how soon after birth will baby want the first feed?

[acharmofgoldfinches]

We are expecting our first baby in the Spring, and wondering how quickly he or she is likely to want to feed after arriving? Do they need to recover a bit first, or is feeding part of that process? We will be formula-feeding so I'm wondering about having bottles ready made up, or whether there will be time to do that once we've all taken a breather...

[AllOutOfNaiceHam]

Depends. Baby may start rooting within a few minutes or a couple of hours. Mine usually fed within the first hour a little then had a good feed after a couple of hours.
They only need the tiniest amounts at that stage though.

[NorwaySpruce]

If you're having the baby in hospital, I think they have little glass bottles (pre-mixed, disposable) for the first feed.

I think they can be fed pretty much straight away, they start rooting by instinct.

[bronya]

You can get ready-made mini bottles in a pack for newborn. Come with teats ready attached like this: www.amazon.co.uk/Hipp-Organic-First-Infant-Starter/dp/B007HLVTVE?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21. I've only bf but have seen others use them. Your baby should be hungry almost as soon as he/she arrives. I've always fed within 5 minutes, and they were rooting for it asap!

[bambinibop]

Mine was put on me about 15 mins after birth to feed but only fed for a minute or two at first. I was helped up from the floor where I'd been lying and made comfortable and dd was cleaned up a bit and checked over then to me for a feed.

[polarbearshuffle]

I always assumed babies needed feeding quite soon after birth but my DS wasn't interested (I tried breastfeeding first) until the afternoon. He was born at 12.25am! I was fretting he must be hungry so gave him a bottle and he only had a small amount. However once he got the hand of it he was great with his bottle.

[PenguinsandtheTantrumofDoom]

The earliest any of mine were interested was a couple of hours later. I was bfing though so might be a little different as it's more hard work for an exhausted baby!

No point making bottles in labour. They don't store long at room temp Agree re the little packs.

[SoMuchForSubtlety]

From what I understand it depends a bit on what kind of labour you have. For example if you have pethidine and they're born soon after they will still be groggy from the drugs.

DD wanted to feed almost straight away, but it was quite a straightforward birth.

[PenguinsandtheTantrumofDoom]

In my case it didn't. DS was a 4 hour home birth and the least interested of my three.

[fruitpastille]

I've seen packs of ready made bottles of SMA in bigger asda. I had sections with all mine and first feed was within the hour I seem to think. I don't know what hospitals provide at birth as i bf, but a few months later when dd was admitted with bronchiolitis there were ready made little bottles.

[Pooka]

All of mine fed within 30 mins, and with dc2 & dc3 they fed straightaway, while we were waiting for the placenta to be delivered.

Breastfed though.

Certainly all were rooting pretty much immediately after the birth.

[NovemberAli]

Dd and DS had meconium in the water and were bringing that up for a while following birth bless them (it was pretty foul!) so weren't really interested in feeding. I think the baby makes it known when they are hungry, sometimes they aren't really interested in the first 24hrs or they're rooting round ready to feed straight away

[Sleepyfergus]

I bf both of mine within mins of them being born.

[Funkytown]

As soon as mine came out and I saw the little faces the most natural thing for me to do was offer my breast to them along with skin to skin both took striaght away

[Wolfiefan]

Please read up on the latest advice about sterilising and making up bottles.
If you are having a hospital birth check to see if/what feeding equipment they expect you to bring.

[306235388]

Ds wasn't interested for hours and hours and had to syringe some in.

Dd straight away as delivering placenta - she was tongue tied so it was difficult but as tried!!

[itsbetterthanabox]

Are you not able to breastfeed just for the first few feeds? They instinctively try to feed from you. Then have bottles ready.
I attended a birth recently and the baby started feeding within seconds!

[EmbarrassedPossessed]

As others have already said, the easiest thing is the readymade bottles of formula with the disposable teats, you can get "starter packs" from a variety of formula brands. Prime your DP/DH/birth partner to be ready to assemble one when your baby has arrived. Once opened they are ok for 2 hrs (check the bottles to be certain of this) out of a fridge and not drunk from.

[slithytove]

Both of mine took around an hour.

Ds - section, rooted in recovery room
Dd - home birth - I put her to the breast while waiting for placenta to come away but she wasn't interested, she eventually started rooting an hour or so after birth.

[holidaysarenice]

itsbetterthanabox

are you not able to breastfeed just for the first few feed

I find that incredibly patronising and rude. I hope you didn't mean it that way and only meant it might save hassle or worry over bottle making.

The op has choose to formula feed, it's none of our business why and I fully support the choice of every Mother to do what is best for their family unit.

[BackToTheFuschia]

yy holidaysarenice I thought exactly the same thing when I read that line! Not that it's anyone's business, but the op hasn't said why she's planning on ff. actually, I couldn't give a flying monkeys why, it's nobody's business so stop being so patronising.
op ds fed in recovery, I guess within the first hour.

[CharleyBear1]

Well bloody said holidaysarenice - just what I was about to say myself! OP check with hosp what they will provide - at ours they just asked what formula we were going to use and then brought out a tiny ready made bottle with disposable sterile teat.

If you're going to use powdered stuff, we purchased the tommee tippee prep machine and I can honestly say its probably been the best thing we've purchased - bit loud in the middle of the night but it's so much less of a faff at all times a bottle is required/demanded ??

Xxx

[mdpis3]

Re: hospital provided ready made bottles. Think it depends what part of the country you're in, in our area they haven't provided any bottles or sterilising equipment for 6 years. If you plan to do anything other than breastfeed, you have to take everything you need with you so double check with your hospital first.

[Flingmoo]

Is it really necessary to jump on itsbetterthanabox and be so defensive, people are so touchy about breastfeeding/formula feeding, but she wasn't being sanctimonious or preachy, it was just a suggestion for the first few feeds.

To turn it the other way, as an example, it's pretty common for people to suggest breastfeeding women (or their partners) give an evening bottle so that mum can get more rest. And that's not seen as anything to be offended about, it's just a suggestion after all.

[worldgonecrazy]

We breastfed and she was on the breast as soon as I was wheeled out of theatre.

It's worth remembering two things if you are formula feeding:

Babies don't know how to "turn off" their sucking, so they will keep sucking at a teat until the bottle is empty. This does not mean they are hungry, it's an automatic reaction they can't stop.

A newborn's stomach is the size of a marble so they won't need much. A breastfed baby only needs a teaspoon or two of colostrum to keep going until the milk comes in on day 3-5. It is very easy to overfeed a formula fed baby because of them not knowing when to stop.

I know you've said you don't want to breastfeed, but if you can get the colstrum expressed and fed on a teaspoon, that stuff is packed full of antibodies, vitamins and amazing stuff that science is still discovering, so if you can get some of that down your baby you will be giving them an amazing start in life.

Good luck with your new arrival.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

We fed ds about 30 mins after he was born as although he wasnt rooting, he was quite cold, and a feed warmed him up (along with a sleep under a heat lamp).

We ff too and I took a box of SMA mini bottles in with me. He only had 1-1.5oz at a time.