just remembering the good times though and forgetting the ones that drove me crazy, as I do have a tendency to do that.
Interesting post! I knew most of it but it was nice to read it as it reconfirmed my own views. I agree that almost every child is different form other children but a toddlers generally needs a feeding after every 2-3 hours till the age of 6 months and later it is reduced to every 4 hours after he is past the age of 6 months. Once you put your child on solid/semi solid food the need of feeding gradually goes down. However, every baby shows signs of hunger in his own ways which careful parents understand easily.
I am not an experienced mother and I am just an expectant mother. Therefore, I don't have any experience in parenting a baby. However, what I know (from my observation and reading), baby respond to emotions and feelings differently in different stages. In the early stage, baby cries for stimuli such as hunger, soiling etc. However, as he grows older, he begins to make different sounds for different stimuli
Yes, Whenever my body is crying, I will have pain in my body. Sometimes body will be heating, then I will know that something has happened to my body.
With my experience with my baby everytime she cried meant she was hungry I think it depends on the baby. There was nothing else that calmed her down than getting fed. I always tried to keep her fresh and fortunately she never had stomach aches. Even when she was teething she was calm until she got hungry.
One of the babies I took care of didn't cry when she was hungry. What I actually noticed was a sudden loss of energy and sudden sleepiness. I do think that's the reason. Food is required to generate energy and especially with a child when all that energy is depleted, they quickly lose activity. I've noticed this when she didn't have much sugar in her diet either.
Well, they cry. But it's not just any cry, its the cry for hunger and a parent learn to talk the cry language, as some cries are for hunger, others for cold, others for pain and others just because they want to be hugged and kissed. One thing that the article mentions is very much true, when they start sucking their hands is because they want to eat.
Crying is a common denominator for every child's manifestation of his need for food. But when he is sick, he also cries. Well, the best thing to do is to have a schedule of feeding the child just the adult we have a regular eating time. But the child needs to be taken care of or else he would be starving unknowingly it. Every parent or mother for that matter should have to stick to the schedule of feeding her child either he is crying or not.
From my personal experience, we should feed them for as long as they want, so that they are satisfied. If they eat well (and a parent know if they eat well), they will be satisfied until the next meal, depending on their age it might be 3-4 hours.
The most easily noticeable sign a baby shows when hungry is crying especially if it's long he/she ate. At other times the babies may cry if there are some discomfort or pain. I think it's vital they are given prompt attention when they cry because they can't tell the seriousness of the situation.