Is my baby getting enough?
birthTIPS
Bottle fed babies (like breastfed babies), will drink variable amounts of milk. Individual babies will also vary in how much they drink at each feed. The following volumes of milk are meant as a guide only. You should feed your baby 'what they need' and not be concerned if they do not finish all the milk in their bottle. If you want to read about the slow increase in milk volumes for very newborn babies in the first couple of weeks after they are born, you can read Class 11 - Bottle feeding, the early days.
By a week or so after the birth, term newborn babies will generally drink about 150mls per kilogram of body weight, per day. Therefore if your baby is about 4 kilograms in weight (or about 4,000 grams) they will drink about:
150mls x 4 kg = 600mls (in a 24 hour period).
Babies will normally have about 6 to 8 bottles in a 24 hour period. So, divide 600 mls by about 6 feeds, and the baby will be drinking about 100mls of formula per feed. If your baby is feeding more frequently than 6 feeds per day, then the amount may be less than this. Most formula containers will have age and weight related guidelines written on the tin to help you with how much formula, and how many bottles, to prepare. These are based on the recommended average, in relation to the baby's age and weight (and again, are only a guide!)
As your baby grows, the volume of milk per bottle will slowly increase (as your baby puts on weight). Also the number of bottles will gradually decrease (to about 5 to 7 bottles in 24 hours) as the baby starts to sleep more at night. By the time your baby is about 1 to 2 months old, they will probably be drinking about 120 to 150mls of milk in each bottle. By 3 to 4 months of age, this may increase to about 150 to 220 mls per feed.