Volumes for expressed breast milk feeding

[fiorentina]

I have a 6 day old baby who hasn't taken to breast feeding. After initially refusing breast in hospital, and me being unable to express any collustrum, we started to formula feed baby, on advice from various staff in the hospital who were concerned about the lack of food baby was getting. On day 2 baby started breast feeding regularly but on day 3 when we returned home, he stopped breast feeding and we continued to top him up on formula on the advice of the midwife. As of day 5 (yesterday) my milk came in, so I've been able to express 10 mins on each side every 3 hours and we've been bottle feeding him that. About 60ml a time, sometimes supplemented with formula to make it up, of volumes of EBM are lower.

I am not sure if this is sufficient, there are plenty of tables for if I was feeding formula but not for EBM. How do I know?

I'm still attempting to breast feed, have taken advice from the NCT helpline, offering him the breast at most feeds, but he doesn't seem interested, and the various midwives/breast feeding specialists we've seen seem to think he's a bit lazy but have also debated whether he's tongue tied. I am back at the breastfeeding clinic on wednesday, and if we can't master it, will just continue to pump and feed him that way, topping up as required. I'd like to breastfeed, but am happy with whatever gives him sufficient nutrition to be honest.

Does anyone have any advice on volumes of expressed milk (plus formula if required) that I should ensure he has. He was a 9lb 6oz baby and his weight has dropped slightly but not significantly. Thanks for your help.

hmm... I can offer you some uneducated experience only... so no taking it as fact.

My LO is now 1 week and 5 days old and takes 4 oz per feed when feeding every 3 hours (her big feeds) sometimes she prefers small feeds though which is about half that but will want a top up at some point before the 3 hours is up.

Last week she was only taking about 2oz to 2.5 oz per feed. She was 6lb 12oz at birth.

Figures are approximate as she only has expressed bm when I'm tired and DP or PIL are feeding her. hope this is of some help.

I was told to give 61mls (yes, really the 1 was apparently important!) every 3 hrs when bean was ill in hospital in his first week. When we got home though we just fed until he decided to stop. If he drained the bottle we'd offer a bit more, sometimes he'd stop before it was finished. He was quite quickly on more than 60mls, but it was led by him.

That was with EBM.

If he doesn't go back to the breast (mine wouldn't) thengood luck with the pumping. I'm finding it exhausting but hoping to carry on a couple of weeks longer.

If you look here and scroll down it shows newborn stomach capacity - at 1 week it is 45-60ml and at 1 month it's 80-150ml. So you probably only want to give him 60ml per feed at the moment.

Wow Rita - my LO is a little feeding monster then!!! No wonder she was so sick after DP fed her 4oz!

Babies tend to guzzle down however much is in a bottle - the way they suck on it means their mouths just fill with milk it comes a lot quicker than with breastfeeding. It can be quite easy to accidently overfeed EBM.

That's really helpful, thanks for taking the time to respond.

Cobweb - I do agree, I find expressing tiring, but I really want to do my best for him for as long as I can with breast milk. Hope your baby is well now.

We were finding that he wants a bit more than the 60ml at times, so I guess if we offer a little more and he doesn't want it, he can just refuse. He seems happy and content and wees/poos enough I believe.

Firstly congratulations on your new ds.

My ds is now 9 weeks and he never took to breast feeding so I have hired a hospital grade pump and express 3 out of 5 feeds with formula for the other 2 feeds he has.

I was told by the health visitor he needs 150ml per kg of weigt divided by number of feeds per day, so at 9lb 6, he is 4.25kg multiply by 150 = 640 and if he has 8 feeds a day is 80ml per feed to adjust depending on number of feeds.

MY ds has 5 lots of 150, if we give him more 9 times out of 10 we're both wearing it and he's not been weighed for a few weeks so not sure if I am supposed to have increased it. He's happy, alert and plenty of wet and dirty nappies, he'll let me know when he wants more!

Pottle78 After 6 weeks BF babies (if fed direct) do not need to increase
their daily intake (unlike FF) as your milk changes accordingly

[[http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/index.html This] should be useful

DD always had 1oz/hr during the day when I returned to work at 4 months

sorry I didn't mean bottle fed EBM babies needed more, just that they often take more (more than they need) due to the bottle feeding tehnique

hope that makes sense, anyway your instinct was correct :)

I haven't read this section, but there is one on exclusive pumping

hth

Yes, think milk based on weight is for formula feeding rather than ebm.

Thank you for all your advice. Keep building up the volume at the moment seems to be the guidance from the midwife. His weight is back up, so feeling a little less stressed that we've been starving him.

hello, can I hijack the thread for clarification - my 13lb baby is EBF but has reflux and I am afraid I might be overfeed her at her evening feed for which I pump (so I can add gaviscon). I have been working on 4-4.5 oz - does that sound right? It's no good saying 25oz a day divided by the feeds as she sucks on and off most of the afternoon and I have no idea how much she has taken. Just want to make sure I'm not putting her down to sleep hungry or trying to deal with too much milk. Thanks, OP sorry to hijack!

3-5oz seems normal to me. Depends in how many hours you want her to go. I view 25oz as 1oz an hour