My husband and I just introduced a bottle using a slow nipple to our 2 1/2 week old yesterday. He managed to feed her 3 oz without a problem and she probably would have taken more, but we didn't offer. When she nurses, she is taking in about 2.5oz at each feeding. I've read that babies may overdo it when drinking from a bottle. She never pushes away from the breast (just gets disinterested) and didn't push away from the bottle. I just want to make sure we aren't feeding her too much or too little. Any ideas on what a 7lb 12oz baby should be taking in at a feeding and whether or not she will let him know that she is 'done'? We plan to have him give her bottled breastmilk every other night, so we can take turns getting some sleep!
I should mention that my estimate of how much she is nursing at each feeding (~2.5 oz) comes from weighing her before and after nursing at a local breastfeeding support group. Also, I do plan to pump when my husband gives her a bottle during the night -- a 10-20 min pumping session for me is much quicker than the 1-1.5 hour long feeding!
hi I bottle fed breastmilk to my daughter from birth (she couldnt latch on) at 2 weeks i was giving my daughter 2 oz a feeding. good luck
You let them eat as much as they want out of the bottle, don't limit it you will teach them it will end and they will eat faster next time. You don't want them to choke. You can weight them to get an estimate but it's not going to be exactly right.
congratulations on a precious new baby! i absolutely loved those first few weeks, as hard as they were!
definitely make sure you're using slow-flow nipples. we used medela, but even their slow-flow seemed too fast for a brand-new newborn. you may have to try a few different nipples to get the right fit. but 2 to 3 ounces sounds about right.
Hi there,
I really recommend you check out www.kellymom.com. It will give you info on how a baby drinks from a bottle vs. how a baby drinks from the breast. It has very helpful info about the best way to feed a breastfed baby from a bottle, and how to determine the amount. It's an excellent source for information.
I also have to recommend the website www.fulltimemoms.yuku.com. It's not exclusively for breastfeeding, but the owner of the site is a wealth of information and she has a link directly for breastfeeding.
Good luck! Hope you're getting enough sleep!
I truely believe that a baby will eat what she needs. There is a minimum amount that the baby should eat (your pediatrician can help you with this) but after having three super healthy and completely diverse kids (in terms of size), babies should eat until they are full. All of my kids were huge eaters and drinkers (breast and bottle). One of the nurses told me that my middle child was tending to be overweight!! I ignored her advice. She is now 10 years old and only weighs 52 lbs. (that is VERY small). Use your instinct. If your daughter seems hungry, then she probably is.
As they get older, in my opinion, that is when you need to watch what they eat and how much. Not when they are newborns
Children that age are eating about 2 1/2 to 3 ounces at a time. However, that will change in this next month. So keep that in mind. You are doing things right. Don't worry. As long as your child is full and content after a feeding you are good. If she is still very hungry or cranky consider making it 3 ounces. try mother's milk tea to boost your production if that is the issue.
Congrats on your baby and for being successful with breastfeeding! There really isn't any way of tracking how much a baby consumes while nursing, but 2-3 oz sounds right. My son was breastfed for 10 wks and he was drinking 2 oz each time (I would get more than that when I pumped though because I produced more milk than he consumed). Now at 6 months he only drinks 4 oz at a time (he's on formula now).
As L. as she is gaining weight and developing appropriately, there is no need to stress over how much a baby is or isn't eating.
Not sure about your quantities, but if she seems content after the bottle, she's probably fine. One feeding every other night from a bottle shouldn't mess up your milk and her sleep, anyway. Just wanted to point out that 1-1.5 hour feedings will change...she's still pretty young and learning to feed and swallow. Give her some time and she'll get better at it. My trick to help shorten those feeding was also not to let them linger on the breast (esp when they are awake, during the day). But the feedings will get shorter!
Hi L.,
Congrats on your new baby.
When my first son was born, I had to go back to work (military) when he was six weeks old, and his bottles (that I pumped) were always 4oz.
I was wondering if you were estimating how much she nurses? I bet she's getting a lot more at each feeding than you think. Baby's are far more efficient at suckling than a breast pump is. You can't base your assumption of how much she's getting on how long it takes you to pump. The only way you can know how much she's gotten is if she happens to throw up afterward (sounds gross, but it's just what both of my sons did, they gorged until they couldn't hold any more, yaked, then ate again. :) I would bet that your daughter is getting between 3 1/2 and 4oz per nursing session, which is about right. Every baby is different, but she should be fine if her bottle feedings are somewhere in the 3-4oz range.
Don't sweat it, she'll let you know when she wants more :) They always do!
kellymom.com has good information. My daughter will stop sucking and just kind of let it fall out when she's "done" with a bottle. You shouldn't force a baby to finish a bottle, so if she's not interested, then I'd stop. If you know she takes in about 2.5 oz, then I'd only give her that much in a bottle and see how satisfied she is. My daughter (almost 4 months) just recently went up to 4 oz on average. For a long time she was still happy with 3 oz bottles. You can always heat more if she's really unhappy. Sometimes with my baby it wasn't that she was more hungry, but that she was looking for comfort and a pacifier, patting her back or rocking her did just fine. And remember to burp her really well. Bottles tend to give my daughter more gas because they allow more air.
