Amount to feed

[chrise_grl]

My Baby is now 4 1/2 months old and he is a healthy weight. I just wanted to know how much should he be eating. He just started to go to the babysitter and I am pumping for that, then he is bf with me.

Will he ever eat more then 5oz at one feeding? I see all these bottles with 8-10oz and wonder why a formula feed baby would eat that much at one time? Will I need to pump that much soon?? He hasnt started to eat solids yet, I want to wait until he is 6 months.

Thanks!

[KerrySmithIBCLC]

Congrats on your decision to wait to introduce solids until 6 months - I think that's an EXCELLENT choice.

Here is a great link to information on how much expressed milk your baby needs. It's unlikely that he will ever need more than 5 oz. at a time. Breastmilk is like a protein drink - it's a lot of nutrition packed into a much smaller amount!

A good rule of thumb is that your baby needs around 1-1.5 oz. per hour that you're away from him. So if he's at the sitter for 8 hours, he may need 8-12 oz, total.

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html