Measuring how much breastmilk your baby takes - some tips

[hunkermunker]

Fill this with water

Dip your breast in.

Whatever water is subsequently displaced will be a mere fraction of the volume of bollocks you're likely to hear from people about how much milk your baby's getting at any one feed.

HTH.

PS don't actually do this. Eat some chocolate instead**Other snacks are available.

i was going to write 'dont'
but you have beaten me with a much more interesting quote.

heh, can I therefore recommend the balloon measuring method? You blow up 3 balloons to the approx size of your boobs and then rub on your hair for 30 seconds. After this stick balloons on ceiling. When they fall down is an acurate indication of whether your baby will sleep through by 6 weeks.

3 balooons???? That would be a typo. No, 2 balloons. I am not a fraek. Honest.

I got an amusing comment once - you shouldn't bf cos you don't know how much they are getting - WTF???
So what did they do before bottles????
How ever did they manage?????
x

Maybe you could weigh them before and after - the boobs not the baby - well ok maybe even the baby! maybe a little more accurate! lol

Oh don't be ridiculous.

There is a proper formula for calculating how much your baby is getting, you can see it here

Any mum that is really intent on successfully breastfeeding should make the effort to work it out.

Fantastic!

Can I dunk the HV in there instead?

LOL

ROFL!

Shouldn't you weigh yourself before and after a feed?

God, my HV was obsessed with whether my DS was getting enough breastmilk.

When she was really pushing the top up with formula I told her as long as he wasn't screaming he was getting enough.

She actually told me to talk it over with DP as he would tell me what to do and could be more objective He was there for her next visit and when she started he said 'I'm a doctor, he's fine, bye bye Mrs HV'

Sorry for the rant but it really annoys me, baby is content gaining weight but not following the charts in the little red book, so its formual milk time Total rubbish

Nice one

It used to be normal to weigh babies before and after feeds. The whole thing is mindbogglingly stupid, isn't it.

Am so relieved to find this is your thread, munker

Starlight I'm off to Dragon's Den with my patented flow-meter. If they reject that, I'll suggest my on/off crying switch.

I thought this was going to be a serious thread!

I was once asked in A&E how much milk she'd had that day, I said "I don't know?" she said "isn't she bottlefed?" she did apologise and say they don't get many exbf babies - how sad.

Actually when Tink was about 6/7 weeks she got to 6lb 2oz and stopped growing, same weight for 4 weekly weigh-ins. One week she was weighed straight away and I fed her as we talked. The HV suggested reweighing her to see how much she took, sure enough she was 6lb 4oz. Then she weed she was (you guessed it) 6lb 2oz! She pushed me to top up and I did once a day (I think) but she still didn't grow very fast, so I ended up having to put her on the body building diet (breastfeed every 2 hours, topped up and full feed twice a day) it wrecked my supply and took me until she was six months to be able to feed her without top ups and then I had to start her on solids.

hey hunker I'm breastfeeding again and forgot how lovely it is to feed a newborn

tinkerbellesmum - when i left hospital after having Ds2 i was told to bring him back the next day for a blood test. When i pointed out that i couldn't even carry him,let alone drive the four hour round trip hour less than 48 hours after a section, i was told that my DH should bring him instead.When i asked how Dh woudl feed him they were flumoxed

And they wonder why Bf rates are so low at this hospital

and befroe you ask, yes, it DOES have a baby friendly award

how sad . Send them this thread!

I keep being told up here that there's a move to do away with the charts and just look at how the baby looks and whether s/he's thriving. Anyway, the charts are for ffed babies aren't they. There are apparently some elusive bfed charts somewhere(WHO?)

They're not just FF (if I understand right) they're done for all babies, following babies of FF, BF and different races who actually develop differently too. There is a BF chart and it's supposed to be more accurate with BF babies, you can download it from the WHO website.

The BF group I go to they plot weights on the chart but they don't pay much attention to it, they look at how baby is in them self, bracelets, soft spot etc. They're a HV and MW who have done a lot of training in BF and train our area of Birmingham. I've found you can always tell who they trained by their attitudes towards BF and BLW!

You have to wonder sometimes how they get their status, KristinaM.

what are the bracelets about?

Have a look at a babies wrists, you'll see they have bracelets around it. They are one of the first indicators that a baby is losing weight (or mass) as they disappear.

Yes Tink, you're right.

The standard charts are based on a wide variety of babies.
But that's still only an average growth guide, and not all babies can be average!

Thankfully I have fab HV's who are all for blw/excl bfing and actually helping rather than scaring.