how much is normal?

[mum2JLH]

:confused: i started out breast feeding joshua when we left the hospital. then my milk supply started to go down. Joshua was not gaining enough weight and i tried everything to increase my supply, but failed. My MCHN suggested NAN HA 1 and he has been on that for a month now.

Each time Josh wakes from his sleeps i can only get him to drink around 90-120 mls and then about 60-90 mls befor he goes back down to sleep.

he is 4 months old.

is it normal for some babies to drink less then the "norm"?

[Kaylene]

Im not sure what is normal but my dd only had small amounts too. She would only drink a max of 50-60 mls at a time. This resulted in much stress on my behalf. If you are still worried call your local clinic, they are all usually great. Look through the info that the hospital gave you for contacts.

He may not be a big eater and may just want to snack often. Try not to worry as this affects the milk too.

K

[iamLisa]

Hi.
My little Max is 4 months and has between 100mls and 150mls every 3 hours. 6 feeds over 24 hours. I was a little worried about this too as some younger babies in my baby group take as much as 260mls per feed. I asked the midwife and she said as long as he is growing normally and is putting on weight, not to worry. (he is) I hope this helps a little. If you are still worried you should contact community health. They have been a great help to me.

[Katcha]

My little Katelyn usually only drinks about 100mls at a time....the most she's ever had in one go is 135mls. She's 3 1/2 months now. For a couple of weeks recently she was having less feeds and drinking more per feed (up to 135mls) but now she's gone back to having more feeds and drinking less each feed. :(

[Chickadee]

As a rough guide, in a day most babies drink 150 to 170 ml per kg of their weight. So for a 5kg bub you could expect around 750ml to 850ml per day. So just divide that by the # of feeds to get a typical bottle size. Of course some bubs will drink more than that and some less, and some will have it in 5 feeds and some may have 7 smaller bottles to make up the total.

The real rule though is that bub should be having lots of wet nappies every day, be gaining weight (though there may be short "plateaus" in weight gain) and should be active and meeting development milestones.