21/10/2025
☹️Slow weight gain? Switch breasts!
Switch feeding is the easy way to get babies more calories and part of the first line treatment for slow weight gain!
What do we mean by switch feeding?
🤱We mean offering baby one breast, watching for good swallowing, when good swallowing no longer is happening, using breast compressions (a post for another day) to help them swallow more and when they stop working switch breasts. And repeat. Most babies take each breast 2-3 times in a feed.
How does this work?
Milk is only available to the baby when it is ‘let down’ ie released ready to drink
Between letdowns only a small amount of milk is available to the baby
😴Babies who are gaining slowly usually drink well initially and then fall asleep or get fussy, there is a long time between letdowns so they get a lot of milk for a short time and then no more. They often feed all the time or very frequently.
If we watch these babies we can help them out. When they’ve drunk most of the milk in that first let down and are sucking but not swallowing and getting sleepy we can use compressions to release more milk for them.
When compressions stop working, we switch breasts to the other side and they get a new letdown of milk and we repeat. It’s still not likely enough so we switch back for another let down and repeat for as long as baby is happy and drinking. 😛
Babies love flow when the milk flows they’re happy and drink well. When it’s slow they’re sleepy or fussy. 🥰
What about hindmilk?
Hindmilk is a bit of a myth. The milk gets fattier through a feed and a baby who stays on a breast drinking well for a long time will get a drink, soup, dinner, pudding and cheese and biscuits at the end.
Babies who are gaining slowly though tend to have a drink and sip of soup and fall asleep. The longer and more actively we can keep them feeding and the higher volume of milk they get, the more fat we’ll get them. If your baby is drinking well don’t switch breasts. If they stop drinking well use compressions , when compressions stop working switch breasts.
This very simple method usually gets babies growing well and drinking more and pretty soon it’s no longer needed (if it is, you need more help!)
So slow gaining baby, start switching and get them more milk
