I'm confused...... how much milk should a 4 and half month baby take??
I've just upped my expressed breast milk from 4 to 4.5oz per bottle BUT Erin cries for more milk after approx 2 to 2.5 hours when she has been on a 3 hour cycle for quite a while now.
She takes about 5 and a half feeds a day (half for the midnight nursing) so that works out to approx 25oz per day.
My supply just can't keep up to her demand. I get only an average of 30z when I pump in the office so I need 3, sometimes 4 pumping sessions to get TWO bottles of milk.
I have been steadily draining my EBM stash of precious 21 bottles collected before I started work and supplementing with 1 bottle of formula a day during weekdays. (On weekends, she's fully on breastmilk, but I end up feeding her every 2 hours)
She just finished her box of formula, so I went hunting for another box just now. Got a big shock when I saw the required intake for her age. Enfalac - EIGHT ounces. S26 - SIX ounces.
So much? And I thought 4.5oz of breastmilk is a lot for her age. Have I been underfeeding her? Then again, my sis said her baby Jo Ern drank 3oz per bottle until almost 1 year old. Using that as a comparison, am I overfeeding Erin?
I ended up buying S26 just now. So does that mean she should take 4.5oz when it's EBM and 6oz when it's formula? Or should I increase my EBM to 6oz per bottle? (which means I need to pump twice to get one bottle. Aaaargh!)
I'm CONFUSED!!!????!!! Help!
ps: 1. She is gaining weight. Quite round these days.
2. She takes ALL of whatever offered to her.
13 comments:
If she cries for more, try giving her a little bit more and seeif that feed can give her longer satisfaction. Always bear in mind that BM is easily digested so they will be hungry more frequent. I used to breastfeed William middle of the night almost every 1-2 hours. Be careful with s26 I hear some babies get constipation from it.
Babies take more formula than breastmilk when it comes to oz. That's coz breastmilk is almost fully digested while formula can't be, meaning got lot of wastage therefore need more volume.
Err this one maybe a bit greedy... Anyway if she is crying for more, no choice but to give more.
I think you should follow your baby's cue. If she cries for more milk then give her more.
The amount you give her seem ok to me.
breast milk texture and nutrients will change according to the baby's need and age. i remember justin use to take 5oz every 3 hours and he was on 5oz for a very long time, till he started solid and till i stop breastfeeding him i think. erin is getting enough, just that she may just another greedy child. u have been feeding erin at 2hours interval on weekends, thus the routine of her wanting to feed every 2 hours. on weekend she may cry and u might think that she's hungry but in actual fact maybe she's just bored, sleepy or want to suck for comfort. every 2 hours for a 4 months old baby is pretty frequent i will say. She already 4 months and soon may be able to start solid, tat way u can match back the amount of breastmilk and her demand. don't try to match the amount of breast milk and formula. it doesn't work that way.
according to her demand...i would say.
My girls.. up to now.. the most they can take is 6oz ler.
Zara last year before quitting formula reached 6oz per feed, 2 feeds a day.
Zaria before quitting was 4oz per feed, 3 feeds a day.
I used to direct feed my girls all the time. Even expressed out, I only give them 3oz a bottle. They drank, they were happy.
Just follow what the baby wants. Give her the usual amount you give, then see if she wanted more.
Formula company probably would love you to buy more milk so probably hidden agenda to suggest so much milk.
Ho I just thought of something. Elyssa asks for more food even after polishing off a lot and definitely filling her tummy. So maybe Erin is the same, asking for more milk even after her tummy is full@
Maybe bb Erin needs more...BM easily digested so they get hungry easily...my Hebe gal after having 3oz ...a minute later, she needs more another 1.5oz...see? But unfortunately, I dun have BM like you... My mother will help me to take care of her, soon or later I need to stop breastfeeding her...my mom want consistency if she need to take care of my bb gal...right now and so far, I fed her as much as I can... I chose Enfa lac - tripo guard for FM.
Probably she needs more feed?
I too try and feed directly. When we would give mine bottle he would only drink 3 oz (a few months ago) I know he can drink more cause when I pump sometimes I can get about 5oz. Maybe she's going through growth spur?
Breastmilk gets digested so much faster than formula milk. Hence, baby gets hungry very frequently. My guess is that she needs more intake now that she's 4.5 mths old. You may have to substitute with more formula milk. When I was b'feeding my gal, she was on demand feeding. It was a round the clock thingie. S26 was fine for my boy. No constipation issues but when we bought the GOLD version of the follow up milk of S26, that's when the constipation problems started. I switched to the normal non-gold range, then he was back to normal. With my gal, I choose the Enfa series. She loves it and no constipation issues.
its hard to say how much. some kids are drinking up to 8 ounce easily at tender months, but all my kids drink only 4 ounce each session, right up till today (age 3.5)
LOL, now I'm started to confuse too, coz both my kids consumed ard 4-5oz 3hrly(my gal till 15mo while my boy till 2yo)... they don't actually demand for more.
B4 I started thm solid at 6mo, they actually didn't even hv water or any other source of liquid instead of BM...*scratch head
just follow your baby's cue I reckon, after all all baby's requirement are different.:)
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