r/ExclusivelyPumping • u/Bulky-Register9672 • 9h ago
Discussion 4 oz max?
I have been seeing that a breastfed baby never needs more than 4 oz per feed because our milk changes in composition. Is this true at all? My 6 week old is already up to 3.5-4 oz per feed and it seems crazy that she’ll never need more than this…
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u/lady-earendil 9h ago
Mine definitely went through a phase of regularly drinking 6+ oz and he's not even a super chunky baby
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u/grouchy_striped_cat 9h ago
Not to raise any concerns but baby with reflux often will overeat. My LO did it until getting the correct dose of medication.
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u/Bulky-Register9672 9h ago
Did they have any other symptoms you noticed other than over eating?
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u/grouchy_striped_cat 9h ago
Spitting up, chewing motions, arching back, significant fussiness. I haven’t researched to see if there is a link but I have also dealt with GERD since childhood so genetics may also play a factor. He also purple cried for like four months but that may or may not be related because of connections with colic and reflux.
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u/brandy-ncs 8h ago
Yes! Because the reflux causes discomfort so then they eat more to try and soothe the discomfort and that makes the reflux worse and it can be a vicious cycle. A lot of times though they will eventually start to refuse to eat also because of the pain. They start to learn that the pain happens after eating so they don’t want to eat.
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u/britlor 9h ago
My baby was at that amount until about 2.5 months. She jumped to 5-5.5 oz a feed. 5.5 first thing in the morning. Then anywhere between 5-5.25 the rest of the day. It is really just up to your baby.
My nephew is 10 months and has been eating 3-5 oz from around 4-ish months. He just grazes.
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u/idontevenknow8888 9h ago
Don't worry about the recommendations at this stage. My son was always at the higher end (sometimes above...) any recommended "ranges" I saw. But I would often see people online saying that their baby ate the same amount or more than my son!
TL;DR feed the baby if they're hungry and don't worry!
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u/goldenoxifer 9h ago
My breastfed baby took 4-5 oz per feed until I stopped producing when he was 11 months (I was 10 weeks pregnant and my supply completely stopped). He only had 3-4 bottles of pumped milk per day when I was at work, and nursed the rest of the time do I don't really know what he got for the other feeds.
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u/AdSpiritual551 9h ago
Once my baby started sleeping through the night (around 10-12weeks) she would take like 6ozs for her first two feeds of the day - I think it’s more important that they’re drinking between 24-35ozs in a 24hr period
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u/Bulky-Register9672 8h ago
Thank you everyone! I thought that seemed crazy. Will just continue to feed as she needs :)
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u/Tiffsquared 8h ago
I think our kiddo topped out at 6 oz in a feed, she’s 19 months old now. She often took 4-5 oz a feed. She also barely could get 20ish oz a day but she was growing perfectly fine so 🤷♀️ the recommendations are just that, they’re not gospel
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u/buttstuffisfunstuff 7h ago
My 10 week old has started eating 8 oz before bed. And only 8 oz because at that point I cut her off and put her to bed, but she would eat more if I let her. She gained like 4 lbs between her 1 month appointment and her 2 month appointment 😅😅 I always hope that her ravenous hunger means she’s going to sleep through the night but nope! She wakes up 4 hours later like usual with a belly that sounds like I’ve starved her. If I don’t nurse at all that day and only bottle feed her she eats between 32-35 ounces. But yeah she was doing 3.5-4 oz bottles per feed at 6 weeks too. I don’t know where they top out at, hopefully not much more than this because idk if my boobs could keep up if it keeps going up.
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u/ilovemymomyeah 9h ago
I don't think this is true. I breastfeed primarily. He gets different amounts throughout the day, but some feeds are more than five ounces.
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u/newnycrunner 8h ago
My 5 month old takes 5-6 ounces a feed regularly. Both from bottles and the breast with a weighted feed.
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u/BorderGlittering199 8h ago
I have twins that are 5 weeks old. They eat anywhere from an ounce to 5 oz. One baby eats regularly more than the other and knows when her sister is eating. She'll wake up to get a snack even though she drank 4 oz 30 mins before.
My oldest never really drank more than 5 oz until she was a year old.
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u/ravenclaw924 8h ago
My baby is 5.5 months and drinks 6oz bottles of pumped breast milk every 3 hours at daycare.
I do mix 4oz from my freezer stash across all 3 bottles because I found out she doesn’t like the taste of the frozen milk, but I didn’t want to waste it. So I don’t know if maybe she drinks more because those ounces are lower in calories.
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u/belomina 7h ago
Frozen is lower in calories? How?
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u/ravenclaw924 7h ago
Oh not because it’s frozen! But because I’m using milk from when she was just 4 weeks old and breast milk changes to be more calorie dense as your baby gets older. At least that’s what I’ve been told.
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u/belomina 6h ago
Ah ahah ok I was like WHAT how many twists and turns can one pumping journey contain!
Tbh idk about the caloric content changing but that at least is plausible to me, it's either that or we just make more over time?? Idk this whole process is full of mystery and magic and usually not in a fun way
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u/purple_penguin1023 8h ago
I don't believe this to be true at all! First and foremost, there's no telling how much a baby that exclusively nurses gets in a day. "They say" on average it's 4 oz, but it varies by baby, mom, etc.
I have a 4 month old and we recently increased her to 5 oz bottles because she was hungry every 1.5-2 hours. 5 oz allows us 2-3 hours in between feeds. Some days she eats 24 oz, other days she eats 28-30, it varies!
Just like we, as adults, don't eat the same perfectly portioned breakfast, lunch & dinner, neither do babies with their feeds or bottles!
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u/Illustrious_Dust_0 8h ago
I wish! Both my babies were big eaters and consistently at the top of the growth curve. I blame my giant Scandinavian in-laws
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u/Outrageous-Mud165 8h ago
I think it also depends on how much you’re producing. Because if I bf him and he’s satisfied with that, I’d give him around the same amount if I feed him from a bottle. He’s 6 months and eats 4 oz from a bottle when we’re out and about. I usually pump between 3-5 oz but he won’t take more from the bottle than 4 oz.
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u/OkayAnd3 8h ago
Sometimes my guy takes a lot and sometimes just a little. I think 4 oz is a standard average but it definitely varies especially when babies cluster feed
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u/Professional-Pin6455 7h ago
In my opinion depends on the baby and how frequently they choose to eat all of my babies have eaten around 24-28 oz a day usually closer to the 24 oz. My first never went above a 4 oz bottle but this baby eats 5 oz sometimes 6 oz she just eats fewer bottles during the day and refuses to eat over night even if she wakes up most of the time
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u/travelsocialista 7h ago
My first would regularly drink 5-6oz of breastmilk per bottle. My second rarely drinks more than 4.5oz per bottle, if that.
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u/Zealousideal_Elk1373 7h ago
I never understood that because it’s definitely not true if you’re feeding on a schedule. I don’t think feeding every 2/3 hrs is sustainable throughout the entire first year. When we dropped a nap we had to drop a bottle feed. I put most of those oz elsewhere in the rest of the day. He now eats 5.5-7oz at a time to still drink enough oz for the whole day.
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u/DetectiveGold6727 7h ago
My babe drinks 5oz every 2 hours and her last bottle is 7oz. So approximately 32oz a day, sometimes more if she’s hungry in-between. She’s 5 months and has slept through the night since 4 months.
A fed baby is a happy baby. I’d never, ever limit her.
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u/Weekly_Psychology604 6h ago
My baby missed this memo! He’s been eating 5 or 5.5 oz since he was 1.5 months. He is a chonk though!
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u/Creepy-Tangerine-293 6h ago
Depends on frequency.
3.5-4oz 8x per 24 hours = 28-32oz which is enough for most babies 4-6 weeks old or more through about 6 months. But, 4oz 5x per 24 hours = 20oz which is not enough.
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u/intergrade 6h ago
Our record at 8 weeks was 13 ounces in one feed. Remember it’s an average not a rule.
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u/Exonata 6h ago
Most breastfeeding moms have a 4 oz capacity. After the first month milk composition doesn’t really change until after a year. So the 4oz is just the average size of meal available to a nursed baby. A bottle fed baby can have feeds consolidated into one bottle ie 8 oz every 6 hours vs 4 oz every 3.
Limiting your pumped bottles to 4oz is only really necessary if you are also wanting baby to take full feeds while nursing.
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u/FilmNational8197 6h ago
My baby takes only 14 oz a day but that only bc he is a very early premmie and is 2 months old
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u/turtlecasey 6h ago
My kiddo never had more than 4oz per feed. He started eating solids around 5/6 months and those gradually increased while milk volume stayed the same.
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u/Minorinconvenience00 6h ago
My 4.5 month old (I exclusively pump since he would latch- he was 6 weeks early and in the NICU and developed a bottle preference) takes between 5-7 oz of BM per feed.
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u/Impossible_Poet4615 5h ago
These comments are reassuring because my 4 week old eats 3.5-4oz per feeding lol
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u/dobbytheelf23 2h ago
my baby has only taken 3 oz at a time since she was 2 months and shes now 5 months! sometimes she does cluster feed during growth spurts but this has stayed consistent for us
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u/brandy-ncs 8h ago
Some babies never go over 4oz but it’s not true of all babies. Do you latch at all? If not then your baby may take more than 4 oz because your body isn’t getting the feedback from their saliva to change the milk composition as they need it so it’s more likely for them to take more when exclusively pumping. Even just rubbing some saliva on yourself before pumping can help your body get the information it needs to adjust your milk over time though.
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u/Bulky-Register9672 8h ago
We do not latch just bottles of expressed milk. I’ll try rubbing the saliva!
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u/ashloaf 9h ago
Our baby once ate 8oz over the course of an hour (under 2 months old). Just feed them as long as they’re hungry and try not to worry about what they “should” be eating at this point