How much (ie ml or fl oz) should a 1-2week old be taking in a feed?

[MrsCravendale]

Our son is a hungry hungry hippo and does not seem to be satisfied by his night feeds at all. I am breast feeding and have recently been expressing so we can see how much he is taking and so my husband can help feed during the night as at the moment he is feeding every hour at least. The midwives say he is just on a growth spurt so to keep him full up.

Just wondering - does anyone have any ideas on how much he should be taking or are you in the same boat at all??

He is taking approx 50 ml then falling asleep and waking an hour later looking for more.

During the day the same amount seems to last him 3-4 hours but this cluster feeding is hard going!!!

Thanks for any advice.

the experts will be along soon to help but IME 1-2 weeks is too soon to be worrying about quantity if you are breastfeeding, the more you feed the more milk your boobs will make so just try to keep going it is tiring but perhaps you can step back from other things and really listen to the blardy people who say to sleep when baby sleeps - even if it is for an hour or so at a time.
Sorry can't help on quantities, if you want to breastfeed longterm focusing on ml or oz can be an unhelpful way of thinking because you will never really know how much.
Congratulations on your new little one

Thanks Jingley.

I think it is more OH who is concerned about how much he is actually taking as he wants to know how much LO should be taking when he is fed from the bottle. I have just been expressing and putting it into a freezer bag for breast milk so it will keep longer but OH unsure how much to defrost into the bottle to feed LO with.

I have no idea. I just know sometimes he has one boob sometimes one boob and half the other one. How much is a boob?!?! Feels like being back at primary when the teacher was like "Bonnie has 3 apples. Jennie has 2 apples. If Bonnie takes 2 of Jennie's apples, how many apples does Bonnie have????" At the time it was like "Eh?!?" ha ha.

at 2wks this sounds pretty normal tbh - it will settle down as he gets bigger without you having to 'take action' as it were.

I'd also venture to suggest that expressing at such an early stage is making more work for yourself, not less...

is there the possibility you could co-sleep? this saved my sanity in the early months

you might want to post on the breast/bottle feeding boards as there are some proper experts there. Please try not to worry about amounts- sounds like you are doing a great job. Waking at night just happens sometimes.... For what it's worth I had a teeny ds and was helped to get more milk in him by encouraging him to keep feeding rather than fall asleep on me- techniques such as tickling his toes, blowing on his face, slighty pulling him away from nipple (but not unlactching). Winding to give a break then reattaching and also changing him after he'd finished on one boob and then offering more of that or the other boob......I seem to remember a feed could take 45 min to an hour! It's hard working out whether they are dull or just sleepy from milk when they are so little and seem to 'finish a feed' (we used to call breast milk baby crack in our house!). Best advice I can give is to try not to worry about how much, try and make the nights as easy as poss by having everthing to hand, sleep during the day and get everyone to run around after you- just concentrate on hanging out with your baby and feeding.... If you want some good advice and encouragement and some helpful tips call up the local NCT people and get a breastfeeding support person to come out and meet you- they are great.
Oh and when you express you won't quite get as much milk out as when your baby feeds (they are much more efficient) so if you can bear it I's keep expressing to a minimum and try and get the feeding biult up- well done you sounds like you are dpoign great job
Xh

Thanks very much for all the encouragement - great idea about changing the nappy after he has taken his first feed then offering the second boob. (Sounds so weird talking about your breasts like that at first!!!! I used to be such a prude b4 I got pregnant!!!) Baby crack that SOO hits the mark!!! Too true.

If I remember correctly your boobs are never totally empty it is just that let down reflex increases the flow for a while but if you baby keeps feeding your boob just makes more (not sure how.. probably magic!)
Did you copy this question onto BF threads?