How to Know if Your Newborn Is Eating Enough
As a new mom, it’s very natural to worry about all aspects of your newborn’s health, and feedings are no exception.
How can you tell if your baby is getting enough milk? There are a number of clues that can answer this question, beginning with the cues that your little one gives you.
Look for Cues
Whether you’re breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, your baby will let you know it’s feeding time by crying, or by looking for the nipple and sucking when you offer it. Conversely, if baby is full, he or she will turn the face away or simply fall asleep during the meal. As long as your baby looks healthy and is putting on weight, you don’t need to wake your infant when they fall asleep. You can get them at the next feeding.
And there will be plenty of chances!
Frequency and Amount of Feedings
Newborns eat anywhere from 6 to 12 times a day, about 2-3 ounces of milk per feeding. If you’re breastfeeding, pediatricians recommend that you give your infant both breasts at every feeding — each breast for 10 to 15 minutes, every 2 to 3 hours. If you’re bottle-feeding, expect your infant to drink 16-28 ounces a day in the first month of life.
Whether breastfed or bottle-fed, newborns should be fed every 2 to 3 hours. Burp baby half-way between the feeding, and again at the end.
Doctors advise breastfeeding moms not to be overly concerned about the exact length of the feedings. The intensity of your baby’s suck and the force of your milk’s letdown reflex will of course influence how much milk your baby gets; your baby may not need 10 or more minutes on each breast to get enough milk.
Expect your baby to drink 2 to 3 ounces of milk a day per pound of weight. Babies who are bottle-fed may fluctuate in their appetites and may eat less or more at different feedings.
Baby should consistently be hungry most of the time. A baby who is sleeping whenever feeding time comes around or looks generally lethargic should be examined by a pediatrician.
Is It Normal for a Newborn to Lose a Little Weight?
Don’t be alarmed if your newborn actually loses a little weight in the first few days — most babies do, as mom’s milk may not have come down fully just yet, or as mother and baby both get the feeding thing down. But your baby should not lose more than 10 percent of his or her birth weight. (An 8-lb. baby, for instance, should not lose more than about 12 ounces.)
If you have any questions about your baby’s weight (for example, if your baby’s skin remains wrinkled by the end of the first week, or the face hasn’t rounded out a few weeks after birth), talk to your pediatrician and have your baby weighed at the doctor’s office.
If your baby is vomiting or spitting up milk a lot (many times daily), or doesn’t appear to be thriving, or wet and/or soiled diapers are consistently very few, tell your pediatrician right away, as this could signal a digestive problem that may need to be addressed right away.
The Number of Wet and Soiled Diapers
Another reliable way to know if your little one is drinking enough milk is by looking at how much he or she is eliminating.
In the first 2 or 3 days after birth, a breastfed baby may only wet a couple of diapers a day, as he or she consumes mother’s first milk, colostrum, which is thicker and less abundant than the milk that will follow.
Beginning on the third or fourth day, when mother’s milk comes down, expect 6 to 8 wet diapers a day and 3 or 4 soiled diapers a day. If your baby wets fewer than four diapers a day, he or she may not be getting enough milk. As for soiled diapers, if your baby soils every diaper, this can be a sign of a food sensitivity or allergy (to cow’s milk proteins or sugar, in bottle-fed babies, or to foods that mother eats, in breastfed babies). Talk to your pediatrician if you think your baby is having difficulty digesting the milk.
All things being normal, your baby’s weight should double at about 4 and a half to 5 months. A smaller baby may double their weight sooner.
By Eirian Hallinan