How much expressed milk should my 1 week old eat in a day?

Question

I have newborn twin girls. One has learned to breastfeed just fine and after losing too much weight initially, is on the right track now. The other has continued to lose weight. She's not dehydrated and has no other ill effects, but we're afraid that will change if this continues. We're still working on getting her to breastfeed well, but since it takes so long per attempt and we have a second baby feeding very frequently, it is very difficult to even offer the breast enough for her to take in enough calories. We started supplementing with a handfeeder for expressed milk and that seems to be effective. Plus, Mommy can sleep while baby suckles off Daddy's finger, which is nice.

So now we are looking at either a handfeeder or possibly a bottle to supplement or replace the breast for one baby using expressed milk. But we're trying to figure out if my wife can express enough milk for the job and to assess whether or not our daughter is eating enough food to start gaining weight. We have the Ameda Purely Yours, which should be plenty as a supplement, but we might need to rent a medical grade pump if we're not getting enough milk expressed as is.

We're hoping to avoid using formula, since it is not as good for the baby, but if she doesn't gain weight today, we'll have to just for the calories. To figure that out, it would be really helpful to know how many ounces (or milliliters) she should be eating in a day.

She was born at 6 pounds at birth and is now between 5 lb 2 oz and 5 lb 5 oz, depending on the scale and when she is weighed.

justanothamotha · Accepted Answer

Your baby is doing fine I am sure.  My oldest had that much weight loss & still more than doubled his birth weight by 8 weeks being exclusively breastfed. :)

This link will show you how large your babies tummy is now:
http://www.llli.org/faq/colostrum.html
At a week you max out at 1.5-2oz per feed.

And this link will tell you how much breast milk the average baby needs:
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html
Babies that age will probably take less - but babies who are breastfed ages 1-6 months of age take an average of 25 oz in 24 hrs.  So that is about an ounce per hour.

My only other advice is try to avoid bottle feeding.  It will only make latching harder to learn.  She should be syringe, dropper, or finger fed ONLY.  Feeding a bottle will cause more grief than it's worth.  You can also try a supplemental nursing system to help get her latched & ensure she can feed at the same time.

Hope it helps & HUGE congrats on your new babies & WHOLE life makeover. <3

Anonymous · Answer

Do NOT... and may I repeat do NOT switch her to or even supplement with formula... Formula-fed babies eat less often because formula is thicker than breastmilk, which develops their metabolism to be slower, and very often develop digestion issues. Most formula-fed babies will also lose all interest in breastmilk. 99% of brands' FIRST and most present ingredient is corn syrup... Would you feed her a bottle of Karo? And formula couldn't *hope* to have all the benefits of breastmilk.

Phew! Now that that little rant is over... Lol.
As hard as it may be, the best way to get her to eat more is to put her to the breast more often. The more often she nurses (not the more time. Two 10 minute feedings can often be better than one 20 minute feeding), the better her chances. How much she should be eating is entirely dependent on her hunger levels. If she's still fussing to eat after a full bottle of expressed milk, give her another. But if she only eats 1/2 to 3/4 of a bottle at a time and is still a happy baby and making diapers, you don't have much to worry about. If you're worried about her weight gain, have your wife eat more (healthy) fats, such as avocado, peanut butter, olive oil, etc., and this calorie increase will translate into the breastmilk she expresses.

Oh, and one other thing...
Do NOT, and I repeat do NOT... Despair. It will all be fine.

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How Much Expressed Milk

How much expressed milk should my 1 week old eat in a day?

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