Feeding Baby: How Often and How Much?
The age old question. As a feeding specialist, I have become familiar with the typical guidelines of how many ounces a baby should be eating.
However, as a mom to both a formula fed baby and a breastfed baby, I understand how stressful it can be trying to figure out if your baby is eating enough and how much to offer.
Let’s break down what the guidelines say, the differences between formula feeding and exclusively breastmilk feeding, and what changes happen when your baby starts eating solid foods.
Birth - 6 months
Formula Feeding:
Formula feeding is more black and white compared to breastmilk feeding. As you see in the graphic for formula feeding, the volume of bottles and frequency of offering a bottle is linear. This just means as your baby grows, so does the amount in the bottles! In order to increase the calories your growing baby needs, you will need to offer more formula. If your baby has been consuming 4 ounce bottles for a few months, but you start to notice they are wanting a bottle more frequently or becoming frustrated when their bottle is done, it might be time to increase the ounces of their bottle!
If you are a new mom seeing this graphic or other schedules out there on the internet, remember during those first few weeks of your baby’s life there may be no true feeding schedule. Don’t stress, that is normal! Your little one is trying to adjust to being in a brand new world and figuring out what works best for them!
Fortunately, with formula fed babies, around the time your baby turns one month old you should start to notice a more predictable schedule. Typically, your baby will start wanting a bottle every 3-4 hours! The frequency of bottles will continue to decrease a little bit as your baby consumes larger bottles. Feeds space out as the feeds become larger.
Breastmilk Feeding:
Now let me tell you, breastmilk feeding can be a bit less black and white! Trying to provide specific schedules and ounces to give for a breastmilk fed baby is just not as simple, and might not work at all for your family- and that’s ok!
Breastmilk fed babies typically do smaller, more frequent feedings. Looking at the graphic you might be thinking, ”Jordyn, you just told me as my baby grows so do their calorie needs. Why will I not be offering more breast milk as my baby grows?” Well let me tell you!
As your baby grows and needs more calories, the breastmilk changes with them! How cool is that?! The nutrients and calories in breastmilk become more concentrated so it is not necessary to give a breastmilk fed baby an 8 ounce bottle.
Instead of thinking about how many ounces per bottle should my baby be getting, think of how many ounces they should be getting in a 24 hour period. This takes a little pressure off the expectation for each bottle!
During the first three months of life, especially during the first few weeks, it may seem like your baby constantly wants to eat. Phew, it is exhausting, but totally normal!
Offering Pumped Milk
If you are offering pumped milk, you may notice around 3-4 months of age that your baby’s intake levels out. They may start to take the same amount of ounces until they are done consuming breastmilk. Some babies take 2-3 oz with more frequent feedings and others may take 4-5 oz with feeds more spaced out. Either way is totally okay!
It’s important to note that if you’re pumping, you’ll be able to see more clearly how many ounces your little one is taking! But, if you’re exclusively nursing or doing a combination of pumping and nursing, you really won’t know EXACTLY how much baby is taking. That “unknown” can feel a little overwhelming, but that’s where trusting your baby’s cues and your intuition comes into play! Look at baby’s growth and behavior and trust that you know best. Baby will communicate what they need, and you will answer - you got this!
Offering Feeds when Starting Solids (6-12 Months)
When your little one starts eating solid food, remember that formula or breastmilk remains your baby’s primary source of nutrition.
Solid food is complementary to formula or breastmilk until baby is about a year old. The purpose of starting solids is for learning HOW to eat, not necessarily to increase calories, yet. During the first few months of solids, offer formula or breastmilk first before offering solids. You don’t want your little one to be hangry while sitting in the highchair trying to eat a new food!
Here are some general considerations for offering formula/breastmilk feeds with solid foods:
6-9 months: It’s recommended to offer 1-2 meals around baby’s bottle feedings and nursing sessions. Bottle feeds and nursing sessions take priority. You probably will not start to see any decrease in ounces drank or changes in nursing sessions yet during this stage.
9-11 months: It’s recommended to increase to 2-3 meals, still working around baby’s bottles and nursing sessions. You may start to see a small dip in ounces fed via bottle, or shorter nursing sessions. But you might not just yet! No need for snacks right now, but you can start to think about what snacks may look like as they are coming soon!
12+ months: Here’s the start of the switch! It’s recommended to offer 3 meals + 1-2 snacks (check out the Free Healthy Snacks Guide here!) as your little one tolerates, and prioritize offering food first as you can. Trying to move to offering bottles and nursing sessions AROUND foods is the new goal. This all depends on how much formula or breastmilk they are still consuming and the transition is usually very slow.
Follow YOUR Baby!
Once your baby becomes more confident and consumes more solid foods, you may start to notice a dip in consumption of formula or breastmilk. This typically happens as babies get closer to 12 months of age, but, of course, there is a range of normal. You may notice your baby starts to gradually wean themselves from formula or breastmilk without you even trying!
No matter if your baby is formula fed or breastmilk fed, always remember to follow YOUR baby’s cues. If you offer a six ounce bottle of formula to your baby and they only drink five ounces, but are happy and content then call that feeding a win!!
If your breast milk fed baby just ate a two ounce bottle 30 minutes ago, but is fussing and acting hungry, offer another ounce! Don’t worry so much about the clock! I think it’s important to share general feeding schedules as a guideline, but the best recommendation to follow is your baby!
When Can I Offer Water to Baby and How Much?
Per the AAP, babies can start drinking water at 6 months of age and after clearance from their pediatrician.
Water is not a priority early on, since too much water can impact the amount of breast milk or formula that your baby consumes. Practicing with small sips of water during meals starting around 6 months is encouraged from an oral motor perspective, but know that it is not expected that your little one consume large volumes of water.
Getting your baby familiar with cups early on is great, but don’t worry so much about the volume they are consuming!
Additional Resources:
For my favorite cups for baby learning to drink, check out this free guide!
If you want more guidance on breast or bottle feeding, we offer virtual consultations and you can get all your questions answered!
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