https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:14:50 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-feeding-mamas-how-do-you-know-how-much-breastmilk-formula-to-feed-your-babies#post-218023 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 21:05:09 +0000 winniebee 218023@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I am so bad at keeping track of how many times DS eats during the day. He gets breasmilk and at 8 weeks takes between 3-4 oz per feeding. I fill the bottles to 3 oz and then top him off if he seems hungry. I also feed him on demand and during the day he usually eats every 2.5-3 hours. </p> <p>Hes 8 weeks but only 9 lbs or so. He is a bit of a fusspot so sometimes it is hard to tell when he is Hubgry...but I can always tell when he is full! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-feeding-mamas-how-do-you-know-how-much-breastmilk-formula-to-feed-your-babies#post-218019 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 20:47:43 +0000 Honeybee 218019@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Just to reassure you, DS is 14.5 weeks, and he's been eating 30 ounces a day since 6 weeks old! My DD didn't eat 30 ounces/day until about 4.5/5 months, so it was big surprise for me, too! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-feeding-mamas-how-do-you-know-how-much-breastmilk-formula-to-feed-your-babies#post-218014 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 20:39:20 +0000 brownie 218014@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>If it is breast milk, la leche league says 1 to 1.5 oz for every hour you are away from them. Your breastmilk will change calories for your babies needs. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-feeding-mamas-how-do-you-know-how-much-breastmilk-formula-to-feed-your-babies#post-218001 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 20:11:32 +0000 tequiero21 218001@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>there's a formula - something like 2.5 x baby's weight to figure out how much they need daily. around 3-4 months, they can go around 5-7oz per feeding. my kids are about 14 weeks and i feed them anywhere from 3oz - 7oz per feeding. i try to stick with 5 during the day, 6oz for first feeding (around 1am) and 7oz for last feeding (around 7pm). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-feeding-mamas-how-do-you-know-how-much-breastmilk-formula-to-feed-your-babies#post-217949 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 19:13:05 +0000 MamaCate 217949@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think mrs. jacks has been really helpful but just in case I thought I would share what worked for us. Like your case, our LO was EBF for most of maternity leave, and we did introduce an occasional bottle to get ready for daycare. Our ped said that the bottles should be 2 oz + the # of months of age, more or less. So 2 mos=4 oz, 3 mos=5 oz etc. </p> <p>I remember one of the first times we left LO with my mom at 2 mos she tried giving her a 2 oz bottle, like Mrs. Jacks talked about, and she sucked it down and ended up taking another one and then some. We were so surprised!</p> <p>My mom took care of her for the first 2 months when i went back to work and we just tried adjusting the bottles up or down an ounce or 1/2 oz at a time until we found what works. LO has been taking 2 5 1/2 oz bottles consistently since about 4 months, about 4 hours apart. A couple times my mom tried 6 oz but LO didn't finish it. She is now 7 mos and we have added solids but those bottles are still working the same. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-feeding-mamas-how-do-you-know-how-much-breastmilk-formula-to-feed-your-babies#post-217946 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 19:09:27 +0000 regberadaisy 217946@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My mom goes with a similar system as Mrs Jacks. She pretty much feeds her on demand. If M is hungry before the 2hours she let's you know!!!! If she wants more than what's in the bottle she tends to still be sucking vigorously towards the end. And you have to pry it out of her mouth. When she does that we tend to offer another oz and see where it goes.<br /> She's in a system where she drinks 4oz for the first feeding after I leave for work then the rest of the morning is 3-4oz. Afternoon is 2-3oz. Between 8-5:30pm she drinks ~15oz. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-feeding-mamas-how-do-you-know-how-much-breastmilk-formula-to-feed-your-babies#post-217942 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 19:05:58 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 217942@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@skibobrown: As for cues, I look for M. to start reversing her tongue so that it's pushing out of her mouth instead of into her mouth. I notice her "popping off" the bottle nipple more frequently, just as a kid would "pop off" the boob and I look for signs of being milk drunk (droopy eyelids, relaxed posture, slower breathing and heart rate-- yeah I'm a geek like that!) Her sucking at that point is generally pretty slow or even stopped and she's more just suckling for comfort than nutrition.</p> <p>Does that help? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-feeding-mamas-how-do-you-know-how-much-breastmilk-formula-to-feed-your-babies#post-217934 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:54:40 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 217934@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mamajaja: Great question! When I was EBF with my first, we would do 2 oz increments in the bottle. That way if she decided she was full, I wasn't sitting with a 6 oz bottle in the fridge with the countdown clock ticking down. In the unlikely event that she wouldn't finish the 2 oz, we'd put it back in the fridge and she usually wanted to finish it before too long. After a couple hours in the fridge, I had to chuck that bottle, so I was very careful with breast milk. </p> <p>Now with our second daughter it's pretty much exclusively formula. (I do have 20 pumped oz in the freezer from our other daughter left, but I'm saving it for if M. gets sick or it comes close to expiring). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-feeding-mamas-how-do-you-know-how-much-breastmilk-formula-to-feed-your-babies#post-217929 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:48:45 +0000 mamajaja 217929@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrs. jacks: how do you measure the amount to give your LO at each feeding without wasting too much BM? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-feeding-mamas-how-do-you-know-how-much-breastmilk-formula-to-feed-your-babies#post-217927 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:44:03 +0000 skibobrown 217927@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Jacks: I think I'm still not great at reading my baby's hunger cues. She was such a lazy eater at the beginning and was always falling asleep during eating, so I always assume she's getting sleepy, not full. Maybe that's not true anymore...</p> <p>Now that she's readily finishing her 4-oz bottles, I sometimes get the feeling though that she would be interested in eating more if there was more in the bottle. So maybe I'll try a few 6-oz bottles with her to see if she wants more. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-feeding-mamas-how-do-you-know-how-much-breastmilk-formula-to-feed-your-babies#post-217924 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:36:57 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 217924@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We bottle feed on demand and she eats anywhere from 28-36 oz at 4 months. We try to do it just like breastfeeding by relying on her cues instead of volume. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-feeding-mamas-how-do-you-know-how-much-breastmilk-formula-to-feed-your-babies#post-217916 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:25:59 +0000 littleveesmommy 217916@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This was completely confusing for me at first too since I was EBF during my 12 week maternity leave and had no idea how often/much I should plan on leaving with LO when I returned to work. I started by taking note of how often she nursed, napped for, and number of times she wanted to eat. Then I used the popular web formula of dividing 25 oz (avg daily intake for infants) by the number of times she ate. With that formula, LO was to get a 3.5 oz bottle every two hours (!!) for 4 bottles during the day plus one morning and two evening/night nursing sessions. After a week, my mom decided that we should up her bottle to 4 oz and feed every three hours for three bottles so she gets better naps, which LO took well. Even though LO was bottle fed during the week, I had told my mom that LO was to be fed on demand like nursing, so LO was able to control her intake based on her needs. At 5.5 months LO has now worked her way to three 5 oz bottles during the day and nursing at 630am/700pm/500am for a total estimated daily intake of around 28 oz (guesstimate since I'm not sure how much she gets nursing). </p> <p>Honestly, each baby is so different that I think as long as you baby seems satisfied and sleeps fairly well, then you should be fine. Some babies eat more and others like to snack. =) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/bottle-feeding-mamas-how-do-you-know-how-much-breastmilk-formula-to-feed-your-babies#post-217901 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:09:23 +0000 skibobrown 217901@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our daughter is 14 weeks old, and she has just started finishing her 4.5-oz bottles of formula at each feeding. She eats 7 times in a 24 hour period right now, so that's 31.5 oz that she eats each day. For some reason that seems like a lot of food to me, but I'm wondering if I should up her bottles to 6 ounces. I always worry that I'm over or under feeding the baby! </p> <p>For other bottle feeding mamas -- How do you figure out how many times per day to feed your babies and how much to offer with each bottle? </p>