What, your baby drinks 6 to 8 ounces at one go? If mine has 4 ounces at one go yours is a huge accomplishment! Just how do you do it?
What can you read in this article?
- How much milk should newborn drink
- Newborn feeding time
- How often to feed newborn at night
Sounds familiar? I’m sure! New moms always fret about how much milk their baby drinks, especially when they have a point of comparison. So just how much milk should your baby drink?
An extremely common question that moms have about how much milk should newborn drink is why their breastfed babies seem to take in much less milk than formula-fed babies. This leaves moms worrying if they are doing something wrong.
How much should a newborn drink
Breastfeeding moms or moms who are bottle-feeding your children breast milk, don’t worry just yet. You can rest assured that you aren’t doing anything wrong. Drinking more milk is not necessarily better or more ideal.
It’s typical for formula-fed babies to consume more milk than babies who are on breast milk. A study done on 16,755 babies, in Belarus, compared the milk intake of formula-fed and breastfed babies.
They found out that formula-fed babies consumed 49% more milk at 1 month of age, 57% more at 3 months, and 71% more at 5 months!
Another study done in Australia shows that breastfed babies between 1 to 6 months of age consistently drink about 3 ounces of milk at each feeding. Younger babies of course take in even less milk.
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How many mL should a newborn drink chart
If you’re wondering how much milk your baby should drink, you might be surprised to learn that breastfed babies’ milk intake doesn’t actually increase drastically in their first 6 months of life. And as their growth slows, these babies continue growing and gaining weight, with the same milk intake which averages at about 25 ounces (750ml) per 24 hours!
Here’s a rough estimate of how much your baby will consume at different ages:
How much milk should a newborn drink in 24 hours
Give your newborn 2- to 3-ounce (60- to 90-milliliter) bottles in the first few weeks. Depending on your baby’s hunger cues, provide more or less.
An infant drinks 1.5–3 ounces (45–90 milliliters) every 2–3 hours on average. As your baby grows and is able to take more at each meal, this quantity will increase.
How much breastmilk should a 1 month old eat
Your baby will be drinking at least 4 ounces (120 mL) per feeding and will have a reasonably consistent feeding pattern of every four hours or so, by the end of the first month. If your baby sleeps for more than four to five hours and isn’t eating, wake her up and give her a bottle.
How much breastmilk should a 2 month old eat
Your baby may drink 4–5 ounces (120–150 milliliters) every 3–4 hours at around 2 months.
Depending on how often they eat, your baby may consume 4–6 ounces (120–180 milliliters) every meal at 4 months. While your kid may consume 6–8 ounces (180–230 milliliters) 4–5 times per day by 6 months.
Newborn feeding time
During the first several weeks of life, your newborn will nurse 8 to 12 times each day. Mothers should start by nursing for 10–15 minutes on each breast, then alter the time as needed.
Breastfeeding should be done on demand (when your baby is hungry), which is every 1–3 hours in most cases. As a newborn grows older, he or she will nurse less frequently and for longer periods of time between feedings. Newborn babies that are given formula will most likely drink 2–3 ounces every 2–4 hours. Newborns should not be left without food for more than 4–5 hours.
The following are signs that your baby is hungry:
- Head swaying from side to side
- Mouth is open
- Tongue’s out
- Fists and palms over their mouths
- Clinging to your breasts
- Crying
- Puckering lips as if they were about to suck
You and your baby will develop a routine without the need for a feeding schedule. Babies can tell when they’re hungry and when they’ve had enough (and will tell their parents).
When your baby shows signs of being full (slowing down, spitting out the bottle or unlatching from the breast, closing the mouth, looking away from the breast or bottle), cease feeding.
Why do formula-fed babies drink more than breastfed babies?
There are a few reasons for this.
- Milk flow
During the first few months of a baby’s life, upon swallowing the milk, they have a reflex that automatically triggers the suckling action. Unlike breastfeeding, where you have to worry about let down and milk flow, formula milk flows more consistently. As such, babies naturally tend to drink more milk from a bottle at each feeding.
Babies eventually outgrow this reflexive suckling so if babies get conditioned to feeding from the bottle, they face the risk of overfeeding. So if you’re wondering how much milk should baby drink, it’s probably a lot less than you are feeding them!
2. Breastfed babies have greater control
The problem with breastfeeding is that you are clueless about how much milk your baby is drinking. If she seems satisfied after 5 minutes of drinking, you are likely to coax her to drink more because you are convinced that she needs more milk. And you always wonder how much milk should baby drink.
However, as you watch your baby growing, gaining weight, looking happy and thriving, you start to trust your baby’s instinct and you leave it to her to decide how much she wants. Even when introducing solids at a later stage, you allow your baby to take the lead in deciding the quantity of food she wants to eat.
A study done in the United Kingdom (UK), on babies between 6 to 12 months of age, discovered that breastfeeding mothers don’t pressure their babies to eat and they pretty much go with the flow. Less stress, happy mom and happy baby!
3. When you offer more, they take more!
Earlier in the article, we discussed the study done in Belarus. The other finding was that the babies who drank more were generally given more milk. Their mothers offered them bottles with more than 6 ounces of milk at each feeding.
4. Different rate of metabolism
The nutrients found in breastmilk are used more efficiently. Additionally, breast milk has hormones like leptin and adiponectin. These hormones help babies regulate their appetite and energy metabolism. These hormones also affect their sleep metabolism and formula-fed babies burn more calories in their sleep, as compared to breastfed babies.
Insufficient pumping output
Another situation that leaves moms constantly puzzled is the difference between direct latching and pumping. Many moms who have no problems satisfying their babies when direct latching, don’t seem to be able to keep up with the baby’s demand when they pump milk for them. Sometimes they need to pump twice or even thrice to make enough milk for each feed. And this leaves them wondering if their milk supply is low.
So how much milk should baby drink?
Photo by Wendy Wei from Pexels
Again, as mentioned earlier, bottle feeding causes babies to drink more, regardless of the type of milk they are offered.
However, there are some things you can do to control the amount of expressed milk that they take in and to reduce the chances of overfeeding. The trick is to keep the milk flow during bottle feeding, slow and steady.
How do you do this?
- Don’t upgrade the teat according to the baby’s age, keep it at the slowest milk flow that your baby can accept
- Keep your baby upright while feeding as this slows the flow
- Take a break every now and then and give your baby a chance to realize that she is full and doesn’t actually require more milk
Also, don’t forget that babies often like to comfort latch and when they don’t get to do that, they might seem like they are demanding more milk when in actual fact they are just yearning to suckle for a longer time.
Moms, we hope that this article puts you at ease. The next time you are tearing your hair out over how much milk should baby drink, just remember that it’s probably less than you think!
How often to feed newborn at night
According to the National Sleep Foundation, newborns should get 14–17 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period. Some babies sleep as much as 18–19 hours each day.
Newborns need to eat every couple of hours, so they wake up every couple of hours. Breastfed babies eat every 2–3 hours on average. Bottle-fed babies are more likely to feed every 3–4 hours.
Should you wake up baby to feed
The first few months of a newborn’s existence can be the most difficult for parents, who may have to wake up several times during the night to care for the baby. Each infant sleeps in a different way. Some babies start sleeping “through the night” (for 5–6 hours at a time) as early as 2–3 months, while others do not.
This article was originally published on theAsianparent Singapore
Republished with permission from: theAsianParent Singapore