If your baby is born at 38 weeks and beyond, there are a few ways to know if your baby is getting enough milk. Infant stomachs are very small and breastfeeding when possible, starts in the golden hour right after birth. We use wet diapers as a good rule of thumb to determine whether your baby is getting enough milk. For each day of life, your baby should make one urine diaper and should have generally one stool diaper in the first 24 hours of life.

As each day passes, there should be that many urine diapers per day. For example, on day of life five, there should be five urine diapers; typically, there are also several stool diapers per day starting on day of life 2. As infant stool progresses from thick tarry meconium to yellow seedy stools, this is also another reassuring clue that your baby is getting enough milk.

By day 7-8, there should be about 10-12 urine diapers per day. By the way, a urine diaper counts even if stool is mixed in as well. Also, your baby should start to gain about 1 ounce per day after about day 4-5 of life. This will be measured at your pediatrician’s office, so ask your infant’s pediatrician if they are gaining weight as expected.

The majority of newborns lose weight after birth, whether born via vaginal delivery or cesarean section. Please consult your own child’s pediatrician for your situation. Either way, the more your baby gets on the breast with active sucks and swallows with the “cuh” sound, that is a strong clue your baby is nutritively feeding and trans

Getting started is simple. As soon as your baby is born, place your infant on your chest with only a diaper, also known as skin-to-skin time in the physiologic or laid-back breastfeeding position so your baby can “crawl” to your breast. Right after birth, infants typically have a period where they are very alert and aware…a day or two later, they may be sleepy at the breast. Take advantage of this alert period to get your first latch. Visit firstdroplets.com for more video guidance on the first latch.

If your baby needed resuscitation and there was medically necessary separation, start hand expression of both your breasts within an hour of your baby’s delivery if possible. Hand expression is pressure an inch or so away from your areola with compression both down and directed towards your chest wall.

You should breastfeed your baby quite often! After the golden hour, you should look for feeding cues, or little signs that your baby is using their instincts to tell you they are hungry. This includes opening their mouth, licking their lips, having tight fists. Late feeding cues are excessive crying and fatigue. We would ideally like to avoid late hunger cues.

A satisfied baby usually has open palms to some extent, is relaxed and sleepy after a feed, and has had a higher ratio of 1:1 sucks and swallows. If you notice 3-5 sucks to one swallow, that may be a sign to do a breast compression to keep the milk flowing.

Due to the fact that the nipple should actually be far back in the infant’s throat for an effective latch, if you are experiencing toe-curling pain that is severe, or have lipstick-shaped nipples, or bright red or open fissures on your nipples, this is not normal and you should seek immediate guidance by an IBCLC or breastfeeding medicine physician to do a latch evaluation as your first step. Please also consult your infant’s clinician if there is excessive weight loss to see whether donor milk supplementation may be medically indicated.

This is absolutely your decision. The World Health Organization, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Center for Disease Control all recommend exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, thereafter breast milk plus complementary foods, and then up to two years or as long as the breastfeeding twosome/dyad desires. Dr. Tanguay works as a partner to educate and collaborate for you to set and reach whatever goal works best for your situation. At BabyCare, we also are supportive of individualized inclusive any and all feeding plans, whether that looks like combination feeding, donor milk feeding, exclusive pumping, or formula feeding. No matter the feeding path you choose, Dr. Tanguay will care for you and your family compassionately and holistically.

The reason for this is simple: most birthing individuals want to breastfeed as their feeding goal, though many don’t make it to their goal due to lack of support, perceived low milk supply, societal pressures like returning to work, etc. Dr. Tanguay will help you through these challenges.

This is a great question. I will first stop and ask why you think you don’t have a good milk supply. Was this actually suggested to you by an expert in lactation or is it based on social media, mom groups, or late-night searches online? I would refer you to ask Naya https://nayacare.org/naya if you are going to do an internet search as a first step and as a second step, ask an IBCLC, your child’s pediatrician, or ask for a consult with BabyCare through our Contact Me page. It is a very common reason that many women stop breastfeeding before they have reached their goal due to perceived low milk supply, when in reality, they have a very normal milk supply.

I provide basic education via my Instagram account @babycarellc and on TikTok @babycare993. For other resources, I recommend

Healthy Children: American Academy of Pediatrics’ parent-facing resource on all things pediatrics.

FirstDroplet.com: this goes through initial latch, cup feeding, syringe feeding.

IABLE YouTube: https://youtube.com/@breastfeedingeducationbyiable?si=abU523dDkRR4M_Rq