Your baby and responsive feeding – advice from Lucy Upton, Paediatric Dietician and Feeding Therapist

How much a baby or child is feeding, eating or drinking can be a big source of anxiety or worry for parents. It can be easy to get caught up with totting up milk feeds, volumes in bottles and comparing portion sizes when you start solids. Whether a baby is ‘getting enough’ is something that most parents worry about at some point in the early years. 

What is responsive feeding?  

While there seems to be endless guidance or recommendations out there for measures, such as the number of feeds or recommended volumes, the best gauge of how much your baby needs can be taken from them. An approach called 'responsive feeding' could come in useful, in the early days and beyond. 

Responsive feeding is considered to have many benefits. These include supporting children's health and development, wellbeing and long-term feeding habits. The term describes a way of feeding (encouraged by the World Health Organization) which involves: 

• Understanding and then responding to your baby’s cues (their communication to you) around feeding, for example, when they are hungry and when they are full. 
• Understanding feeding is about more than just nutrition. Feeding also builds attachment, attunement, comfort, love, reassurance, patience and trust. 
• Establishing and nurturing a positive, shared interaction between you and your baby when feeding or during mealtimes. 
• Trusting your baby’s appetite and ability to self-regulate, for example, starting and stopping feeding by listening to what their body needs (internal cues). 

Feeding responsively – milk feeds  

The amounts of milk and frequency your baby feeds will vary during the first 12 months of life. Understanding when your baby is hungry (don’t you wish they could just tell you?!) and feeding them before they become too upset is key to responsive feeding. Your baby will let you know they are hungry with sounds, movements and behaviours. 

Newborn and young baby feeding cues 

Early hunger cues: “I’m hungry” 

• Stirring 
• Mouth opening and closing 
• Rooting 
• Turning head 
• Sucking or smacking lips 

Mid cues: “I’m very hungry” 

• Increased movement and wiggling 
• Stretching 
• Hand to mouth/hand sucking 
• Nipple dive 
• Fist clenching 
• Headbutting or bobbing towards chest 
• Rooting with mouth wide open 

Late cues: “I need calming before you feed me” 

• Crying, which often increases in intensity 
• Turning red 
• Becoming distressed 
• Agitated  

Signs your baby is full include: 

• Releasing or ‘falling off’ the breast or bottle 
• Turning or pulling away from breast or bottle 
• Pace of feeding slows considerably 
• Body relaxing, releasing of fists 

For formula-fed babies, remember the amounts of milk recommended on the tins and timings are just guidance and an average. All babies will have slightly different volumes, and your baby doesn’t have to meet these volumes to be healthy. Babies can grow healthily on different centiles, meaning babies of exactly the same age will manage different amounts of milk based on what their bodies need. 

A general guide to how often babies will feed during the first six months can be found here, but remember this can be hugely variable from baby to baby and depending on feeding method. 

• Newborns: feed 2-3 hourly (8-12 feeds a day) – cluster feeding (when your baby wants to feed even more frequently), especially if breastfeeding, is common at this stage 
• 1-5months: 3-4 hourly (6-8 feeds a day) 
• 6 months +: ~4 hourly, with longer gaps occurring between some feeds 

We hope you find Lucy’s advice helpful. If you’re concerned about your baby’s feeding, speak to your health visitor or another professional who’s working with your family.