Amount of Milk per Feeding?

Anjel_9@hotmail.com · May 2013

I breastfeed my 14-week old, and she takes bottles of expressed breastmilk while I am at work. So far she has not had any issues switching back and forth from breast to bottle. I alternate breasts, and she usually eats for 20-30 minutes at a time. I'll offer the other breast, but she usually falls asleep and is uninterested. For the past few weeks she's been content with 4.5-5 ounces at a time when bottle-fed. This week she's been asking for more, one day she took 6 ounces, and another day she took 8! I know that there are growth spurts, and maybe this is one.. but I'm wondering how much expressed milk other babies her age are taking at a time. She's about 13 pounds. I keep reading on KellyMom and other websites that breastfed babies aren't really supposed to increase their milk intake between 1-6 months because their rate of growth slows, but that doesn't seem to be the case for my girl!

cmhicklin · May 2013

DS is eating 4oz when he gets a bottle. Today though, he has wanted a little more (maybe another 1/2oz). 8 oz does seem like a lot, but I guess it could be a growth spurt.

kjsmith9 · May 2013

DD started daycare with 3oz at 9 weeks. We moved her to 3.5oz around 16 weeks and she's still content with that at 23 weeks old. How many total ounces is she eating while you're away? DD eats about every 2 hours and isn't really showing signs of spacing her bottles out. She eats 4 bottles at daycare, so 14oz between 7am and 330pm.

kjsmith9 · May 2013

Also, kellymom has some good print outs about how to properly bottle feed a breastfed baby. I had to take this to daycare and have them read it because they were basically dumping milk down her throat and not pacing her at all. She seemed hungry because her stomach didn't have time to tell her brain it was full. Since they read that info, no more complaints of her needing bigger bottles.

tortuga47 · May 2013

Kelly mom is great (and I reference it a TON!), but all babies require different things. My DS sometimes takes 7 oz at a time in a bottle of expressed milk and he is in the 0 percentile of weight. He eats like a horse and I'm lectured every doctor's visit how I must not feed him enough. He just has a very high metabolism. When I read on their site 4 oz is average, I knew for my son, that just wasn't the ticket. He always drinks at least 5-6 oz, and I assume he takes the same amount from the breast because when I pump I get about 6 oz per breast (more if I'm engorged in the morning) and it feels the same after he feeds or I pump. He eats on demand every 2-3 hrs except at night when I get a longer stretch. I'd suggest at PP said, read how to properly bottle feed expressed milk and if you LO is still eating that much, she may just require it right now for a growth spurt, or she has a higher metabolism.

kjsmith9 · May 2013

tortuga47:
Kelly mom is great and I reference it a TON!, but all babies require different things. My DS sometimes takes 7 oz at a time in a bottle of expressed milk and he is in the 0 percentile of weight. He eats like a horse and I'm lectured every doctor's visit how I must not feed him enough. He just has a very high metabolism. When I read on their site 4 oz is average, I knew for my son, that just wasn't the ticket. He always drinks at least 56 oz, and I assume he takes the same amount from the breast because when I pump I get about 6 oz per breast more if I'm engorged in the morning and it feels the same after he feeds or I pump. He eats on demand every 23 hrs except at night when I get a longer stretch. I'd suggest at PP said, read how to properly bottle feed expressed milk and if you LO is still eating that much, she may just require it right now for a growth spurt, or she has a higher metabolism.

I totally agree. I wasn't suggesting that your LO should eat smaller bottles just because mine does. I've actually tried to get her to take a 4oz bottle a few times in an attempt to space her feedings and she just won't eat it all!

vcrown · May 2013

Both of my girls were about 1oz more than the number of months they were old (give or take a bit). So at 2 months, they were eating 3oz at a time, 3 months eating 4, etc. The Dr said that was about normal and we noticed it stayed true for quite a few months with them both.

tortuga47 · May 2013

kjsmith9:
tortuga47:
Kelly mom is great and I reference it a TON!, but all babies require different things. My DS sometimes takes 7 oz at a time in a bottle of expressed milk and he is in the 0 percentile of weight. He eats like a horse and I'm lectured every doctor's visit how I must not feed him enough. He just has a very high metabolism. When I read on their site 4 oz is average, I knew for my son, that just wasn't the ticket. He always drinks at least 56 oz, and I assume he takes the same amount from the breast because when I pump I get about 6 oz per breast more if I'm engorged in the morning and it feels the same after he feeds or I pump. He eats on demand every 23 hrs except at night when I get a longer stretch. I'd suggest at PP said, read how to properly bottle feed expressed milk and if you LO is still eating that much, she may just require it right now for a growth spurt, or she has a higher metabolism.
I totally agree. I wasn't suggesting that your LO should eat smaller bottles just because mine does. I've actually tried to get her to take a 4oz bottle a few times in an attempt to space her feedings and she just won't eat it all!

Oh no! No offense taken at all I didn't mean to imply that in any way I was saying all kids are different so for her not to get overly concerned if he LO took more or less at certain times.

Anjel_9@hotmail.com · May 2013

Thanks so much for the responses. I did think that the bottle-feeding guide from KellyMom was very helpful and made my husband read it!

Want a personalized experience?

Amount of Milk per Feeding?

Re: Amount of Milk per Feeding?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards