Newborn Feeding

One of the hardest parts of the newborn period is figuring out how much and how often to feed your baby. For breastfed babies I often tell parents that the baby will essentially starve the first 24 hours of life. Breast milk doesn't really come in till day 2 to 5. You are trying to get the baby on your breast to get those drops of colostrum. They are small amounts of colostrum so often you'll see the baby suck suck and fall asleep but you want to get the baby on your breast to get the milk to come in. My rule is make sure you're feeding the baby on demand about every one to every three hours. However if the baby has not woken up at three to four hours you're going to wake the baby up to feed. For formula fed babies again because the baby's not getting that much milk at this stage typically in the first day or two of life, remember the stomach's about the size of a marble, you're going to give anywhere between one teaspoon to one ounce. A teaspoon is about five milliliters, an ounce is 30 milliliters so you're going to give up to an ounce every one to three hours in that first two days. By day three to four of life I use my rule of three to fours. Make sure you're feeding that baby at least every three to four hours and make sure that baby's peeing at least three to four times in 24 hours. A typical baby will feed every one to three hours one to three ounces.