How much is your baby eating daily (5 months)???

onaed

Right now my LO is eating 7 ounces of breastmilk 5 times a day (sometimes 4 based on his naps) and 3TB of cereal 2x a day. I am concerned about overfeeding him, but when I was feeding him 6 ounces he did not seem satisfied. 

Life was much easier BEFORE I went back to work, and he just stopped when he was full. However he's the type to keep eating what's in front of him, which has gotten me entirely too consumed with looking at the ounces on the bottle.

ALSO, he is a major spitter, but what you'd call a "happy spitter", so I just want to make sure it is not related to the amount of food he is consuming. (Given he was a spitter even before being bottle fed).

This has all just become "confusing to me" now that he started the cereal at the 4-month mark (he'll be 5 months next week), which also coincided with me going back to work and having to switch over to bottles.

Prior to this whole bottle and cereal business, he was already in the 95% percentile for height and 85% for weight, so he has always been a big boy.

Lalala2326

I really have no idea how much my daughter is eating because she is primarily breastfeeding, but I will say that 7 oz at a time for a breastfed baby is  A LOT. If you LO is a major spitter, that may be part of the reason. Most breastfed babies rarely ever get above a 4 oz bottle, and at 5 months are still eating 6-8 times a day (at least). If I were you, I'd try smaller bottles more frequently. He may be famished by the time he actually gets a bottle and guzzling it. Oz also rarely increase with feeding breastmilk only. Baby will average around 21-29 oz (an ounce every hour or so) until they start to decrease it with solids (usually around 9 months old).

princesslockness

My mostly BF baby is eating 4-6 bottles with one bottle having been switched out for applesauce. Each bottle is 4 or 6 oz.
If your LO is really worrying you, call your pedi.

tarheelgirl8

DD has three 5 ounce bottles of breastmilk per day and nurses 2 times per day. I assume she drinks about 5 ounces during each nursing but who knows? She's in the 90th percentile on height and 81st on weight. We haven't started cereal yet, so she's exclusively on breastmilk.

You could try cutting back a little and see if he still acts fussy and wants more. We upped DD from 4 to 5 ounces at about 3.5 months to see if getting more ounces during the day would help her sleep through the night. When it didn't change her sleeping, we went back to 4 ounce bottles for 2 days and daycare was quick to tell us that she had been very upset and fussy those two days and she was clearly still hungry. So back to 5 we went. All that to say, if you're concerned you're over feeding, I would try cutting back a little and he'll let you know if that's not ok.

jwittwer

DD ate 4 oz bottles every 3 hours while she was at daycare, so it was roughly 12 oz a day. She would nurse in the morning, when we got home, and before bed. Other than what I pumped, I don't know the exact amount that she ate when she fed from me.

Also, wouldn't this be better suited for LO's BMB?

psherman42wwsa

My LO is a big eater. He eats 5.5-6.5oz of breast milk 7-8 times a day (unless I'm home and I nurse, then obviously I have no clue how much he's eating) . Plus 2x a day he will eat a little bowl of cereal and or 1/2 a little jar of vegetable/fruit.  My LO consistently eats every 3 hours or less and still wakes up every 3 hours at night. He doesn't even seem chubby to me lol

KAR8706

LO is FF here but he eats 7oz every 4 hours and 1 jar of vegetable/fruit a day. He is a pretty healthy boy, was 17 pounds at last check up (4 months)

Edited: he sleeps all night, so no feeings then so a total of 28ish oz per day

Perfect Sonnet

I am surprised how many people are already doing fruit/veggie solids.  I haven't even thought about rice cereal it yet. 

My daughter is very plump, but eating significantly less than what others note above:  breastfed in AM, three 4-5 oz bottles at daycare, and breastfed in PM before bed.  She wakes up a couple times a night to eat...maybe more milk during the day would help this.

psherman42wwsa

Perfect Sonnet said:

I am surprised how many people are already doing fruit/veggie solids.  I haven't even thought about rice cereal it yet. 

My daughter is very plump, but eating significantly less than what others note above:  breastfed in AM, three 4-5 oz bottles at daycare, and breastfed in PM before bed.  She wakes up a couple times a night to eat...maybe more milk during the day would help this.

We started early because of reflux. Solid food has helped significantly.

KAR8706

Perfect Sonnet said:

I am surprised how many people are already doing fruit/veggie solids.  I haven't even thought about rice cereal it yet. 

My daughter is very plump, but eating significantly less than what others note above:  breastfed in AM, three 4-5 oz bottles at daycare, and breastfed in PM before bed.  She wakes up a couple times a night to eat...maybe more milk during the day would help this.

we started solids b/c LO was ready and his Pedi suggested it. Each baby is different but will let you know when they are interested in food.

KateDerek

My daughter is 5 months this week and she takes 4-5 ounces in bottles while she is away from me. We haven't started cereal and I don't think we will until 6 months. Although she is probably not as big of an eater as yours, I will say that she would drink a lot more from a bottle if it was offered, simply because BF babies can overfeed easily while given a bottle since it's so easy for them to get it out. I try to have our caregivers slow down and hold her upright (more paced feeding). Not that yours should be eating 4-5 ounces but, just a thought. My main reason for giving her 4-5 ounces is that is what I pump each session at work...so here ya go, kid! This is what you get.

My two boys were formula fed - eating patterns definitely depends on the kid. My first never got past 7 ounces that first year while my second slammed 8 ounces by 2 months. I started that one on solids earlier to help with the formula we were going through at lightning speed. He was, and still is, much more of an eater. They were both in the 90th percentile for height and weight but my second one was larger, 17 lbs at 4 months as opposed to my daughter who wasn't even 14 at her 4 month check.

Perfect Sonnet

KAR8706 said:

Perfect Sonnet said:

I am surprised how many people are already doing fruit/veggie solids.  I haven't even thought about rice cereal it yet. 

My daughter is very plump, but eating significantly less than what others note above:  breastfed in AM, three 4-5 oz bottles at daycare, and breastfed in PM before bed.  She wakes up a couple times a night to eat...maybe more milk during the day would help this.

we started solids b/c LO was ready and his Pedi suggested it. Each baby is different but will let you know when they are interested in food.

Yeah, this is my second so I understand that.  I guess everything seemed new and novel with my first (I think we started her on cereal when she was 4 months), but I am not in as much of a rush this time.  We w may skip cereal altogether and go straight to veggies and fruits and 6 months.

Sonadora

My LO will be 5 months next week. He eats 4-6 oz of breast milk 4x a day and one 6-7 oz bottle at bedtime and nurses once in the middle of the night. Sometimes I have to use 1-3 ounces of formula for the last feeding because I haven't pumped enough for him. He averages 28 oz a day, some days a few more, some days a few less.

onaed

jwittwer said:

DD ate 4 oz bottles every 3 hours while she was at daycare, so it was roughly 12 oz a day. She would nurse in the morning, when we got home, and before bed. Other than what I pumped, I don't know the exact amount that she ate when she fed from me.

Also, wouldn't this be better suited for LO's BMB?

@jwittwerHe was born in August, but will be 5 months on the 11th so figured it was easier to say 5 months than 4 months 3 weeks

Bickey11

My PED says 2-3oz per pound of baby, which means my lo should be eating 30-45 oz. But he's only getting about 28 most days usually 5-6, 4-5oz bottles. I worry because now that he sleeps thru the night occasionally he's eating less, yesterday he only got 25oz. But he seems happy, so who am I to judge? He gets 1tbsp of cereal in his bottles for reflux but no other solids he is 19 weeks.