A breastfed baby at 3 months does not need additional food or liquid. At this age, it is necessary to supplement the baby's diet only if there are signs of intoxication or dehydration is confirmed. Three-month-old babies also do not need supplementary feeding. But old-school pediatricians recommend gradually introducing the baby to adult food as early as 3 months - giving juice, grated apple, egg yolk and always water. Hearing such appointments, young mothers are confused. After all, you want to give your baby only the best and not go wrong with the choice of nutritional principles.
The mother of a breastfed baby chooses the type of nutrition for her child. Often grandmothers and other advisers come to the rescue. Three-month-old babies are usually fed on demand or on a schedule.
- When feeding on demand, the baby determines the frequency of breastfeeding and the amount of food eaten. The mother offers the breast to the baby at the first squeak and does not take it away by force. This type of breastfeeding is welcomed by breastfeeding consultants and many modern pediatricians.
- With regimen feeding, the baby receives the breast at a strictly planned time. Mom sets breaks between attachments that are comfortable and correct in her opinion. Breastfeeding consultants believe that this type of nutrition is not suitable for breastfeeding babies and can lead to overfeeding or underfeeding and reduced lactation. But many pediatricians who have been practicing since Soviet times consider feeding according to a regimen convenient for the mother and beneficial for the baby’s gastrointestinal tract.
How often does he eat
The mother chooses the feeding regimen during breastfeeding. If a woman feeds her baby on demand, then the baby decides how often to breastfeed. The eating schedule in this case is not stable. The baby can suck a little and within half an hour will suck again. Or the baby will have prolonged sucking, after which he will not ask for the breast for several hours. This type of nutrition is considered ideal for children in the first six months of life.
With scheduled feeding, the baby receives food on schedule. The mother feeds the baby every 2-3 or 4 hours (depending on age). At the same time, the woman does not take into account the wishes of the child, but strictly observes breaks.
Night feedings
Night feedings greatly affect lactation. Sometimes women listen with envy to their neighbor’s stories about how her son Mishka, at 3 months old, eats porridge from a bottle and sleeps all night. But this path only leads to the cessation of breastfeeding and does not promise anything pleasant. If a woman wants to breastfeed, it is important to maintain nightly feeding. Even if the baby sleeps all night, he must be fed at least once in the period from 3 to 6 o'clock. At this time, the mother’s body produces prolactin, without which lactation will gradually fade away.
How much does he eat at a time?
Pediatricians with more than 30 years of experience will tell you exactly how much breast milk a healthy baby drinks in one feeding. In various sources you can even find exact tables and formulas for calculating the amount of food for an infant. But now these materials are considered obsolete. They are no longer taken as an ideal, since all children grow and develop in leaps and bounds and are not alike.
It is impossible to accurately calculate how much an infant eats at a time, since the volumes are always different. When feeding on demand, the baby can drink several milliliters or tens of times more in one feeding. In past decades, a check weighing test was still used to calculate the amount of milk consumed. But now it is also recognized as inaccurate.
Is it possible to give something to a 3 month old baby other than milk?
Pediatricians of the Soviet school recommend feeding a child from 3 months and starting with apple juice. In past years, this was relevant because women had to return to work early after childbirth. The infants were quickly transferred to bottles and given semolina porridge, juices and egg yolk mashed in milk. But now these recommendations are considered not only useless, but even harmful. Supplemental feeding at 3 months, if it is not an adapted mixture, can lead to digestive disorders, gastrointestinal diseases and cause a lack of nutrients. Suffice it to remember the dangers of iron or calcium deficiency with vitamin D.
Komarovsky in his statements expresses the opinion of the majority of modern pediatricians. A well-known doctor says that when breastfeeding, a healthy baby up to six months does not require additional food and liquid. You should only give water if you are dehydrated, and supplement with formula if your mother doesn’t have enough milk.
Komarovsky says:
— A breastfed baby absolutely does not need any supplementary feeding, provided that he does not have pathological fluid losses. In the first 6 months, the child should receive only the mother’s breast. WHO knows very well that if women are allowed to give water to their children, then a huge number of people who live in terrible conditions will begin to do this. Billions of families do not have access to quality drinking water. And it is children in the first year of life who are most sensitive to intestinal infections.
Approximate daily routine for a 3 month old baby
6:00 | feeding, washing, diaper changing |
7:00 — 9:30 | dream |
9:30 — 11:00 | feeding, wakefulness |
11:00 — 13:00 | sleep in the fresh air |
13:00 — 14:00 | feeding, wakefulness |
14:30 — 16:30 | dream |
16:30 — 18:30 | feeding, wakefulness |
18:30 — 19:30 | dream |
19:30 — 20:30 | bathing, quiet time and feeding |
20:30 — 6:00 | sleep with breaks for feedings |
This is an approximate daily routine for a baby in the third month of life. But for each child it may shift slightly, for example, some children sleep for a long time in the morning, but then stay awake longer, developing their motor skills.
Your sleep patterns may also shift for a while due to intestinal colic. It is important, even in such moments, to try to stick to the established schedule.
Nutrition
In the third month of life, the pediatrician may allow you to introduce your baby to new tastes. You can start giving your child diluted apple juice. To prevent a new product from causing digestive problems in the baby, it should be introduced in small doses. The first time it is enough to give the baby 5 drops of diluted juice on a spoon, and gradually increasing the volume day by day.
When introducing any new product, you should monitor the condition of the baby's skin and see if the quality of the baby's stool has changed. If your baby develops diarrhea or a rash breaks out on his skin, it is best to stop giving him juice.
Breast-feeding
Breastfed babies should ideally be attached to the breast 6-7 times, drinking 850 ml per day. mother's milk.
If you have not yet accustomed your baby to a schedule and are still feeding your baby on demand, it’s time to start retraining your baby and increasing the intervals between meals. In the third month of life they should be 3 hours.
With more frequent latching, the baby will have problems with digestion, and rashes are also possible, which mothers may mistake for an allergy. The fact is that with this regime, the baby will drink only “foremilk”, which is less nutritious in its composition. It is very sweet and can cause intestinal colic and indigestion. In addition, frequent feeding leads to the fact that the baby eats more milk per day than he should for his age. His intestines can't cope and it shows up as a rash.
Artificial feeding
For artificial babies, the number of feedings per day should also be six. Because formula takes longer to digest than milk, infants on IV will have longer intervals between meals—4 hours.
Artificial babies must be supplemented with water from a bottle, since the liquid they receive with the mixture is not enough for their body.
Features of feeding
A three-month-old baby should not receive any complementary foods. As with a newborn, the only nutrition is breast milk or an adapted milk formula appropriate for the age. Between meals, while awake, you can give your baby water.
The nuances of breastfeeding
Children on breastfeeding eat more often and digest food faster than artificial babies, so feeding and changing a diaper will take a lot of mom’s time. This must be taken into account when planning walks or trips to the clinic.
Growing baby begins to consume more breast milk
The nuances of artificial feeding
Much in the daily routine of a 3-month-old baby depends on the type of feeding. Breasts eat more often, and accordingly, the number of feedings during the day increases. Formula-fed babies, on the other hand, eat less frequently because formula milk takes longer to digest than breast milk.
Dream
Some children, already in the third month of life, are quite capable of sleeping all night, without even waking up for feeding. The nutrition that babies receive during the day and before bed is enough so that they do not feel hungry.
Uninterrupted night rest is important not only for the brain, but also for the baby’s intestines, so it is important to gradually wean him off eating at night. Try giving your baby water instead of feeding, petting him or offering him a pacifier. If this does not help, and the child cries and asks to eat, feed him.
In general, children in the third month sleep about 15 hours; during the day, babies rest 4 times for 1.5-2 hours. To avoid problems with putting your child to bed during daylight hours, you need to ensure that the baby’s periods of wakefulness are active and emotional. The baby needs to be entertained and developed during the day, until he is capricious and does not sleep.
The peak of activity should occur in the first half of the period of wakefulness; half an hour before bedtime you should switch to quiet activities.
- It will be better if the daytime nap takes place outside.
- To help your baby sleep, you can give him a pacifier.
- Many mothers play soft classical music, calm, pleasant melodies or recordings of nature sounds for their babies.
- Ritual also contributes to a peaceful sleep: you can read books to your child or gently stroke him before bed every day.
- Some children sleep more peacefully if a favorite toy is placed in their crib.
Bathing
- When your baby just wakes up, it is very important to wipe his face. To do this, you will need cotton wool (preferably a special swab or disk), which you will pre-moisten in boiled water at room temperature. Don’t forget to wipe not only your face in general, but also gently blot your eyes. It is important to wipe one eye with one cotton swab, and the other with the other. Don’t forget to pay attention to the ears (wipe behind them) and the nose (wipe under it too).
- After feeding procedures, it is important to wipe the baby’s face, removing any remaining food.
- The most important procedure is bathing; in most cases, young mothers choose the evening for this process.
And for my friend, swimming was a complete tragedy. She didn't like this procedure so much. And she decided for herself that it was better to bathe her son in the morning, while she still had the strength and energy to tinker with everything. Because by nightfall she was terribly tired and could no longer do anything. And I just bathed the baby four times a week. I hope that by switching to morning time, she still bathes her son every day.
- We must not forget that this procedure is daily.
- The use of baby soap or other products intended for bathing a toddler should be no more than three times a week. The rest of the time, it is enough to bathe the baby without special equipment.
- During water procedures, mother can use herbal decoctions, both anti-inflammatory and soothing.
- Don’t forget that the optimal water temperature when bathing your baby will be 36-37 degrees.
- Many experts still advise bathing to coincide with the time before bedtime. It will have a relaxing effect on your baby, even if you do not add special herbs. The child will fall asleep easier and faster. Although there are cases when a toddler, on the contrary, becomes more cheerful and cheerful after bathing. If this is your case, then it is better to postpone this process to the morning.
Walks
A child in the third month of life should spend as much time as possible outside. Depending on the weather, you should walk with your baby at least twice a day for two hours in the warm season, and for an hour in the cold.
In the third month, the baby’s body is already strong enough that he can walk at temperatures down to -15 degrees. Sleeping in cool air is very beneficial for infants, saturates their tissues with oxygen and strengthens the body's protective functions.
A child’s vision and hearing improve significantly in the third month of life, so walks with their mother allow them to explore the world. When the baby is not sleeping, talk to him, you can take the baby in your arms and show him around.
To ensure better sleep on the street, try to leave with your child away from noisy places. The baby's hearing is already quite developed, so the baby sleeps very lightly.
The baby is awake
It's time for active games and exercises for general development.
- Use rattles.
- Show your toddler his reflection in the mirror. You will be able to notice a smile on your child's face.
- Play peek-a-boo with your baby.
- Don't forget to read fairy tales, poems and just talk to your little one.
- You can now slowly draw your baby’s attention to the objects that surround you, and call everything by its proper name.
- A child at 3 months can already play with special bags of beads, while fiddling with them, developing fine motor skills.
Hygiene
- Continue to wash your baby every morning after waking up. Wipe the baby's eyes and ears with cotton pads soaked in boiled water;
- wash off any remaining milk or formula from your baby’s cheeks after feeding, since when they dry out, they cause irritation to the delicate baby skin;
- Some babies start to drool, so you need to stock up on cotton towels or handkerchiefs to wipe them off your baby's chin. If irritation does occur, you need to care for the inflamed areas with a healing cream;
- Since the baby’s hands are beginning to obey him, you can buy toys for the bath for evening baths.
Working with the baby
In the third month of life, the baby spends more time awake. Some babies do not sleep for a total of 8-9 hours a day, and mothers should spend this time wisely, devoting it to activities with infants that will help strengthen their muscles, develop their motor skills and learn about the world.
Gymnastics and massage
- Continue placing the baby on his tummy when he is awake. Now he can raise his head high and hold it like that for a while. The baby will arch his back, which will strengthen the muscles of the corset and prepare the baby’s body for the upcoming development of rollovers and the beginning of crawling.
- Massage for a baby in the third month of life still consists of light strokes.
- Fitball exercises will be very useful for strengthening a child’s muscles. Place the baby on the ball with his back and tummy up and rock him from side to side. Such simple exercises nevertheless very effectively develop the muscles of the baby.
- As soon as the baby’s muscles are sufficiently strengthened, you can work with your baby, helping him master flips. Gently pull the baby's arms while lying on his back, provoking him to turn onto his side.
- In the third month of life, exercises for flexion and extension of joints will be very useful.
Communication and games
A child at this age really likes to look at objects, grab them and put them in his mouth. There is no need to swear at the baby - this is how he learns about the world. To prevent your baby from catching an infection, surround him with clean objects that have been washed and properly processed.
- The baby will love being on the educational mat, looking at the bright details and feeling the toys of different textures.
- At home and on walks, constantly talk to your child, clearly or slightly simplified pronounce the names of animals and talk about what is happening around. Now a passive speech reserve is beginning to take shape; the baby will not soon be able to say his first conscious word, but he is already remembering and analyzing everything that happens.
- In the third month of life, the baby begins to experience more emotions. He greets loved ones with a smile, rejoices at the appearance of his mother in the room and reacts to your laughter and affectionate intonation. To ensure that your baby develops harmoniously and experiences positive emotions, avoid a harsh, irritated tone when communicating with him.
- Babies in their third month love to play with rattles. Kids grab them, hold them in their hands for a long time, shake them and listen carefully to the sounds.
- While reading books, you can show your child pictures and explain who is depicted in them, what color clothes the character is wearing, what sounds the drawn animals make.
- A baby in the third month will really enjoy playing hide and seek. You can cover your or your baby’s eyes with your hands, or hide the baby under a diaper.
We do massage and gymnastics
- It is important that these procedures accompany the child every day. They are necessary to get rid of hypertonicity in the muscles, which may still persist, as well as for the general strengthening of muscle mass and the proper development of the musculoskeletal system.
- You can either seek help from an experienced specialist or learn how to perform these simple manipulations on your own. At the clinic, the pediatrician can show what basic techniques should accompany gymnastics and massage of the baby.
For example, I was very worried about doing something wrong, I was afraid of harming my son. Therefore, I turned to a massage therapist for help. I managed to invite him to my house. Not only did he masterfully handle my little one’s body, but he also told me what he was doing and how he was doing it. So I was gradually able to figure out what, how and why to do.
- It is recommended to perform the procedures in the morning.
- Massage or gymnastics should take no more than 20 minutes.
- For a 3-month-old baby, rubbing is already acceptable.
- Don't forget to place the baby on your tummy. This will encourage him to turn onto his back. At this age, children should already be able to hold their head confidently. If you don’t have this yet, all the more you need to lay your little one on his tummy more often so that he tries to raise his head, thereby training his neck muscles.
Recommended reading:
- What should a 3 month old baby be able to do?
- What toys does a 3 month old baby need?
So you have become familiar with the approximate daily routine of a 3-month-old child. But don’t forget that every little one is unique. Therefore, this article is mostly for informational purposes. After reading it, you will be able to draw certain conclusions and make the right decision for yourself. Make your own schedule for your baby. And, if you are against any schedule, then at least do not forget to include all the necessary processes in the life of a baby at 3 months. After all, how your baby will grow and develop is now entirely up to you.