Infants do not grow at a uniform rate. Most babies go through multiple growth spurts in their first year. After each fierce period, you may find that your baby’s cute outfit has gotten smaller overnight. You feel right! Do you remember when your child was a tiny baby and you were convinced that his legs or body had grown overnight while your baby slept? Growth spurts, or periods of rapid height and weight gain, are most noticeable in the first year of life and during puberty, when your child grows a lot in a short period of time. However, growth spurts can occur at other times as well, they are just not as pronounced. The growth spurt will happen regardless of how the baby is fed. Some books will tell you that the growth spurt occurs during certain weeks. In fact, the growth spurt can start at any time. When does an infant experience the growth spurt? Generally speaking, the growth spurt begins around the fourth day of life, 7 to 10 days, 2 to 3 weeks, 4 to 6 weeks, 3 months, 4 months, 6 months, and 9 months. There will be errors before and after. Babies don’t look at the calendar, so your baby may not be quite the same. The masturbation period continues after the first year of life, and many mothers find that it occurs every few months into the toddler years, and even intermittently into adolescence. How long does it last? The fulminant phase usually lasts 2 to 3 days, sometimes up to a week. What is the masturbation period? During the fulminant period, breastfed infants nurse more frequently than usual (sometimes often every hour) and are more irritable than usual. The amount of milk consumed by the infant will increase suddenly during the fierce period, but this is only in stages. In exclusively breastfed infants, milk intake continues to increase rapidly during the first few weeks of life. In addition to growth in height and weight, behavioral developments can also cause infants to need more milk. For example, rolling over, crawling, walking or talking. And breast milk provides the nutrition for body and brain development. Signs of a fierce growth spurt Babies take milk almost non-stop; wake up more often at night; keep taking the nipple on and pulling away while breastfeeding, and are very irritable. Here are some signs that your baby is experiencing a growth spurt: Your baby may seem hungrier than usual, or may eat more at one meal. Your baby may be taking longer naps than usual or sleeping longer at night. Your baby may be more irritable or clingy than usual, even if he is not sick. All of these signs are telling your baby’s body to “produce more milk!” Our bodies are sensitive to these signals if we respond to our baby’s requests in a timely manner. These extra nursing sessions will stimulate the body to produce more milk. The following phenomena often occur after a long period: 1) the baby will sleep extra for a day or two; 2) the mother will feel a slight increase in milk; 3) the baby will calm down when she gets milk. New mothers are often caught off guard by the surge period. Just when they think they are starting to understand their baby’s signals, suddenly everything changes. The frequent need to nurse and the high frequency of the lactation period in the first few months can be confusing for mothers. The key to combating this is to completely and simply nurse on demand! If you respond to your baby’s signals and don’t interfere in any way, your body will respond quickly and increase supply, usually adjusting within 24 to 48 hours. Sometimes the fierce prolonged period seems to drag on for a week. At this point just make sure you are drinking enough water. Don’t let the prolonged period interfere with your confidence in breastfeeding. On the contrary, it will encourage you to better understand your baby’s needs. Your confidence will be stronger when you see your milk supply grow and your baby quiet down to become a happy breastfeeding baby. A smart mom knows that her baby knows best what ta needs for herself, all we have to do is listen carefully.