babies who take EBM bottles every day...

[seaweed eater]

How many oz does LO take per bottle? I'd love to hear from moms who are regularly away for several hours (working or for other reasons), not just occasional bottle feeders.

It would also be interesting to know LO's feeding schedule (how many hours between bottles) and age. Thanks!

 

[MommyJogger]

I'm semi-regular. We're starting a little back at daycare. Most days I go over to nurse him and he's always been a bottle refuser, but new daycare has a magic lady that he just adores and will gladly take bottles from. She's MamaTwo! He takes 4oz every 2-3 hours on days I'm not with him, but I always go to nurse him down for his two naps, along with respectable breakfast, lunch, and snack portions of the food I send; then he nurses a lot in the evening, has a few solids at dinner, and has only just started dropping all/most night feeds. He's 11mo old. So in 8-9h, he'll get ~12-16oz plus 2 nursing sessions that I show up 'empty' for. But it's probably somewhat artificially inflated because they go outside 2-3 hours each day and the weather's been hot, so he would probably take less and be fine if they offered water instead of a cold cup of bm when he's thirsty. Sorry for the essay!

 

[seaweed eater]

Thanks MommyJogger, no need to apologize, it is useful detail

Bumpety bump...the reason I asked is that I see some babies at daycare having enormous bottles of EBM (and yes, it is EBM and not formula), which surprises me because I thought 3-4 oz was the amount they should be continuing to have per bottle...just want to see how common that is! I know there are other working mamas in this forum, where are you?

 

[MommyJogger]

I see that too, but I can't say I think it's the best thing to do. Most people utd on infant feeding wouldn't even advise doing that with formula. There's some research suggesting that higher BMI associated with ff is actually more closely linked to feeding method (bottle or breast) than to content of the milk, meaning that the stomach stretching caused by feeding high volumes at longer intervals is the greater cause of the obesity-ff link rather than the formula itself (though the link between obesity and formula is still there when taking delivery method into account).

 

[seaweed eater]

How interesting! I know the BLW people say that being fed rather than eating on demand contributes to obesity. I hadn't thought about the stomach stretching aspect of it. Thanks for that.

 

[doodles999]

Michal still just has 3-4 oz per bottle...sometimes only 2oz. My babysitter gives her bigger bottles sometimes (I put both sides into one bag at all pumping sessions, so my morning pump will often be a 5-6 oz bag of ebm), but I think she just has some and then finishes the bottle later on. I know she doesn't drink much more than 3 oz normally when I've seen her take a bottle.

 

[justkitty]

A bit unrelated but my ff ds only ever had 4oz max. He wouldn't drink any more until about 12m then only rarely would he go to 5-6oz. He got diagnosed as failure to thrive as he is very small. Born 50th centile and at 17m on 2nd centile but he is thriving! But his cousin who is 12m is on 100th centile and has always drained 10oz bottles 3 hourly. And a month ago she was drinking 30oz just at night time!!!!

 

[justkitty]

So yes I agree 4oz is fine whether bf or ff.

 

[seaweed eater]

I think he'd drink more if it were offered most of the time he occasionally doesn't finish his 4 oz but almost always does.

 

[scoobydrlp]

I send 4oz bottles and currently LO is going 4-5 hours between feeds (she is almost 7 months old) When she was younger, say 3-5 months she was taking 4oz every 3 hours. Daycare sort of pressured me to send bigger bottles at one point saying that she seemed hungry when she finished her 4 oz, so I tried sending 5 for a few days, but she only finished one or two of them and then her other feeds she only took 2 or 3 oz of. So now we're back to 4oz.

I do think that breast milk can vary from person to person. I have a friend whose baby is only 2 weeks older than my LO and she's taking 7oz bottles, but is smaller than my LO. She is not satisfied with smaller amounts of milk. I believe the milk I produce is more caloric so potentially is just more filling in smaller quantities.

 

[Faith1025]

I send four ounces for Kylie. Sometimes she drinks the entire bottle, sometimes only 1 ounce, then 3 ounces an hour later. She's fed on demand and still varies on how long she goes between feeds.

 

[snowflakes120]

How many oz does LO take per bottle? I'd love to hear from moms who are regularly away for several hours (working or for other reasons), not just occasional bottle feeders.

It would also be interesting to know LO's feeding schedule (how many hours between bottles) and age. Thanks!

I am exclusively pumping. Kellan takes 4oz every 3 hours during the day. We let him sleep as long as he wants at night. Which isn't that long unfortunately only about 3-4.5 hrs. He gets about 7 feedings a day for a total of 28oz per day. Sometimes he gets 8 feedings if he wants more then we give it to him. He is 8 weeks old.

 

[purplelou]

LO has x2 lots of 2-3 oz during the day. I pop home and BF at lunch time and then during the evening (after 5) and at night time.
we are also doing BLW (with varying success at the moment) so on some days its less because she will have eaten instead. I am at work from 8am till 5am except for an hour at luchtime.

 

[chevy4by]

My baby is almost 4 mos old and she takes 4-5 oz of EBM WITH 4-5tsp baby rice cereal per bottle 5 times per day. she averages 20oz per day. She does not breast feed.

 

[ooSweetPea]

I send 3 3.5oz (10.5oz) bottles with my LO while I'm at work and I'm gone about 9.5 hours. The past few weeks she's only taken two of them while before she was taking all three everyday. So today I tried 2 4.5 oz bottles for the first time and shock! - today she decided she wanted 3 feeds so a 4 oz bag was defrosted at the sitter's for a total of 13 oz... needless to say after her 'extra' 3.5 oz today she's been passed out in her swing all evening. I think we are going back to our regular 3 3.5oz-ers tomorrow or I'll never keep up!

 

[BellarinaBaby]

My DS is 9 months and drinks 4-5oz every 3 hours or so. He is also on solids, so sometimes he goes a little longer between feeds.

 

[purplelou]

im really surprised how much this seems to vary between babies!!

 

[seaweed eater]

It varies even more at our daycare! Some babies are on small-ish bottles every 2-3 hours and some have enormous bottles every 3-4 or more!

 

[rory83coyotes]

I think that it just varies by baby. Some eat more than others. When you are nursing there is no way to tell how much they are feeding anyway. It is just a guess. Those same babies with the big bottles could be nursing that much. One of the girls I worked with could pump a full 10 ounce bottle on each side in 10 minutes. She had a hugh let down. I would just feed as much as they take .

 

[misspriss]

My baby reverse cycles and hardly eats during the day. I leave 4 2oz bottles for him, and he never drinks more than 3. It is a struggle to get him to eat more than 1.5 ounces at a sitting, so he usually has 1.5 and finishes the last 0.5 before his nap.

I pump 5 2oz bottles easy, so I have 2 extra ounces to freeze every day. I really try to only pump 8oz, but my body wants to make 10 no matter what. It annoys me because the extra production makes my OALD worse...

He's pretty much glued to the boob when I get home, and we cosleep and nurse all night.