Feeding period - how to facilitate night feeding?

Feeding a baby is still controversial. It is clear that breast milk contains many valuable ingredients that have a positive effect on the baby's development, strengthening its immune system, although modern modified milk is still being improved and provides an alternative to breast milk in cases where the mother cannot breastfeed for medical reasons or simply does not want to breastfeed. No matter what decision you make, night-time feeding literally gives parents sleepless nights. If you are wondering how to make night-time breastfeeding easier, we invite you to read this article. We will tell you how to facilitate and survive this period.

The need for close contact

During the first few months of life, feeding a baby is very intensive. It is the only food a baby takes. It must be done regularly, according to the baby's needs: day and night. However, the need for close contact between an infant and its mother does not necessarily mean that a baby is hungry although both needs are indicated by crying. This is the only way for a newborn to communicate with the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to keep a close eye on a baby in order to prevent it from gaining weight too fast. The best solution is to be in constant contact with the midwife and clarify all doubts with her.

For several years now, more and more pediatricians and midwives have been suggesting feeding the baby "on demand", that is, when it is hungry. Usually, a baby signalizes hunger every 3-4 hours, but let us remember that each child is different. In addition, some babies may have a problem with sucking, and therefore may demand more frequent feeding. There is nothing wrong with this - just because you put your baby to the breast does not mean that he or she will "eat their fill". Remember that the sucking reflex, mother’s warmth and the beating of her heart calm the baby down and are simply necessary for a baby to function.

There is a view that babies fed with modified milk get a full night’s sleep. However, this is not confirmed - it all depends on a baby, so even if you use bottled milk, it may turn out that the baby wakes up at night and demands food. How to make this difficult time easier when a baby demands food every 2-3 hours without paying attention to the time of day?

Feeding a baby at night

Newborns do not yet know the rhythm of an adults’ day. They are just learning it - they do not know what night is and what day is. That is why the first months of an infant’s life can be frustrating, and a mother can all the time undersleep because of constant waking up. Whether a mother is breastfeeding or preparing a mixture of modified milk, getting up to baby, taking it out of a cot, feeding, lulling and putting it back to the cot are difficult and often tiring for a young mother.

More and more young mothers, wanting to make night-time feeding easier, choose to sleep with their babies. This choice means that a mother does not have to get up at night to feed her newborn. Some people, however, are afraid of sleeping with an infant because babies are very fragile. Some parents also want to have their bed space. In addition, in the next months of life, the little one starts to wriggle and kick parents, interrupting their sleep and causing frustration.

In such a situation, travel cots are useful. These are special cots, which are attached to the parents’ bed. They are usually fixed with long belts, like the NESTE UP cot, so there is no risk of the cot moving away from the parents’ bed at night. The travel cots are also universal - they have several levels of height adjustment for the mattress, making it easier to fit into the parents’ bed. An example of such a cot is the UNO UP travel cot.

A travel cot is a good solution for every mom who feeds a baby with bottled milk or a breast. Thanks to that, a newborn will gain his or her space and during the night feeding a mother does not have to get up. This solution is considered by many young parents a great convenience at night when a new family member appears in the world.

Not only feeding

Sleeping close to a mother not only makes feeding easier, it is also very important for the little one - it builds up the closeness and gives a baby a sense of security. We should remember that the rhythm of a baby's sleep, especially in the first weeks of its life, is very different from that of adults. Babies wake up more easily, which is related to the fact that a significant part of sleep (sleep specialists claim that it is even 80%) falls on the active sleep phase, called the REM phase. During this time, the baby's brain is very active and therefore reacts much more strongly to stimuli that come from outside. It is also noted that the feeling of closeness with parents allows of the proper functioning of neurotransmitters, so the proper development of the nervous system. Thanks to this closeness, the correct levels of serotonin (responsible for mood), dopamine (responsible for mobility and joy), norepinephrine (responsible for energy) and acetylcholine (responsible for memory) are maintained.

A travel cot - what are the advantages?

Travel cots have many advantages. First of all, they are adjustable, making it easy to fit into the patents’ bed. In addition, some of them are multifunctional - they can be used as independent baby cots or can be taken with you on a journey if necessary. The lowered sidewall is often secured with additional material, and in some models, such as NESTE AIR, all sidewalls are made of mesh - such cots are ideal for hot weather and work well in warmer climates. Some of them also give a possibility to adjust an inclination of the mattress - this is especially useful when your baby has a running nose and breathes harder at night. We would like to remind you that cushions are not recommended for newborns- however, adjusting the mattress will allow you to lift the whole body of a baby a little bit, so that it does not lie flat and can breathe much easier during illness.

The automatic adjustment of the feet to the frame of the parents’ bed is also new - this makes it even easier to adjust a travel cot to different beds. But most importantly, their biggest advantage is that you don't have to get up at night to feed your baby. When a newborn needs the closeness of a parent or just simply start crying at night, mom or dad can hug it instead of getting up and going to the other side of the room.

A travel cot - is it worth it?

Definitely yes. If you are preparing for the birth of a baby or you have just welcomed your little one into the world and want to take care of both your quality of sleep and the closeness that your baby needs, buying a travel cot is definitely worth considering.