very basic question on difference between breastmilk and formula

[chaya5738]

Hi everyone,

I have a really basic question. Do babies need to drink more formula than breastmilk in one feed to get full?

The reason I ask is that my baby is 6 months old and I have been exclusively breastfeeding her. When I go out I leave a bottle of 125ml/4oz of expressed breastmilk for my husband to give her as her feed. Recently I was looking on the side of a thing of formula and saw that at 6 months she would be drinkin 210mls of formula.

Have I not been leaving her enough food?! I honestly don't think I could express 210mls in one go.

She has been drinking 100-125mls of breastmilk in one feed since she was on a couple of months old and it is interesting to me that the quantity hasn't changed with her growing. Does it not need to with breastmilk?

Sorry if this is a really idiotic question. As you can tell, I am pretty clueless about breastmilk quantities and even more clueless about formula.

Im not sure, every baby is different but my 5 week old DD has 5oz each feed.

cheya, average calorie content of formula and breastmilk is more or less the same.

However, the volume of breastmilk taken by babies has been seen to stay about the same from about the age of a month www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html

Babies generally need more formula as they grow, because they use up more energy/calories digesting the formula than they do digesting breastmilk.

If your baby is happy with the amount of milk you are expressing for her, and she is continuing to thrive and grow, then I can't see you have any cause for concern

ok, thanks very much tiktok. I was just quite confused. Also, my baby has started waking up every 2-3 hours in the night to feed after previous almost sleeping through. So I worried that she wasn't getting enough milk.

If volume of breast milk taken doesn't change, then what is the feeding more often in growth spurts to increase your supply about?

Good question, noblegiraffe.

Kellymom (see link I posted) speculates the volume of milk increases short term, to accommodate growth spurts. See also here www.kellymom.com/bf/normal/growth-spurt.html

I think they drink the same amount each but just more often?

I meant "each time"

I expressed for DS when I was at work or away from 4.5 months to 23 months when he stopped bfing - he didn't increase the amount he drank in all that time from 4oz, although when in a growth spurt he wanted to drink that more often

Thanks for the CMOTdibbler. I am going to put my daughter in nursery and plan to keep breastfeeding so that is good to know that the amount doesn't increase. How marvellous breastmilk is. Well done feeding until 23 months. Not sure I can go that long!