Many mothers worry the first few days after having had their baby because only colostrum comes out of the breast and in a small amount, surely thinking that from their breasts it should already be emanating milk as a source of a park.
Some poorly informed nurses do not seem to be very clear about how much babies have to eat in the first few days because I remember listening to a mother in a hospital in my city to tell a mother, after breastfeeding, that “ and now, as the milk will not go up until about three days from now, we give it a bottle ”(of this three years ago).
I say little informed because to understand how much a newborn should eat perhaps it would be interesting to know what is the stomach size of newborn babies. Knowing this sure that mothers will worry less, grandmothers will be calmer and nurses will skip the bottle of "until you have milk."
The size of the baby's stomach on the first day
Imagine a newborn baby and now try to mentally answer the question I ask you: What is the size of your stomach? Most likely, you are thinking of a stomach the volume of a small pear, or an apricot. The most daring will say that the size of a tennis ball.
Well, the first day, when the baby has just been born, his stomach is able to hold about 5 to 7 ml of milk, or what is the same, It has a stomach the size of a marble.
Not only is it really small, but in the first few days it is very inelastic and that is why at the beginning they eat very little (they cannot eat more, it does not fit them).
If you have succeeded, congratulations, if you have not done so, perhaps you would have succeeded in using logic. The amount of colostrum that leaves the breast of women is small, very small compared to what they will eat after a few days when they already drink milk.
It is little because the baby can't take anymoreThat is why it is absurd to tell a mother that her son is hungry because he is only taking colostrum. I wonder how we humans got here considering that in the past a nurse didn't come to tell you that the baby had to take a bottle because he was just taking colostrum.
If the babies' stomach size had been larger, or if they had needed something else to live, the women would secrete more colostrum and not just a few drops every few hours.
Nature is quite imperfect in many ways, but in this, not precisely, and that's why the baby asks for a little colostrum every two hours or less, to fill his marble of what is known by many people as "liquid gold", for its yellowish color and because it is an unquestionable contribution of nutrients and defenses for the baby (so much so that, when a woman has decided to bottle feed, there are many professionals They recommend that you at least offer colostrum to your baby.)
The size of the baby's stomach on the third day
I no longer need to ask you again what size do you think the baby's stomach will be on the third day, because you will probably be wrong again (this time you may fall short).
A baby's stomach grows rapidly in the first few days, reaching the third day to be the size of a ping-pong ball or the size of the baby's fist. Nor is it very large, because it amounts to about 22 to 27 ml of liquid, but it is about four times larger than two days ago and you will not deny me that it is a great growth.
It is possible that on the third day there is not much milk production by the mother and that it is at a point where the baby continues to drink colostrum and already drinks some milk (if he regurgitates, he quietly throws the volume of a spoon, but of yellowish color). This is logical, still needless, in view of the size of the stomach.
I suppose that with these data we are offering you you will also be understanding why babies eat so many times a day. If we adults eat about 3-5 times a day they can do it about 10 or 12 times. As many grandmothers eat so often they worry: "But baby, if you have eaten half an hour ago, you cannot be hungry again, you have no milk."
I do not say that they can not be right, because sometimes there are problems and if a child is very hungry it is logical to ask many times, but, in normal conditions, with a baby who is feeding well, it is usual that every hour and average, sometimes more, sometimes less, ask to eat.
The size of the baby's stomach on the tenth day
Toward on the tenth day the baby's stomach has continued to grow to a size similar to that of a large chicken egg. This amounts to about 60 to 81 ml capacity. About ten days later, women already secrete the so-called transition milk, having increased the volume on each teat, everything is still going well.
Mother and son understand each other: she produces more milk and the baby is increasing the size of her stomach to drink it. Or maybe it is the other way around, the size of the baby's stomach increases and the mother's body, who knows it, produces more milk to give her what she needs.
Magic? No, evolutionary logic
Explained in this way surely many will think it seems like magic. Certainly, the human body is a "machine" that works like a charm and it is incredible to discover the logic behind each mechanism and each process.
Starting with breast milk, which changes its composition according to the baby (if the baby is premature the milk is very different than if the baby is full term) and following what we have said today: at the beginning a baby does not need just food , but many defenses, and that is why nature gives him colostrum.
Then he begins to need more food, his stomach grows and the volume of milk the mother produces too. Everything is planned, all thought, so you don't have to worry much, but just breastfeed as the child demands.
Perhaps evolution did not take into account that some mothers would have little confidence in their ability to feed their child, that some grandmothers would believe that babies have to eat looking at a clock or that some nurses would think that a child would be healthier and more fed with a bottle that will leave it full.
