by Michelle Tuesday

Created on: December 03, 2009   Last Updated: December 05, 2009

You know your baby needs food to survive, grow, and be healthy. And the hospital probably gave you a feeding schedule to start out with. But over time, that feeding schedule needs to grow with your baby. Also, food intake requirements can depend greatly on the metabolism of the child. Infants cannot communicate their needs verbally, so how do you know if your infant is eating enough?

1. Weight Gain

First and foremost, healthy babies gain weight. Weight gain is subjective, and recommendations vary by doctor, so talk to your pediatrician about how much your baby should be gaining. But generally speaking, if your baby is maintaining a stable weight, she is not eating enough. If you are checking your infant's weight regularly, make sure you use the same scale. Some doctors and hospitals allow you to use their scales for free to check your baby's weight. Measure her weight and record it in a log, so you can see overall trends in weight gain, and so that you can provide the information to your pediatrician during her check-up. Ideally, you should be checking her weight every day.

2. Infant Communication

Although your baby cannot verbally tell you what she needs, she has other ways of communicating with you. If she cries, but then stops crying when you feed her, she was probably hungry. If she searching for a nipple, or if she tries to put fingers or pacifiers in her mouth and is upset when nothing comes out, that is a sign that your baby is hungry. Try paying attention to the gestures and sounds your baby makes, and notice when feeding seems to solve her problem.

3. Counting Output

What goes in must come out! Although your baby retains energy and nutrients that she gets from her food, she still has to expel waste. Most doctors recommend at least eight wet and four stool diapers per day, at least for the first couple of weeks. After that, it varies by the child and the opinion of the doctor, especially after the child begins eating solid food. One stool per day is a typical recommendation, but many doctors are unconcerned if the child goes several days without a bowel movement.

You can use infant communication and output counting as tools to monitor your child's feeding needs from day to day. But ultimately, the true test of feeding adequacy is weight gain. So long as your baby is gaining weight at a healthy rate, you are feeding her enough.

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