12 day old wants 5-6oz per feed?!

[NikkiBK]

Hello all, first time mum here.

Baby is 12 days old and was born weighing 9lbs 10oz. The health visitor weighed her the other day and found that she's only lost 80g in weight since birth too! She's really long too.

We are currently combi feeding because my milk didn't come in straight away, due to needing an emergency cesarean, so she had to have formula at first despite my planning to breastfeed. Baby has found that she can't guzzle milk from the boob as quickly as she can from the bottle, leaving me having to express milk and feed it to her from a bottle. As soon as we got her home she wanted 4oz every 3 hours rather than the "average" of 3oz every 4 hours, but the health visitor said that's fine because of her weight - she is a big girl 🤯

Anyway. Waffling aside - she's been having 5 or 6oz roughly every four hours since yesterday. My mum reckons that as long as she keeps the feed down, she must need it, and that therefore it's fine, but I'd just like opinions from a few others as I'm now worrying that I'm doing terribly.

I can't stand the thought of her crying with hunger in my quest to follow the guidelines for the average baby, as the midwife and health visitor have all said that she is not average.

I'd agree with your Mum - let your baby have as much milk as she needs. If she was breast fed you wouldn't even notice! I pumped and bottle fed mine too and stressed about her not wanting enough - she's a perfectly healthy 2 year old now. Babies know what they need so just go with it

I can't remember exactly but my 7lb newborn twins Def are above the recommended amount. Dr suggested I cut it down, I asked what I did for the for they'd be screaming. She backed off.
I agree with your mom

Milk should definitely be baby led. Unless she seems in pain and you're worried that she's sucking for comfort and making it worse (doesn't sound like it) then let her have what she wants when she wants it.

Have you tried putting her on the breast first then giving a formula top up if she’s still hungry. You could see whether she go on if you’re supply is still up. I did this with son and felt it meant he was really full and I wasn’t stressing about ounces.

I agree with your mum. If she seems content between feeds and is having plenty of wet nappies and her poo is ok, I wouldn’t be concerned.

4 hourly is a long time between feeds at that age. Would she take smaller feeds more often? At that age mine was feeding every 2-2½ hours.

Hi everyone, thanks for all your responses. I'm feeling rather reassured now - although today she's now decided to have a 3oz feed every 3 or so hours
I suppose she knows what she wants! She's been perfectly content and got through plenty of nappies.