Advice about feeding schedule
Socialworkgirl
member
So, DD has been eating about every 3 hours during the day for several months. Then she will take a full bottle right before bed regardless of how long ago she ate. This works out to 5 feedings during the day. For a couple weeks she has been drinking 6-7 oz of breast milk in all her bottles (I EP). About 60-75% of the time, she would wake up in the middle of the night and take about 3-4 oz.
Lately, for the last several days, she has been waking up between 4:30 and 5:30 and seems to want a full bottle (6oz). Sometimes she will go back to sleep pretty easily after this bottle sometimes not. So, if she eats every 3 hours, she would eat 6 times which would be 36-40oz of breastmilk a day which I think is more than she really needs. My thought is to push it to every 3.5 hours, and only feed her 5 times but do 6.5-7oz at each feeding. She hasn't really shown strong hunger signs since she was a newborn but will eat a full bottle pretty much whenever I feed her. We just started solids this week and we are doing about 1oz of pur?e once per day, usually between her afternoon feedings.
Does going to 5 feedings per day seem to make sense? TIA!
Re: Advice about feeding schedule
Honestly, 6-7 oz of BM is a lot for a BF baby, and according to kellymom.com she should be eating 19 - 30 oz of BM a day.
My DD never went past a 4oz bottle (unless daycare was overfeeding her which we had to correct) and my 20lb 6 month old does not eat more than a 5oz bottle. Personally, I would probably stick to the 3 hour schedule for now, but with 5 oz bottles. Unless there is a weight problem, that is a lot of BM. I would check out kellymom.com for additional resources.
I EP and my son is 7 months old. He eats 7 bottles a day with 5 oz of breastmilk. He eats every 2 hours during the day, but sleeps from 6 pm to 6/7 am. Breastmilk digests every 2-3 hours, so I am not sure that feeding your baby more would increase the time between feedings.
We had to increase from 4 oz to 5 oz when he was 5 months old because he started screaming after his bottles and was not seeming satisfied. We thought this would increase the time between feedings, but he still eats every two hours.
I asked our doctor about it and she said that some babies do eat 5 or 6 oz bottles of breastmilk, but that anything more than 6 ounces was too much.
He eats 35 ounces a day. I saw on Kelly mom that most babies eat 20-30 too and only 4 ounce bottles, but my doctors said every baby is different.
Hope this helps!
Ours eats 4 oz bottles at 7 months. 12 oz at daycare and probably about 15 oz at home with me (nursing)... I have never known an infant to have more than 4-5 oz of breastmilk per feeding, unless it's the first feeding of the day after sleeping through the night (prob about 8 oz then).
Maybe try adding some oatmeal or rice cereal mixed with some of the milk, to fill baby up?
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I agree! Dont count ounces. My LO is EBF, he eats on demand, sometimes he still cluster feeds so he is taking in more milk some days then others. Just follow your LO's cues. Good luck!