Help... 1 week old baby had very diluted formula

[Almie]

My 1 week old baby is combination feeding because I'm unable to breastfeed exclusively. When she has a bottle, we do 3oz and she usually drinks 2.5oz if it.

My husband just gave her a bottle and realised he had accidentally done 6oz of water with 3 scoops instead of 3oz. By the time he realised, she'd drank 3oz.

I'm now really panicking because she's so young and I'm reading things online about electrolyte imbalances and water intoxication

Should we be concerned about this and be contacting someone? Or should I just keep an eye on her and see how it goes? 😰 all the other posts I'm seeing online about this are about older babies and I'm just worried because she's so young

Correction, she actually drank 2oz of the diluted formula not 3oz. I'm still very worried

She will be fine
It is worse the other way round / to have it too concentrated. Obviously it wouldn't be great to do it all the time but a one off is fine

Sadly some parents can't afford formula and this is what they do to save money :(

Baby will be fine

She'll be fine. It's an issue if you do it regularly. The problem with giving them water or diluted formula is it fills them up but doesn't provide nutrients so you should be fine for half a feed once. It's an issue if you do it all the time to conserve formula

As a one-off the baby will be fine.
If you're trying to build up your breastmilk supply, though, don't give her any bottles at all.

If she is less than 10 days old then you will still be under midwifery care and you should ring your birthing unit for advice.

As a pp said, the less you breastfeed the less milk you'll produce, so try breastfeeding more, to stimulate supply

Thanks everyone - I have calmed down now 😅 I did call the midwife as you suggested @Iminthemoneylife and they weren't worried either so I will try and put it out of my mind.

@TheShellBeach @smallyellowbird as I said, I'm unable to exclusively breastfeed, so if I stop giving her bottles she will be in trouble lol. She's not my first baby, so we had it all looked into in great detail with my first and it's just not possible for me for several reasons. Thank you though 🙂

I just want to say, in reply to previous posters, that more breastfeeding does not necessarily result in greater supply. Sometimes it just does not happen. It makes me angry, after many, many years that I bought into the myth that breastfeeding 'more' results in better supply . It isn't always the case.

As per pp a one off dilution of formula will not be detrimental. Glad you talked to a HCP and they put your mind at rest.

Just to say I know pp were trying to be helpful but the 'don't give any bottles' that's trotted out is actually really harmful. I tried exclusively breastfeeding my eldest - I didn't produce enough milk and I was determined not to give a bottle - he ended up underweight and seriously dehydrated.

Pumping every two hours / after feeds will increase your supply, even if you don't see results in the bottles. Baby is less than two weeks old so your body is very likely to respond well to extra demand at this point. Formula feeds will decrease your supply.