Newborns are fascinating little creatures. Here's one of the amazing (and weird) things about them.
I was a bit nervous about how breastfeeding would go, especially in the first few days. It's one of those things I felt like I couldn't really prepare for. I was worried my baby wouldn't be able to latch and then would starve...Then one of my doctors told me this weird (and strangely reassuring) little factoid:
Babies are born with something called brown fat. It's the same thing bears have in their bodies that allows them to hibernate (true story). As humans, we only have brown fat for the first few days of our lives and then never again. Since a woman's milk doesn't come in right away after giving birth, nature has given newborns extra fuel to burn in those early days. In fact, babies can basically live off just that fat for two or three days.
It's like nature is saying "it's ok if you need some time to get this nursing thing going. This baby is going to be just fine."
Crazy, eh?
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