How much does she need?

Palmer will be 2 weeks old on Friday and is fully formula fed.

How much "should" she be taking each feed? In hospital the midwife told me that at 5 days old she should be drinking 80mls each feed. What about now?

Today the 'routine' has gone right out the window and more often than not she falls asleep on the bottle...do you think she is sucking too hard and tiring herself out and might benefit from a slightly faster teat?

How do you tell that they need a faster teat anyway???

Either this is confusing, or I'm really stupid :redface:

Ok teat first. If you flip the bottle upside down there should be a steady drip from the teat, not a flow, but a drip ... I'll say for a new-born 1 or 2 drips per second. LAAATER on, I personally wait till they can sit up and drink in the upright position, you can make the teat's hole a bit bigger ... can you imagine laying down and trying to swallow if the flow is to fast?

Then most newborns will fall asleep on the bottle, it's tiring but you don't need to be concerned about that. If she is drinking her feed and falling asleep near the end, you can pat yourself on the back ... you have a happy baby with a full tum :) You can start to worry when you can't wake her enough to feed, meaning that you have skipped a feed and are still struggeling to get her to drink.

My health nurse told me that I should begin at the lowest volume of formula ( I started at 75 ml per feed ) and if he drinks all his bottles empty each time, I can increase the feed with 25ml, till he drinks all his bottles then increase again .. get it? Currently I'm at 175ml of water, so around 200ml of formula and although the tin says that he should be getting 200ml of water + formula .. he is happy and content and not finishing his bottles. So I'm happy that he is getting what he needs.

Also check the nappies 8 - 10 nice soggy nappies per day is perfect.

And no, you are not stupid, just a first time mommy .... we are here to help. :)

falling asleep whilst feeding from a bottle is a good indicator shes had enough. I dont know how much DD was having at 2 weeks as she was BF but i do remember expressing around that time and it would be 60-80 mls. Ide stick with the 80 mls, and let her decide when shes hungry. Ive forgotten how they work it out by weight... ill find it for u.

U wont need to change the teat unless u think shes struggling getting it out, so cheeks sucked it, squirmish etc.

ill find that info and brb

hopefully this will help...


One of the most confusing things about feeding your baby formula milk is trying to work out how much to feed him. And there's no single answer - it depends on your baby's age, weight, and whether you're feeding him only formula, or using it in combination with breastmilk or solids. Here are a few pointers to help you decide how much your baby needs:


Multiply your baby's weight by 2.5 - 2.7 ounces of formula


If your baby isn't eating any solids (the recommended age for starting solids is six months), the general rule of thumb for formula amounts is 2.5 - 2.7 ounces (oz) per pound (lb) of body weight. So if your baby weighs 6lb, he should consume about 15 or 16oz of formula in a 24-hour period. If he weighs 10lb, he should have roughly 25 - 27oz in a 24-hour period.
Please note; this rule of thumb doesn't really work with metric measures.

Please bear in mind that these are rough guidelines, and your health visitor will be able to advise you on the right amount of formula for your baby as he grows. Also, these guidelines don't apply to premature babies or babies with a low birth weight - again, ask your health visitor for advice if your baby falls into one of these two groups.


Consider your baby's age


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How much formula your baby needs depends not only on weight, but also on his age. Don't expect a newborn (or any baby, for that matter) to follow a schedule or mathematical formula. If you're starting a newborn on formula, try giving him only 30-60ml (a couple of ounces) at each feed for the first week. By the time your baby is one month old, he will probably take 90-120ml / 3 or 4oz at each feed, and will consume anywhere from 400-800ml / 14 to 28oz in one day. You'll soon sense if your baby needs more - he'll finish the feed quickly and then look around for second helpings!

From the age of two months up to six months, you should be feeding your baby 120-180ml / 4-6oz at a feeding, and he'll have anything from 700ml to over a litre / 23 to 35oz a day.

Once your baby reaches six months, you can feed him anywhere from 180-220 ml / 6-8oz at a feeding, and his total formula intake should be roughly 900ml / 32oz per day.

Once you start adding solids to his diet, his daily intake of formula milk should gradually decrease to about 720ml / 24oz. The Food Standards Agency recommends that once your baby is established on solids, he should be having approximately 600ml / 20oz or one pint of formula milk per day alongside a varied diet until he is a year old. After the age of one, he can move from drinking formula milk to full-fat cow's milk.

Bear in mind that these are only rough guidelines, and your baby will let you know if he's getting too much or too little formula. If you are not sure, talk with your health visitor.


Don't let solids replace formula too soon


When you introduce your baby to solid foods at around six months, breastmilk or formula should still constitute most of his nutrition until he's a year old. Most babies, when they're getting used to solids, do not eat a wide enough variety of foods to satisfy their growing bodies' nutritional needs. At this stage, his daily intake of formula should still be about 720ml / 24oz. Avoid juice, which doesn't offer nearly the same nutritional value as formula.


Let your baby be the guide


Appetites vary from baby to baby, and most babies change from day to day and month to month. Your baby will feed as often as he needs to, as long as you learn to detect his cues and respond to them appropriately. Make sure you don't automatically give a bottle every time your baby cries - in time you'll learn to read his actions and work out whether he's hungry or just needs attention.

The general mathematical rule is 150mL per kg per day - then just divide that amount up in to how many feeds she has per day... We found Sam was pretty much always below what was recommended on the formula tin, but always pretty much right by the way the hospital calculated it.

Personally, I think it's formula companies trying to get you to waste formula so they sell more...

When it comes to teats, which ones are you using? Signs that she needs a faster or different teat will be if she's collapsing the teat while she sucks. With the standard hospital teats, Sam would do this all the time and the poor little boy would suck and suck and suck and get nothing because it was collapsed... He just needed a different one then. When he needed a faster one, we'd often hear a kind of clicking sound, and you'd see a great gush of bubbles going back into the bottle when he released it. We use avent teats and find that Sam also runs below the recommended ages on the teats - we don't change him because he's hit the magic age, we change him when he shows signs of needing a faster teat.

BW

We are using Avent teats (the 0m+) and yes I have noticed the bubbles coming up in the bottle when she sucks accompanied by a sort of sqeaky whining noise from the bottle.

After a terrible day of whinging and snacking she took 80ml at 3pm then 100ml at 8:30pm!

The squeaky noise is ok. We get that when Sam's sucking hard. You'll know the click when you hear it. If you are really worried about the teat being slow, you could always try her with a faster teat for one feed and see how she goes. We would get terrible refluxy problems if we changed Sam too soon - a lady in a pharmacy explained it as if they don't suck hard enough, a little valve doesn't open and let the milk into their stomach and it just pools...

You're doing a great job! Generally, when she's consistently finishing her bottles would be the time to offer more.

BW