Breastfed baby taking less and less from bottle

[awkwardbuttons]

DS is almost 7 weeks and is exclusively breastfed except for one feed a day. I now pump for this feed and usually pump around 5oz. Until last week DS drank the whole 5oz offered or very nearly all of it. But for quite a few days in a row he suddenly only wanted 3oz and I couldn't get him to take any more. Today he only wanted 2oz. Is this the start of a bottle refuser?

Same result with different flow teats.

How long do you leave it between the breastfeed and the bottle?

He might be more efficient at getting your milk from the breast and could be full, maybe?

Thanks for the reply.

Up to 4 hours, sorry I meant to include that. That's as long as he ever goes between feeds, including at night, so I'd be surprised if he was full, especially as he was taking 5oz before.

In case relevant, he is fairly chunky too - around 12 pounds.

So when you offer the expressed milk has it been 4 hours since the last feed?

It varies. Most often it's been four hours, but sometimes 2.5 or 3. Every time it's the same result though - a small feed, a burp, then loads of crying. Same whether it's me or DH.

5oz seems like an awful lot of breastmilk for a feed. Babies only need 1 to 1.5oz of expressed milk per hour between feeds. Baby is probably too full to want any more.

If it's 4 hours between feeds then 5oz sounds about right then? We're stuck at 2oz now which seems a very small amount given each time it's been a 4 hour gap (due to a long sleep). That's only 0.5oz per hour rather than 1oz to 1.5oz.

Some thoughts that I have had, which maybe way off are... The stomach is only the size of the fist, so how much is liquid is needed to fill that volume? When you breastfeed does baby get a lot of hind milk, this would fill him up for longer. The amount you pump isn't an indication of how much baby takes.
I only ever offered a few bottles of ebm, so I'm not to gemmed up on how much my baby takes.
If he crys after the bottle feed, it could be that he gets more wind, I vaguely remember being told BF babies have less wind.
Just out of interest, and not for judging or anything, why do you offer a ebm feed?

I want to be able to go out every now and then and have him take a bottle when I do. With the current panic buying situation I'd much rather give EBM than formula - at least I know noone else can deplete the stock!

That's a good plan. My baby isn't fond of a bottle. When I did try her on ebm, a few times, she turned her nose up. Turned out frozen milk tasted like potato water 😂

I haven't tried freezing it yet but as it turns out by the second or third day mine does from the fridge! 🙄 so he only gets milk from the day before, fussy bugger! Wind is a good point, he does seem to bring far more burps up when he feeds from the bottle so maybe he is equating feeding from it with tummy pain. I'll try burping more frequently. Thanks very much for your replies.