Supplementation ?

Kriztyn

I am nursing through the day but am supplementing one night feeding with Similac Ready Made Supplementation 2oz bottles. When we were in the hospital they said only to give her 15ml... which was working out fine. Wondering what we should UP it to since I also had to nurse last night after my husband fed her the formula. Just don't want to overfeed.  She weighed in at 7lb, 3oz on Monday if that helps anyone figure out how much to give her. 

badbridey

According to my pedi, baby's stomach is 1/2 the size of their weight.  So if your baby is 7lbs, then their stomach holds about 3oz.  That's not to say they'll eat a whole three ounces at one sitting, but just to give you a frame of reference.  You probably will need to give more than one ounce to replace a whole feeding though.  We started supplementing  1-2 ounces after a nursing session with our twins when they were newborns (when they're still hungry), and the pedi said that as long as they're not spitting it up, then we're not overfeeding them.

Having said all that, I agree with pp that skipping a night nursing session could potentially negatively affect your supply.  I wish we didn't have to supplement, but both of our twins lost 13% of their body weight in the first couple of days because I wasn't producing enough.  I'm hopeful that we can stop supplementing, since lately dd hasn't needed to take the supplement at all, and ds has also started to skip his supplement after some feedings.

Kriztyn

She had jaundice in the beginning so told us to supplement. Milk has come in now so we're doing much better. Thank you for responding

jenni812

Sing2phins said:

Why are you supplementing at all?  If it's so that you can get sleep, that's no good - you need to pump every time LO gets a bottle so that you don't damage your supply.  I EBF, and the number of people who have told me, "Oh, just let DH give her a bottle so you can rest" is astronomical.  I have to get up anyway to pump if he's giving her a bottle, so I might as well just nurse.

Also, how old is your LO? 15 mL is only an ounce.  If you're going to supplement a full feeding, which is what it sounds like you're doing, she almost certainly needs more by now if she's more than a week or so old.

15 mL = 1/2 ounce

Aliki

Kriztyn said:

She had jaundice in the beginning so told us to supplement. Milk has come in now so we're doing much better. Thank you for responding

Great to hear that your milk has come in and she's gotten over jaundice, which is fairly common in newborns. If she is thriving and has no more issues, I would stop supplementing and NOT increase it at all! In fact, do away with it all together!