Bottle vs breast flow

[Kimbodream]

Hello, I'm a new Mum with 3 week old baby girl. I've googled every question imaginable in the last 3 weeks but this one has stumped me. I introduced a bottle in week one for one feed a day for my partner to get involved, she took to it really well and works like a dream. She normally takes 120ml in one sitting believe it's 4oz (two expressed boobs worth) . However ive convinced myself in the 8 minute feeds (on one boob) she has on the breast during the rest of the day she's getting nowhere near that amount. She falls asleep so quickly and I've tried stripping her down to keep her awake. Ive read they will feed from 20-45 mins on breast. She's gained wait up until now but I want to understand it more than anything. Any theories around the bottle /breast flow? Thanks for reading, a mum who overthinks.

Breastfeeding is harder than bottle feeding as babies have to work for the milk as opposed to the instant gratification they get from bottles.

However, babies self regulate what they want from the breast, they won't over feed whereas generally they will drink whatever is given to them in a bottle.

Is she still just having one bottle a day? And how many times is she breast feeding?

Have you heard of Paced bottle feeding? It's the safest way to bottle feed babies and is a preferable method when combi feeding. It will also help you figure out what she actually wants out of that 120mls that you offer her as opposed to her just gulping it down because she has no other option to do so because of the fast flow.

Obviously ignore this if you are already using the Paced feeding technique

Hi Op, I know it’s hard but if she’s gaining weight, is settled, is producing plenty of wet nappies then try not to worry!

May I recommend kelly mom website...it was recommended to me by a lactation consultant and is a great resource for bf and is all research / evidenced based.

Good luck!

If she’s gaining weight, has plenty of wet and dirty nappies, is alert when awake and her fontanelle isn’t sunken she’s getting enough milk.

Bottles are much easier, so babies will gulp it all down because there is no effort needed. Agree with pp - check out paced feeding when you use a bottle.

I hadn't looked into paced feeding so thank you very much for the recommendation. Thanks all :)

Hi Op, my lo only feeds for 5 minutes on each boob every 2-3 hours. It takes her a lot longer to drink 90-120ml from a bottle, so I was worried about the amount she's getting from the breast. However, she's gaining weight well so the doctor said she likely takes a lot more than I think I'ma short amount of time from the breast!

As long as baby produces plenty of wet nappies a day and is putting on weight, there is nothing to worry about :)

Thanks Tulip26. Reassuring I'm not the only one.