How much SMA milk does your baby drink?

brians_daughter

My mum (who is a health visitor and was a midwife upto 5 years ago) says that babies should have between 2-2.5 oz x their weight in 24 hours. So if baby is say 10lb as a rule of thumb they should have 20-25 oz in a day.

Saying that every baby is different arent they? Just as you and i would eat different amounts of food each baby will be happy with varying amounts of milk...and different brands. My youngest is 11lb and 13 weeks old and is having 18oz in 24 hours, she has almost doubled her birth weight tho so no one is concerned.

As long as a baby is thriving it doesnt matter what amount of milk they take

ironman1

Not sure if this is ok but I was thinking how about giving him what he usually drinks, 28 ounces a day but spread them out more. Like three ounces at one stage then four at another and so on? So it evens out a bit. Or will he not like that?

brians_daughter

I would let lo lead the feeding. TBH the hand in mouth thing sounds like comfort ie wants to suck his hands to get to sleep or for comfort or maybe the start of teething? ds2 adn dd started off teething like that sucking their hands which lead to them 'biting' their hand a few weeks later they had teeth. ds2 had his 1st tooth at 7 weeks!!

Its hard to overfeed a baby (unless they say have colic and are sucking/drinking to try and sooth the pain) so i would take his lead..feed when he wants to be fed.

My mum (HV) told me to write down what lo eats and when for 2-3 days and you will see a pattern forming ie dd had 7oz in the morning but only 3oz at 1 and 4pm. Then she would have 6oz at 7 and a top up of 3oz at 10.

That way you can make bottles accordingly so you arent wasting any milk. Obviously this will change over weeks etc and growth spurts but it will give a good idea how much/how often if he doesnt always take a set amount

I would also cut the water out unless its hot. if hes had milk then an hour or so later water he may be hungry for milk but still feel 'full' from the water. I was advised not to give water unless hot or baby was having probs 'doing a number 2'.

Saying that guidelines change so often. There only 2 years between ds2 and dd but the guidelines has changed so much in that short time frame

leos-mummy

My son was also on SMA when he was a baby. HV told me that when he starts draining the bottle to make up another ounce, they might not finish it all but sometimes that extra wee bit is enough to satisfy them. My son took his bottles every 4 hours so i was quite lucky. Also does your son have a dummy? I was against giving my son one but found that at a week old he was waking up and wanting to comfort suck so the dummy really helped. He stopped at around 5 months when we started weaning so no need for the dummy fairies lol Babies don't overeat nor will they starve themselves unless their ill so wouldn't worry too much

pigpen

ironman1 wrote: »

Not sure if this is ok but I was thinking how about giving him what he usually drinks, 28 ounces a day but spread them out more. Like three ounces at one stage then four at another and so on? So it evens out a bit. Or will he not like that?

Would you like to be half fed then have your food taken away when you were still hungry?

That would essentially be what you are doing.. feed him when he is hungry he is a baby and growing very fast.. he will just be starting on a growth spurt too maybe so needs more.

go with what his needs are.

peachyprice

ironman1 wrote: »

He also has a couple of four ounce bottles of water a day.

That's is ALOT of water for a month old baby. Unless it's really hot and there is a chance of dehydration, or unless you're trying to lengthen the time between feeds he doesn't need water at all, and certainly not 8oz a day, a sip here and there would suffice.


I would cut out the water altogether and make up 5oz bottles to see if he will finish them when he's not full up with water.

Their milk intake increases all the time and unfortunatley there will always be a few days when say 4oz isn't enough but 5oz is too much, but it will soon settle until the next increase. Waste during these times is inevitable, but you can't hold back just so you don't waste milk.

peachyprice

ironman1 wrote: »

Not sure if this is ok but I was thinking how about giving him what he usually drinks, 28 ounces a day but spread them out more. Like three ounces at one stage then four at another and so on? So it evens out a bit. Or will he not like that?

NOOOOO. He's a growing baby, he's going to need more and more milk, not the same amount spread out.

lindseykim13

too much water imo, doesn't it say on the tin that babies don't need extra water until they are much older or its very very hot. Just use the milk on demand if he overfeeds he will just be sick, not nice but i'd prefer this to baby starving.
I have 3 lo's my first 2 were fed on sma and were offered water in a cup when they started solids at 4mths. My dd is breastfed and she was only ever offered water when she started solids at 6mths.

He's filling his belly with water rather than the calories he needs.

my first ds was always hungry we went right up to the hungry milk, he didn't know when to stop and would be sick every feed time, just the extra that he didn't need would come back up. they soon grow out of it though. Then he switched to downing yoghurts instead lol but i'm glad to say he's a perfectly healthy weight now at 9yrs old and lost his baby milk chub.

rachbc

I'm no bottle feeding expert but it sounds like too much water to me too.

Also putting hands in their mouths is what babies do - unless is seems distressed when he is doing it I wouldn't take it as a sign of anything.

delain

Another one who had problems with SMA! I wouldn't touch it again with a very long stick.

I agree with everyone else, your baby is filling up on water instead of milk, and if you want him to be in a regular routine of feeds doing all the different size bottles will undermine that and he'll be all over the place. Who on earth told you to give him so much water in the first place?

Follow the sensible advice you have been given and follow your baby's lead.