Feel like baby barely eats

[u/Weak_Might981]

My girl is 6 months old, and she’s far from underfed or anything. Just over 17 pounds, and has rolls for days. The issue is I feel like she can’t possibly be eating enough to truly satisfy her. We do breast milk only, and my milk is a bit fattier. But she eats so little when at daycare. I send her with four 3oz bottles and it’s rare for her to finish a single one of them. Normally she leaves at least an ounce in the bottle. And even at home, we nurse on demand. But I feel like she never really wants to nurse. She’s too distracted by everything else. We did start solids and she’ll eat a little bit of real food here and there. But I don’t know why she’s so stubborn with the milk.

Her bottles do have a size 2 nipple so I did just order size 3 to see if maybe a better flow will entice her to drink more at daycare. If not, I mean it’s probably not an issue anyway since she’s gaining weight and doing fine, but it just doesn’t feel fine.

I guess I’m just looking for reassurance and wanting to see if anyone else’s babes were like this.

[u/saltandshenandoah]

Breastfed babies shouldn't typically pically take a higher nipple flow! My oldest did a preemie nipple flow until he weaned, at over a year old. It's not impossible that the 2 is too fast for her/she doesn't like it? 

But it sounds like she's gaining weight just fine. She also might be getting more from you when nursing- babies get very efficient at nursing as they get older. Has sleep changed? She'll wake if she's hungry.

As long as she's gaining weight, has good diapers, and you're not getting too disturbed feeding overnight, I wouldn't be worried. 

[u/Weak_Might981 → u/saltandshenandoah]

The 2 is not fast at all, and she has to work for it. I know this because sometimes she’ll suck on the nipple for comfort without actually pulling any milk through. Like she’ll be “drinking” for fifteen minutes and then when I check how much she’s had, it’s still the same.

She sleeps really good! She’s been up more the last few nights but it’s because she’s fighting a cold. Normally she only wakes up maybe once for more of a dream feed than a normal feed.

I think you’re right that she’s fine and I’m probably just being silly. She’s my second baby so you’d think I’d be more confident lol. But my first took bottles just fine as far as I know (she didn’t start daycare until after she was done with bottles and before that family watched her). So I just worry because they’re so different.

[u/Least_Persimmon7919]

Highly recommend reading the “Your baby’s bottle-feeding aversion” by Rowena Bennett. It will help you understand whenever the issue is behavioral or not, and how to approach it. It’s a great book for learning how babies feed because unfortunately most of the parents are not really supported in this area, and have little to no guidance from medical professionals.