Can you give to much extracted breast milk through bottle at 10.30 pm bottle feed?

[Jasmer]

Hi, my baby is 3 weeks old and we have just started to give him one bottle a day, as suggested by Gina Ford. I don't think it is very clearly explained in the book on how much extracted milk to feed him. I don't have a problem at all with extracting and easily fill up a 9 oz bottle at the times spread over the day. Can you give to much breast milk by bottle feed?

Hi, Jasmer, I don't follow Gina myself, but don't worry about giving your baby too much breast milk, he will take as much as he wants, and no more. I doubt very much if a 3 week old baby would take 9oz in one go. When you've worked out how much he usually wants, I suggest you freeze the rest- its a valuable commodity!

A rough guide is however much you express at one go is the amount your baby gets from one breast. This is only a rough guide as you probably don't express as much as your baby can get - they're more efficient! Also, if you express at the time you offer the bottle (ie express off the milk you would normally be feeding her) it will be more "accurate". Not that there's anything "accurate" about breastfeeding or expressing though

At a rough guess, I'd say about 1/2 that amount is ample for a 2 week old baby. I know you can't give a breastfed baby too much milk from the breast. As Tissy says I'd try 4.5 ozs and freeze the other 4.5 oz.

Dd2 will still only take about 4oz from a bottle (shes 8 weeks). I'm pretty sure your baby will only take as much as he wants. As Tissy says, freeze the rest!

Don't forget to express before/after you give baby a bottle as its early days and you want to keep your supply up.

Jasmer - when you freeze breast milk, have some small amounts like 2oz and 4oz. The cubes in icecube trays are 1oz each and can used easily. That means if your baby is not satisfied with 4oz you can quickly defrost some more. It can be defrosted quickly.
As Enid says remember to express at the time the bottle is given or you could run into supply problems.
Your baby will take what she wants - the problem with bottles is that the person giving the milk can be tempted to make the baby finish it off, making the baby take more than he/she needs. Direct feeding from the breast is better in my opinion but I will not open up the Gina debate again

Jasmer - you're doing very well to express that much! Just thought I'd mention that the GF system works perfectly well with a breast feed at that time (in fact it works without the 10.30pm feed altogether, but they'll wake a bit more in the night - I couldn't bring myself to wake my nice peaceful baby)

And babies can eat too much - I know mine did!

DH always used to give dd a 7oz ebm bottle at 10pm. Sometimes she would drink all 7oz, sometimes only 3. In those early days we used to reckon on getting one hours sleep from her for each ounce she drank - don't think this is particularly scientific but it was how it worked with dd. I was v. lucky and produced prodigous amounts of ebm, but if your supply is not so good than Mears idea of freezing in ice cubes is v. good.
I actually didn't express at 10pm - I figured the whole point of dh giving the bottle was so that I could be asleep! I expressed after every bf I did during the day - dd would only ever feed for 20 mins at one breast so I had to empty the other.

You have to be careful giving a bottle at this time so early as mears said, as if you cut back on breastfeeds in the first 6 weeks or so you can run into supply problems. Babies as little as this feed little and often in order to help you establish a good milk supply. Mind you, it sounds like you are getting good at expressing - once you get the hang of it its not too bad. I have no idea how much a baby takes in one go as neither of mine had bottles so young, but as my 10 month old doesn't always finish a 9oz bottle when he has it on occasion now, I couldn't see that a 3 week old one would.