Have no idea what's normal qty for bottle feeding

[ratbagcatbag]

Hi all

Would love some advise please, my dd is three weeks tomorrow and is currently finishing a five oz bottle at each feed and crying for more, we're going to have to increase it to six oz, she's feeding every three- four hours ish through the day and only manages three max at night, so she's having six to seven bottles a day. In fairness, she's very messy, so I reckon at least an oz is mopped up on muslin cloths if not more and she's always a tiny bit sick so gets rid of some more, but I'm just worried it seems a huge amount. She's definately had a growth spurt as her tiny baby clothes are now to short for her and she's put on a lb in a week. She's now 7lb 6oz.
Am I wrong to feed her what she wants?

No, you are not wrong. The current advice is to feed what she demands. The quantity she should be having each day is on the carton, if you think she's having much more than that, have a word with your HV.

The packet just gives a guide.
Your baby should always leave some milk, that way you know she has had enough. So if she's draining a 5 oz bottle, put her feed up to six oz.
A basic way of calculating the total volume is 2.5oz formula per lb of body weight in 24 hrs. But that's still just a guide.

So she is having 4 oz (will be 5oz) x 6 or 7. So that is 24oz - 35oz or 720ml to about 1 litre. This suggests that a baby needs 400-800 ml a day at a month and 700ml - 1 litre a day at 2 months. While we did demand feed DD on formula, she basically had an appetite for the amount on the guidelines on the carton of formula.

Your DD may be having a growth spurt, but she may be a "sucky baby" who would benefit from a dummy. Drinking a bottle of formula is not as hard work as BF for a baby and babies can guzzle a bottle in far less time than it would take for them to get the same amount of breastmilk. I think that just like adults if they eat quickly they can eat enough but still feel hungry for a few minutes until they get the message from their stomach and brain that they are full. If she is being a bit sick after 5 oz then I would be a bit wary about increasing to 6oz. By all means try it, but she may just end up being a bit more sick or even bringing up the whole bottle.

She seems to have settled at five oz, mainly leaving one oz,(so having four oz) but occasionally guzzling the whole thing, however after she does that, she then will only have three oz at the next feed. She does suck a bit but isn't that impressed with a dummy. She's definately had a growth spurt in the last week, none of her tiny baby stuff fits anymore sob
I think we will avoid increasing anymore at the moment, out of the four oz she takes there is definitely a lot on her bib etc as she is totally messy, so maybe not taking as much as I first thought.

If it's any reassurance my DD, now 5 wks 4 days, is taking about 5oz at feeds (just put amount up to 6oz). She's a lot heavier though, but still appears to take more than the guidelines. I am noting how much exactly she takes at each feed and plotting on a spreadsheet (how sad!). It's starting to show a pattern of when she's hungrier, and has also made me realise that over 24 hours she's not as much over the guidelines as I thought.