newborn mommies...question re: feeding

how much does your newborn eat? mine can go through a whole newborn bottle and still suck his hands, my shoulder, my nose. he always seems to want more and if i start a new bottle to top him off he seems like he could finish that too!!

I read that at 10-14 days newborns experience a growth spurt & so you shouldn't be alarmed if they eat more...but this has been since he's 1 week old. i want him to eat and never be hungry but i don't want a walter hudson baby either, KWIM?

what seems to be the norm amt?

Re: newborn mommies...question re: feeding

Growth spurts are at about 3w, 6w, 12w, 24w

sometimes babies like to just suck and may not be hungry...you can judge this by if they spit up a lot after a feed. One guideline is 2.5oz/pound of body wt. So say baby is 8lbs. thats 20 oz/day. Divide that by the number of feeds...say 7 feeds...thats about 3oz/feed.

My 2 wk old was drinking about 3oz of pumped breast milk at 2-3 weeks

Re: newborn mommies...question re: feeding

Your boy loves to eat! Looking back when my DS was a newborn, I believe that, actually, I can check bc I saved when and how much he ate! lol...I BF and FF...ok so at first he was having 2oz formula but when he was about 2 weeks old, he was eating 2-3 1/2 oz...and then when he was 3 weeks old, he was eating 4oz of formula (as for the BM, he would eat more oz than formula)
I always felt that my DS loved to eat and every month at his appointments he is average weight but always off the charts in height!

Message edited 7/17/2011 4:10:06 PM.

Re: newborn mommies...question re: feeding

DS at a lot the first weeks and could eat forever, I fed and fed and fed, and he's long and lean, and never got chubby - my mother is horrified at how "skinny" he is. I can't tell you how much exactly because I BF and supplemented. But by 3m I stopped and by then he was taking 9-10oz bottles.

A very good ped nurse told me always offer them more than they want, and always expect they wont finish it. It teaches them to take only what they want. I've always done this and I think its the best thing I could have done for his eating habits.
DS has always been over 95% in height.

He was born at 50% weight and stayed that way, till we started solids at 4m, and then he gained weight to be 75% weight, but always kept the over 95% height.

And still at 16m, he's still at 75% weight and over 95% height and our ped is very pleased with his proportion even though he's so big and tall and still eats so much.

eta: just remembered that up to about 3m, you can expect them to take 2.5oz per pound of body weight per day, and often times its a lot more.

As much as I thought DS ate, he actually ate exactly this much at 3m.

Message edited 7/17/2011 7:13:12 PM.

Re: newborn mommies...question re: feeding

do you mean the 2oz bottles? my DS was taking 1.5 of those IN the hospital! we were up to 4 ozs within the first few weeks

if he is still hungry, try giving him another oz!

Re: newborn mommies...question re: feeding

ok good to hear. my son was 20 in. at birth and has big feet and he doesn't have any rolls. I'm sure he'll probably gain mostly in length. I was worried bc a couple of times i opened a second bottle to top him off and he'd eat the whole thing...so 4 oz at 1 week!! this was only supposed to be supplementing bc when i was in the hospital i wasn't producing...but at the rate this baby eats...i might need to continue with both!!