feeding ebm - how much is enough?

[maveta]

I´ve just started expressing one feed a day for dh to give to our almost 3 week old baby. The first time I only managed about 3 ozs which he took quite happily but I still needed to give him a few minutes (about 5mins) at the breast for him to drop off as he normally would after a feed. A normal breastfeed for him lasts 10mins on each breast. Last night we gave him 4ozs from a bottle and he settled just fine but woke up after 2 hours to eat some more, and then woke again after 3 hours. Since he was a couple of days old he settled himself into a pretty regular pattern of eating every 4 hours with the very occasional demand for food after 2 or 3 but this is definitely exception rather than the rule. He´s been sick quite a few times this morning, not huge amounts but more than usual. Which says to me that he´s overfull..

My question, after all this, is - do you think 4ozs is enough for him or should I try and give him more? Kellymom seems to think that 4 ozs should be plenty for a month old baby eating 6 times a day, as he does, and he´s not even a month yet! (he weighs 3.8kg).

[katyjo]

Hi maveta,
sound like your doing great eith the expressing.
I used to try and get between 5-6oz (usually in 2 sessions) and ds used to leave a bit so hard to say exactly how much!
I can't remember how often he was feeding, but it was around about 5weeks.
I always found it very wasteful, and it is almost upsetting to throw away left over milk!

Just go with the flow, but ds was never as satisfied with ebm as straight from the boob, even if he had gallons of ebm, I think it is a comfort thing as well.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll get loads of advice.

xxx

[kreamkrackers]

hi my dd came home on ebm due to her being premature and always falling asleep on the breast. after a few weeks i switched to bf fully and i found she was much happier and slept much longer. her weight gain was great.

maybe he's just happier on the breast if he's more settled from it. another thing is he could be on a growth spurt right now so feeding fully from you might be better for him and you.

also, why do you want your dh to give your ds a bottle? could your dh do something else like bath your ds? this will give you a bit of time to relax and him some more bonding time.

[maveta]

Thanks Katjo.. I can imagine it will be annoying throwing away unused milk after the effort spent in getting it out in the first place! lol. I think you are right, it´s the comfort bit that he´s missing out on..

kreamkrackers, I don´t feel the need for dh to give him a bottle per se, he does do bath time and enjoys it very much. At some point soon I may need to leave ds for a very short while (a couple of hours) and so that whoever is looking after him (my mum or dh) doesn´t feel worried that he will be hungry and they won´t be able to feed him, it would be good to leave them with a bottle of ebm, even if he doesn´t end up asking for it. So thought it would be good to try my hand at expressing and see how he takes to a bottle here and there. Tonight we´ll offer it to him (seeing as I´d already expressed the milk this morning anyway) in the evening instead but if he still seems more unsettled then I guess we´ll leave it until he´s a bit older.

[kreamkrackers]

if you want him to have a bottle every so often for when you're not there carry on trying him but maybe try earlier on in the day so you're not up as much at night. once i stopped dd's bottles she didn't want to go back. at 10 months i've finally, after a lot of hard work, managed to get her to start to take 3oz from a beaker.

had a look at your photos, he's gorgeous!

[Mumpbump]

We used to feed ds ebm from a bottle once a week just to keep him used to the bottle. I'd express twice in order to get about 8 oz together. Too mush faff to spend more time than that expressing, but I had a friend whose son refused to take a bottle at all and didn't want to end up in that position.

[maveta]

yeah, i think earlier on is the way to go. thank-you..i think he is gorgeous too, of course! Your girls are beautiful btw

[kreamkrackers]

thankyou

i love looking at other people photos!

[dueat44]

When dd was born 7w ago, she would not take the breast so I expressed. V experienced midwife told me 2.5oz per pound of baby weight was required. So if baby weighs 10lbs, she needs 25 oz per day split between feeds. Gives you something to aim for, anyway, and if you can do more so much the better though your babe may not want/need it all.

[saltcod]

we're the same as mumpbump... I feed DS (4.5 mths) EBM from a bottle every week to 2 weeks just to keep him used to it so I can leave him with my parents for a few hours every so often. He protests & grumbles his way through the bottle but likes his grub too much to go hungry. If I'm around he will still want a comfort BF after the bottle in order to go to sleep though. I think it's going to be a long long time before he'll give up his BF

[nymph]

Thats interesting about the calculation on how much milk a baby needs- although they are all different. My DS is in a nursery three day per week and I'm never sure how much EBM to leave for him for the two feeds they give. Was giving 6oz for each feed - with me breastfeeding him at lunch time. He gets a further four feeds throughout the day and night and has started waking up much more at night at 18 weeks. I just dont know if this is because of a growth spurt or because if I was feeding him those two feeds he gets in the nursery he'd be getting more. Sometimes would be useful for breasts to have a full - empty guage on them!