6 week old Feeding question

StLerin

My son is 6 weeks old. I am currently pumping as well as supplementing at night with formula due to a low supply. I have in the past few day bumped up his bottles from 4 to 5 oz every 4 hours to 6 oz at a time. He was always still hungry at the end of each bottle. He seems to be doing fine with the 6 oz but will now go anywhere from 5 to 7 hours in between feedings. I feel like he does just as fine with this as he did with any other feeding schedule but I keep reading that he should be still on the 4 to 5 oz every 3 to 4 hours. Any thoughts? He was 6.11 pounds when he was born and was 8 pounds 2 weeks ago. Any thoughts? I'm worried that I'm doing this all wrong :

aimkins

Our Pediatrician told us that a good guideline is .5oz per lb that LO weighs at each feeding.  I've been going with that as a measurement.  I certainly don't force LO to eat that much, but I make that much in a bottle and let her drink as much as she wants.  She was recently weight at 10lbs, but she's not consistently drinking 5oz at each feeding, especially since she's been sick the last week or so. 

 I'd say if your LO is doing fine with 6oz every 5-7hrs, keep at it.  You could ask your Pediatrician at your LOs 2 month well check. 

StLerin

Thanks for the input. We go next week to the pediatrician and I will defiantly discuss it with her.

pitterpatter129

That seems like a lot of breastmilk, but fine for formula.  It's hard when yolu have to do both.  Breastmilk naturally increases calories by itself, so you don't need to increase volume.  My DS1 never (in 19 months that he bf) took more than a 4 oz bottle.  Formula, however, has a stagnant amount of calories per ounce, so you do increase the volume you feed.  I would give less or more depending on what the bulk of the food is - breastmilk or formula?  If he's only getting one formula bottle per day for example, then I wouldn't make ot a big bottle because his tummy will stretch and think all bottles should be that big, leaving you a pumping nightmare.  But if he's getting mostly formula, then pumping one big bottle wouldn't be as big of a deal.