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How much should a newborn eat at three weeks? How much should a newborn eat?

During the first few months of a child’s life, a young mother gets used to her new role. She still doesn’t know much, she’s afraid of everything. She has many questions regarding her baby.

For example: “How much should a newborn eat?” or “How long should he eat?” We will try to answer these and some other questions in more detail.

How many times does a newborn eat?

It all depends on the type of feeding practiced. If his mother is breastfeeding, he can eat as many times as he wishes, but not more than once every 1.5 hours. Normally, when breastfeeding, the baby eats 10 - 12 times - this is every 2-3 hours.

If for certain reasons a woman cannot breastfeed and the newborn eats formula, the number of feedings should not exceed 8 times per day.

How long does it take for a child to eat?

All children are different, some suckle very intensely and get full in 5-7 minutes. Others can eat for about an hour and still not feel full. On average, one feeding lasts about 10-20 minutes, maximum - half an hour.

How to determine the amount of food you need

How much should a newborn eat? The amount of food will depend on what he is fed: breast milk or formula.

For a bottle-fed newborn who is not yet 10 days old, the one-time volume can be calculated as follows: multiply the day of life by 10. If the baby is 2 days old, then he needs to eat 20 ml, 3 days - 30 ml, etc.

The daily volume can be calculated using 2 formulas, depending on body weight:

weight up to 3200 grams – multiply 70 by age in days. Example: the baby is 4 days old, his weight is 3000 g, which means: 70 x 4 = 280 ml - the daily amount of food necessary for normal growth and development;
weight more than 3200 grams - multiply 80 by age in days. Example: a one-week-old baby weighs 3700 g, which means: 80 x 7 = 560 ml - the daily norm for a newborn baby.

Babies aged 10 days to 1 year need the following amount of food:

10 days - 6 weeks - 1/5 of body weight;
6 weeks – 6 months – about 1/6 of weight;
6 - 8 months – 1/8 of the weight;
from 8 months to one year – 1/9 of the weight.

For example: at 3 months a child weighs 5500 grams, which means his daily intake is: 5500/6 = 910-920 ml.

When feeding a baby with formula, the main thing is not to overfeed - this can lead to stomach upset. The daytime break between meals should be at least 3 hours, and the night break should be 5 hours. Formula is a nutritious food that is digested very slowly, so the baby will be full for much longer than when fed milk.

For breastfed newborns, the amount of food will be different. Approximate data on how much they need to eat:

on the first day, just one teaspoon of colostrum is enough;
on the second day 2-3 spoons are already needed;
on the third day, when the more nutritious colostrum disappears, the baby needs to suck about 35-40 ml of milk at one time;
on the fourth day this figure increases almost 2 times - 60-70 ml;
on day 5 – 70-75 ml.

Around the end of the second week, the newborn already eats about 500 ml per day. By six months this volume is 700-1000 ml.

Note: since the weight, height, and physique of all babies are different, the amount of milk will be different. Some children eat rarely, but a lot; some children, on the contrary, eat often, but little. Therefore, a few days after the birth of the baby, the mother herself will be able to determine how much the newborn should eat.

How to check the amount of food you eat

When a baby is fed formula, it’s easy to find out how much he eats - you just need to subtract the amount left after from the amount of food that was before feeding.

It's more difficult when breastfeeding. For this you will need a baby scale. It is advisable to take electronic ones - they show the exact weight and are convenient to work with. The newborn is weighed before feeding (it is advisable to record how much he weighs), then he is fed and weighed again. Subtract the difference in the child's weight and find out how much he eats. There is another way - to express breast milk and feed it from a bottle.

Is there enough milk for the baby?

If a mother knows how much a newborn should eat, but is not sure that he is full, the only way to find out is to observe his behavior and condition. The first signs that the baby is eating enough milk is a good increase in body weight. Also, if he has enough food, he will sleep peacefully, without any problems maintaining a 2-hour gap between feedings. The number of bowel movements is at least 3-4 times, depending on the age of the baby - up to 10-14 days he can poop after each meal.

For any mother of a newborn, questions about feeding her baby are of great importance. But a woman should not forget that a lot depends on her nutrition and the correct organization of her feeding regimen. If the mother herself is on a diet, her milk will not have enough fat content, and the baby may remain hungry, even with frequent feedings.

Many mothers, already on the first day of the baby’s life, begin to worry: are the few drops of colostrum that he managed to get from the breast enough? To understand this, you need to know how much a newborn should eat and how to determine the amount of milk he has eaten. Only after this can you draw any conclusions and look for a solution to the problem, if there is one. Let's find out the nutritional standards for a newborn baby while breastfeeding.

It’s simply surprising, but the volume of a newborn’s stomach on the first day of life does not exceed 7 ml. That is, for it to be completely filled, just a teaspoon of maternal colostrum is enough. This unique biological product does not burden the digestive system and fully meets the child’s needs. In addition, due to the dense walls, the stomach simply cannot accept more breast milk. If too much is taken in, the newborn will regurgitate the excess.

However, the baby grows quickly, after 3 days he can eat up to 30 ml of milk at one time. On the 7th day of life, the stomach can accommodate 60 ml of food, and at 4 weeks - almost 3 times more, 150 ml. In this case, the amount of milk increases as the baby’s needs increase. The more often it is applied to the breast, the more it is produced.

Newborn feeding frequency

In the first month, lactation begins; during this period, it is especially important to regularly put the baby to the breast. Then a lot of milk will be produced and problems with nutritional deficiencies will not arise. But how often should you feed your newborn? The following table clearly shows the child’s nutritional patterns by month.

Age in months	Feeding volume, ml/day.	Volume per feeding, ml/day.	Number of feedings per day	Intervals between feedings
Up to 1	600-700	90-100	6-7
1-2	700-900	110-140	6-7	After 3-3.5 hours, night break - 6-6.5 hours
2-4	800-1000	140-160	6	After 3-3.5 hours, night break - 6-6.5 hours
4-6	9000-1000	160-180	5-6	After 3.5-4 hours, night break - 6.5-8 hours
6-9	1000-1100	180-200	5	After 4 hours, night break - 8 hours
9-12	1000-1200	200-240	4-5	After 4-4.5 hours, night break - 8-9 hours

On average, a typical newborn eats 1-2 times at night (every 3-5 hours) and 4 times during the day - every 3 hours. The diet begins to change after about six months, when the baby’s stomach can accommodate a larger amount of food, including more complex food (in the form of complementary foods) than breast milk. This allows the baby to stay full longer, and the break between feedings increases to 4 hours during the day and 8 at night. However, it is worth understanding that the body of each person, including a newborn, has its own individual characteristics. Some children eat often and a lot, others have difficulty sucking, often falling asleep with the breast in their mouth. You should sound the alarm only if the child’s weight gain differs significantly from the norm.

Many parents practice feeding on demand. However, if the baby is on artificial or mixed feeding, then using this method is impractical and even dangerous. If you feed a child often and a lot, then the already weak digestive system can fail.

How much should a child eat?

So, everything is clear with frequency. But how much should a newborn eat at one feeding? When answering this question, it is important to understand that a baby cannot eat more than its stomach capacity. Therefore, in the first month of life he eats as follows:

1 day – 5–7 grams;
2–3rd day – 10–20 grams;
3–7th day – 30 grams;
1–2 weeks – 50–60 grams;
2–3 weeks – 60–80 grams;
1 month – 90–100 grams;
then the portion increases by about 30 grams every 2 months.

Again, it is necessary to understand that all children are individual and small deviations from the norm are quite acceptable. It is clear that a more developed, larger child will eat more. In addition, the time of year and the composition of mother's milk matter. In summer, the baby may ask for the breast more often due to the intense heat. The need for frequency and quantity of food also increases if the mother's milk is watery and her breasts are tight (then the newborn cannot obtain the required amount of food and remains hungry).

Calculation according to Maslov

What do you need to know to count?

One liter of breast milk contains approximately 700 kcal.
Up to 3 months, 125 kcal per day per kilogram of a child’s weight is required, from 3 to 6 – 120, at 6-9 months – 115, and then up to a year – 105 kcal/kg.
Now you need to multiply the required amount of kcal by the child’s weight. This will be the daily norm.
Next, the amount of milk is calculated. Let's say a child weighs 5 kg at 2 months, which means we multiply 5 by 125 and get 625. This is a little less than a liter of milk per day.

Feeding rules

Many myths, conflicting advice from doctors and relatives can sometimes confuse young parents. How to feed a newborn baby, what advice can you trust? First, let's look at the basic rules that must be strictly followed.

The breast should be kept clean, and hands should be washed thoroughly before each feeding.
The baby must be applied correctly. The mother's nipple should point upward so that the baby's lower jaw clasps as much of the areola as possible.
Make sure that when feeding, the newborn's head is higher than the body, otherwise he will choke or choke.
When feeding, the baby should be given only one breast, at the next feeding - the other. Otherwise, it simply won’t have time to pour.
If the baby is underfed and the woman experiences symptoms such as discomfort, tightness, and painful sensations, then the remaining milk needs to be expressed. You should not pump without serious reasons.
If we talk about the first feeding, then there are special rules. A newborn should eat for the first time within 30 minutes of birth to begin stimulating breast milk production. Until the 3rd day of life, both breasts should be fed at one feeding, and it is important to feed the baby as often as possible (every 1.5–2 hours), then a lot of milk will come.
It is advisable to supplement your child with water only on hot summer days and during illness. In other cases, breast milk is quite enough.
Feeding at night is mandatory. Firstly, a long break reduces lactation, and secondly, the hormone prolactin, which is responsible for milk production, is especially well stimulated at night, closer to the morning.
If the baby needs to be fed with expressed breast milk or formula, this should be done using a spoon or syringe without a needle. Babies who eat from bottles will soon wean themselves, that's a fact.
The child should eat for at least 15 minutes, and you need to make sure that the newborn swallows and does not just suck on the breast.

As for the following tips, it is not necessary to follow them, but it is advisable.

Feed your baby in a comfortable position, try not to be distracted by extraneous things. Closeness with your child is very important, especially at first.
Master several poses. By alternating them periodically, you will help the baby draw milk from all parts of the breast.
After the baby has eaten, squeeze out a drop of milk and coat the nipple. This will help avoid cracks.
During the entire period of breastfeeding, try to remain calm and avoid negative emotions. The stress hormone is transferred to the baby along with mother's milk, and he also becomes nervous and irritable.
Walk a lot with your child. Long walks in the fresh air will increase your baby's appetite.

How to control the amount of milk consumed?

The main indicator of normal nutrition of a baby is growing weight and height. However, many mothers cannot wait for the monthly weighing and examination of the child at the clinic. They try to be proactive and independently monitor whether their baby eats as much as a newborn should. Let's find out what methods allow you to get a reliable, correct result.

Weighing the baby before and after feeding. To do this, parents will need medical tray scales. In order for the result to be as accurate as possible, it is necessary to weigh the child before and after each meal for several days. If this is done from time to time, the data obtained will most likely be unreliable. The fact is that a breastfed baby can eat different amounts of milk during the day. For example, some people prefer to eat a hearty meal in the morning, while others prefer to eat at lunchtime.
Weekly weight gain. Another way to determine how much your newborn has eaten is to weigh and measure him every 7 days. On average, an infant gains 170-200 grams by the 13th week. If the result is very different from the norm, this is a serious reason to consult a doctor.
We are watching the diapers. This method involves avoiding diapers for several days. At this time, the mother will have to count the wet diapers. In the first month of life, the child pees a lot, about 16–18 times a day. Therefore, if the number of diapers is less than 12, it is worth going to see a pediatrician.
We monitor the baby’s mood and well-being. If the child behaves calmly, sleeps well, eats, and at the same time the mother’s breasts are filled completely and regularly, there is no need to worry. But restless or, conversely, too much sleep, frequent crying, a sickly, lethargic appearance of the baby may indicate a lack of nutrition.

When breastfeeding, the most important thing is a sensible approach. A nursing mother must not only know and follow the nutritional standards of a newborn baby, but also eat properly and monitor her health and well-being. Then there will be a lot of milk, and questions about how to feed a newborn will not arise.

When establishing breast or bottle feeding, parents must keep in mind how much a newborn should eat at one time and per day. This data will help to organize the process correctly and will have the most beneficial effect on the physical development of the child.

In the first month of his life, it is very important to prevent both overfeeding and starvation. Special formulas and tables will allow you to calculate the required dosages of baby food in each individual case, taking into account the weight and age of the baby.

If a mother is committed to breastfeeding, she simply needs to know how much milk a newborn should eat, starting from the first days of life. This will allow her to remain calm and not be unnecessarily nervous (after all, worries will subsequently affect the volume and quality of lactation). What indicators should we rely on in this matter?

First feeding

The most exciting days for breastfeeding women are the first three after the birth of the baby. After all, milk begins to arrive only on the fourth day. So far only colostrum is coming out of the breast. And worries begin that in such a situation the newborn will remain hungry. In fact, there is no need to be afraid of this for the following reasons:

The baby himself will not eat much, because at this stage he is very poorly developed, he will still be learning how to do this.
And his stomach is very small (volume - only 10 ml) and cannot accommodate too much food.
Colostrum, produced in the first days by the female body, is fatty and nutritious. Therefore, it has everything necessary to ensure the full functioning of a newborn.
On the fourth day, the amount of milk in the breast will increase naturally, so all these worries about its lack at first are only harmful and completely unfounded.

There is a very simple formula for calculating how much a newborn should eat in the first days of his life. The volume of his stomach = 10 ml. It is believed that at this stage he will need about 10 feedings over 24 hours. Accordingly, daily dose = 100 ml. However, all these numbers will change significantly over the next week.

4-10 days

During this period, several other factors will influence how much the newborn eats:

the mother's mammary glands will begin to produce much more milk;
The volume of the baby’s stomach will change, as it will grow by leaps and bounds, and accordingly, the amount of liquid consumed will increase.

For the first 10 days of a newborn’s life, there is a special formula for calculating how much milk a newborn should eat at one feeding:

N (how many days is the baby) x 10 = the volume of what the newborn ate, in ml, at one time.

The problem with breastfeeding is that it is difficult to know how much milk a newborn has consumed. With the artificial ones, everything is clearly visible: there was so much mixture in the bottle - so much remains. Easy to calculate.

For infants, there is only one way to determine the volume of liquid they drink. To do this, you will need medical scales that are particularly accurate. The newborn should be weighed on them before and after feeding. The difference between the readings will be the desired parameter.

1 month

After the tenth day, the mother, on an intuitive level or based on the data obtained from regular weighings, will know how much her baby eats at one time. Is this compliant? We calculate again using a special formula:

N (baby weight): 5 = volume eaten in ml per day;
V (volume in ml per day): P (number of feedings per day) = volume eaten in ml at one time.

The number of feedings is a very individual indicator. For artificial newborns, it is much more convenient to create a schedule by the hour, because there is no factor of milk flow in the breast that needs to be controlled, but there is a recommended interval between feedings (at least 3 hours).

But for infants, pediatricians consider meals on demand to be the best option. This will not allow the milk to stagnate, will not lead to mastitis, and the baby will be cheerful and calm, because he will always receive the required amount of food.

Another important tip for parents of a baby: do not calculate how much he ate by the amount of time he spent sucking. On average, it ranges from 15 to 30 minutes. But one child absorbs the required amount in 15 minutes, and the other only in half an hour. For some, 40 minutes is not enough, because the intensity of sucking is different for everyone. Don't rush your baby, but don't let him sit at your breast for more than an hour. How to calculate dosages for artificials?

According to research. As observations have shown, for the last 5-10 minutes the newborn sucks the breast not in order to express milk from it. By this time he is usually full. The reason is the psychological comfort that the baby feels at these moments.

Artificial feeding

One of them will be exactly the same as for infants. The second is to be somewhat different. For the daily amount, the same formula is used:

N (baby weight): 5 = volume of formula that the newborn ate, in ml per day.

This is quite understandable, because, regardless of the type of nutrition that the baby receives in the first month of his life, it must be complete and the same in volume. But from the point of view of the number of meals, the formula will be slightly changed. Pediatricians advise intervals between them for artificial patients to be at least 3 hours. At night the stomach should rest.

And no matter how much mothers would like to feed their baby at his first request within these strict limits, it will not work more or less than 7 times a day. Accordingly, the equation takes the following form:

V (volume of mixture in ml per day): 7 = volume in ml per time.

Of course, each situation is purely individual. If a bottle-fed baby has to give formula more often (it’s definitely not possible at this age) to give formula, then the formula for infants works:

V (volume of formula in ml per day): P (number of feedings per day) = volume of food in ml at one time.

And in the end you will get a figure for how much a newborn should eat at one feeding, if everything is fine with him, he is not sick and is developmentally appropriate for his age.

It is very important not to deviate from the norm here, because it is very easy to overfeed with formula. After all, sucking from a bottle is easier than from a breast, and if there is also a large hole in the nipple, you don’t have to do anything at all: a stream of life-giving liquid will flow into your mouth on its own.

So, dear mothers, prepare only the amount of mixture that the little hero is supposed to eat at a time. To help, here are several tables with normal indicators according to age.

Helpful advice. Never force a newborn to drink his/her allotted amount for 1 feeding. Perhaps he will “get” this amount next time. Pay much more attention to how much he ate per day.

Tables

The values that you calculate using the formulas for how much milk or formula a newborn baby should eat at a time and per day must be compared with the normal values. This will determine whether he is developing according to his age.

They are contained in a special table in which daily and single dosages are listed by month up to 1 year.

This is done so that parents can see the dynamics of changes and understand that as the baby’s weight increases, the amount he eats will increase proportionally. Starting from 5 months, complementary foods will be added (which porridge is best to start feeding a child with, read) and the dynamics will stop.

Using this table, it is easy to determine how many milliliters of the mixture a newborn should eat at one time and per day. It is clear that the breadth of indicators for 1 feeding is due to the fact that their number per day will vary. But the too rigid and completely immobile parameters of the last column cause concern among those parents whose children do not fit into the height and weight standards.

What should those whose 1 month old baby weighs 6 kg instead of 7 do? What if a very miniature girl was born who has such heredity, and by the first month of her life she weighs only 3.5 kg?

These cases are not pathology, but they do occur. That happens. How to determine the amount of formula or milk needed for such unusual babies? The second table will help - it is more universal and convenient for such non-standard situations.

The superiority of this table over the previous one is visible to the naked eye, although many parents, whose children develop quite standardly, do not want to deal with complex calculations and use data from the first one.

The last question that may arise during calculations: in all tables, the norms are given in milliliters. Is this unit of measurement the same as grams? The formula is simple:

1 milliliter = 1.03 grams.

The difference is insignificant, so don’t worry about it. And finally, it’s worth giving some useful tips about the dosage of baby food for the little ones.

On a note! The norms given in the last column of the first table are very conditional, not only because of the possible significant difference in weight, but also because of the child’s gender. After all, girls are usually not as large as boys, and accordingly, they eat less food.

Formulas, tables, calculations, norms, permissible deviations, how much a newborn should eat at one time and per day - this should worry parents at the following moments:

in the first days of the baby’s life;
if the mother is inexperienced and does not know how much formula or milk to give the baby;
if the child was born premature;
if he has serious health problems.

These are situations that require special monitoring of the newborn’s nutrition by doctors and parents. And there is absolutely no need to weigh the baby every day, after each feeding, worry about weight fluctuations and constantly look at these tables. The fact that he is eating enough can be understood by a number of factors:

he is calm, cries little and is almost never capricious;
he sleeps well;
no problems with weight gain;
he goes to the toilet regularly.

You yourself will guess about overeating by your loose body, diathetic chubby cheeks, and at your next pediatrician examination you will hear that you need to reduce the volume of formula or milk with which you pamper your hero.

In the first month of a baby’s life, it is advisable to monitor how much formula or milk he eats and compare these indicators with the norm. If the amount of food consumed per day is much less than the estimated figures, you need to find out the reasons.

It’s one thing if the baby weighs little and needs much less food than his peers. And another thing is if the problem is some disease that makes itself known in this way. If the portions of food eaten exceed the norm, it is also worth thinking about obesity in the future, which is fraught with dangerous consequences for such a baby.

So the amount of formula or milk consumed by a child per day plays an important role in his development and formation. Parents should pay sufficient attention to this aspect at first, but not to the point of fanaticism.

While building a sleep-eating-sleep regime for my son, I wondered how much my little one should eat. so that he can have a comfortable sleep.

For several days I have noticed that after feeding we are tormented by hiccups, I began to look for the cause - it is definitely not hypothermia and remains swallowing air while sucking or overeating. If the day before yesterday he ate min. -7-10 and slept 3-3.5 hours. Now he eats for 15 minutes. and wakes up more often or after changing the diaper, I still feed him.

When expressing with a breast pump, in the intervals between feedings, I express 100 ml. from both breasts after feeding! If I don’t pump, then before my son wakes up, all my tits will be flowing like a river and aching terribly.

So I found a table of nutrition calculations, maybe it will be useful for someone!

Calculations to determine the amount of food a child eats in the first 10 days of life:
The one-time amount of food is calculated using the following formula:

N (number of days to live) x 10 = one-time amount of food.

This is the easiest way to determine the daily amount of milk for a baby in the first ten days.

The daily amount of nutrition is calculated based on the baby’s body weight in two versions (depending on the baby’s weight) as follows:
1. With a body weight of 3200 g. and below daily milk volume = age in days (N)×70

Example: A child is 5 days old, body weight is 3100. The daily volume of milk will be = 70 x 5 = 350 ml.

To calculate the one-time volume, you should divide the daily volume by the number of feedings (at this age there are 8 for a bottle-fed baby). That is, for a given child, the one-time volume will be 350÷8 = 43.75 ml (rounded to 45).
2. With body weight above 3200 g. daily milk volume = age in days (N)×80

Example: A child is 7 days old, body weight 3800. The daily volume of milk will be = 7 × 80 = 560 ml. The single volume will be 70 ml.
Calculation of the daily amount of food for a child from 10 days of life to one year:
At the age of 10 days to 6 weeks – 1/5 body weight;
From 6 weeks to 4 months – 1/6 body weight;
From 4 months to 6 months – 1/7 body weight;
From 6 months to 8 months – 1/8 body weight;
From 8 months to 12 months – 1/9 of body weight.

Example No. 1: the child is 1 month old, weight 4100 g. The daily volume of milk for him = 4100÷5 = 820 ml.

Example No. 2: The child is 3 months old, weight 5700. The daily volume of milk for him = 5700÷6= 950 ml.

These calculations are more applicable to bottle-fed babies. For a breastfed baby, the number of feedings is approximately 10-12, so the single volume of milk may be less.

How to determine if your baby has enough milk?

If you are concerned about the question of whether your baby is getting enough breast milk, then you should also focus on his weight gain. If a breastfed baby gains 150-200 grams per week, then the gains are adequate. If the baby's weight gain is less than 100 grams per week, then you should be concerned and take action, since most likely he does not have enough milk, but there may be other reasons. On this topic, read the article “Poor weight gain in infants.”

A single meal for breastfed babies may be smaller in volume, since infants eat up to 12 times a day. To accurately find out the volume of milk consumed, use control weighing - the child is weighed before and after meals (in the same clothes and diaper), the difference in weight will indicate the amount of milk sucked.

It is necessary to supplement infants with water when bottle-fed, as well as when breastfed if indicated (hot weather, heating season, fatty foods eaten by the mother).
I don’t have a scale, so I can’t weigh it, and in general, I heard that it’s impossible to overfeed while breastfeeding.

Do you think it is possible to overfeed a cat? be on GW?

And how did (or did) feeding happen for you in the first weeks of life?

The long-awaited arrival of a baby is characterized by the emergence of many new pleasant responsibilities for the mother. The most important thing a woman who is breastfeeding thinks about is whether the milk or formula that the baby is fed will be enough? An important fact is that not all mothers understand when exactly it is time to feed their baby. Many focus on the clock, believing that the baby needs to be taught a certain routine from infancy, while others believe that the main thing is the natural need of the child.

Breastfeeding in the first days of life

The fourth day is characterized by an increase in milk supply. The baby is brought to the mother for feeding on the second day, as a result of which a completely natural fear arises that there will not be enough food. Pediatricians reassure that there should be no serious cause for concern:

The baby does not have a developed sucking reflex, so he does not feel the need for copious amounts of milk;
The concentration of milk that is formed in the body of a nursing woman is characterized by increased fat content and the presence of useful substances. This allows for the healthy development of the newborn baby;
The parameters of a baby’s stomach are 100 ml, and therefore the amount eaten during feeding is 7-9 ml;
The number of feedings of the child is 10-12 times a day. We can say that the required volume of milk is 100 ml;
The baby will not experience hunger due to the fact that much-needed milk is relatively scarce. You need to be patient and it will begin to increase, and an anxious emotional state can affect its amount.

The amount of milk a baby drinks is directly dependent on the characteristics of weight and age, as a result of which everything is individual. An increase in the volume of a child’s stomach helps to increase the volume of milk that he consumes, both during one feeding process and per day.

On the second day, the baby is able to drink 20 g in one feeding process, while the daily norm can reach 200-240 ml;

During the third day – 30 ml (per day – 300-340 ml);

In the first 10 days of life, it is necessary to calculate the volume of milk consumed per feeding process (the number of days lived is multiplied by 10).

Determining the most accurate portion of milk that is intended for the baby is possible if you weigh the baby on a medical scale before the feeding process and after its completion. The resulting difference is the volume of milk that the baby drinks. It is best to weigh several feedings in a row. Knowing the approximate portion, you can understand whether the child is receiving a portion that will be enough for him.

When and how is it best to feed a baby?

After ten days, the mother's milk stops coming. Thus, the approximate amount consumed per day will be equal to a fifth of the child’s weight.

Experts in the field of pediatric pediatrics believe: you should not strictly adhere to special feeding hours. You need to wait until the baby himself makes it clear that he wants to eat. Most often, this need occurs 10-15 times a day with a frequency of 1.5-2 hours.

The baby receives milk from the breast for half an hour at one feeding. There are times when the milk is sucked out, but the baby continues to hold the nipple with his lips. Maybe he enjoys the sucking process or sucks out drops. The baby should not be allowed to hold the nipple with his lips for more than an hour.

Table of nutritional norms for up to a year

Feeding nuances depending on age characteristics:

3-4 days (per feeding: 20-60 ml, total per day - 200-300 ml);
7 days (50-80 ml – 400 ml);
14 days (60-90 ml - 20% of the child’s weight);
1 month (100-110 ml – 600 ml);
2 months (120-150 ml – 800 ml);
3 months (150-180 ml – 1/6 of the child’s weight);
4 months (180-210 ml – 1/6 of the child’s weight);
6 months (210-240 ml - 1 liter);
12 months (210-240 ml ml - 1/8-1/9 weight).

Many infants are fed artificial formula. What nuances need to be remembered when calculating the amount of milk or formula?

Compliance with the diet. It is worth feeding the baby up to 8 times a day;
The calculation of norms is identical to portions for breastfeeding, but if the baby rarely eats, you can resort to increasing the norm;
The most important thing is not to overfeed the child. After a few days of life, a baby’s sucking reflex is better developed, and sucking from a nipple is much easier;
If you prefer formula milk, it is worth keeping in mind that the packaging indicates the dose that is suitable for each specific age.

Calculation of the daily norm for artificial feeding

From 10 days to 1.5 months – 1/5 of the child’s weight
1.5-4 months – 1/6 of the child’s weight
4-6 months – 1/7 of the child’s weight
6-8 months – 1/8th of the child’s weight
8-12 months – 1/9th of the child’s weight

You can analyze how exactly to calculate the amount of formula that will be the daily norm for a child who is bottle-fed at one year of age.

Example: at the age of two months, a child weighs 4800 g. Milk consumption per day: 4800/6=800 ml. When divided by the number of feedings per day, you can get a single dose: 800/6=130 ml.

Features of nutrition during artificial feeding

There is no need to feel alarmed when the baby consumes much less than the prescribed portion. At the next feeding he will be able to eat more, which will allow him to get the required amount.

It is worth considering the fact that the baby’s stomach, when fed with formula, digests food (milk or formula) much more slowly. During the daytime, he should be fed every 2.5-3 hours, and at night - 5-6 hours.

If the baby wakes up some time after feeding and cries, there is no need to feed him again. Perhaps he simply did not burp the air, as a result of which his stomach hurts. It is best to hold him in an upright position, let him burp air and let him fall asleep.

If the child does not drink the whole amount, he can finish it later, when he lets him know that he is really hungry.