Amounts of expressed

[BatCave]

DS is 9 months and fully breastfeed along BLW (and he eats A LOT).

I'm off out tonight for a cheeky couple, and have expressed, also I'm back to work next week and he'll be having expressed milk while I'm gone.

I'm just a little uncertain about how much he'll need. I deliberately expressed before his feed just now and got 6oz from both sides. Normally, I'd only feed 1 side and I got 4 oz of that side. I then bottle fed him the milk I'd expressed and he took just under 3 oz and seems satisfied. Does this sound about right? I see FF babies taking far bigger bottles than that.

Just saw this in unanswered. How did it go?

im not too sure how much he should be taking but I do know the thing with ff or mix fed babies is that the formula stretches their stomach more than your breast milk does so that may be why it seems they are taking a lot more

That's a good point about the formula.

It went fine last night, he had an expressed bottle at bedtime with my mum, about 4oz and another 3oz at 4am. He didn't settle well after that one but I think that was him just being a little monkey.

I guess I was just wondering what other people who give expressed milk (and not formula) give.

At 9 months my dd was a guzzler and would probably have at least 7 oz of ebm. I went away for 2 nights when she was 9 months - so, from Friday late afternoon until Sunday early afternoon and she drank every last drop of the 49 oz I left ...my dh even had to water down the last 2 bottles as he was so afraid of running out! I think part of it was because she missed me and the comfort of bf so she seemed to drink more than usual. So, I guess it's quite hard to gauge.

This is what I used when I was expressing for DD -.

kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/

HTH

I just do a 5oz bottle each time I give my 7mo a bottle. Seems to be the perfect amount

Thanks

He only seems to want to take 3oz each time, yesterday was my first day back at work and I left him 2 bottles of EBM, he only took 3oz out of each, so between 11am when I left and his night feed at 4am he only had 6oz of milk. Is this enough?

My LO will only take enoughg to get by if left with her dad for the day. Last time she took 5 oz between 11am and bedtime. But she did eat more including lots of dairy so make sure you leave lots of yogurt etc.

Yes I think that might be an element of it. It's just a little worrying if that's all the milk he's taking from me too. He eats a lot but doesn't take much water. Feeds are quick and fussy.

Hi - it is worth remembering that the volume you express does not correlate exactly with the volume he would be drinking straight from the boob.

Mine (almost 10 months actual/ 7 months corrected age) also will only drink 2 or sometimes 3 ounces of expressed milk from his straw cup (the only vessel he will allow; we had to give up on bottles months ago). Sometimes he has real mega-feeds from the boob when I get back, sometimes I can't tell whether.

So I think this can be perfectly normal.

Oh absolutely, yes, I meant if that was all his appetite is for, if that makes sense. Because he was settled with just that amount. I'm worrying over absolutely nothing I think! Just he's not as 'booby' as DD was, and I want to feed him for a lot longer yet!