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#1
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Amount to feed?
My wife and I are confused about how long she should nurse. She has a
gut feeling our son isn't getting enough. On average the feedings last about 20-25 min. There are times though, that he will nurse for an hour. Should we stop him after a certain amount of time? When we feed him her milk in a bottle, we start with 3oz, but he always seems to want more. |
#2
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Amount to feed?
"Wrangler 4x4" skrev i en meddelelse
... My wife and I are confused about how long she should nurse. She has a gut feeling our son isn't getting enough. On average the feedings last about 20-25 min. There are times though, that he will nurse for an hour. Should we stop him after a certain amount of time? When we feed him her milk in a bottle, we start with 3oz, but he always seems to want more. Nurse until he lets go - he knows when he's finished. And feed him as often as he will nurse. Why do you feed him milk in a bottle? It can lead to nipple confusion. Tine, Denmark |
#3
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Amount to feed?
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#4
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Amount to feed?
I keep going with the twins until they stop feeding. If I think they are
sucking for food rather than comfort then they soon let me know when I unlatch them. As far as bottles go, how old is your baby? Mine are almost 6 months old now, they will easily take 5 oz of expressed milk from a bottle and sometimes more. Although they don't have bottle feeds as often as they would nurse (and only when I'm at work), if I'm home I always nurse them to avoid any confusion. Plus if your baby is younger than 6 weeks I would avoid a bottle completely. Ellie "Wrangler 4x4" wrote in message ... My wife and I are confused about how long she should nurse. She has a gut feeling our son isn't getting enough. On average the feedings last about 20-25 min. There are times though, that he will nurse for an hour. Should we stop him after a certain amount of time? When we feed him her milk in a bottle, we start with 3oz, but he always seems to want more. |
#5
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Amount to feed?
I would stick with gut instinct .... you don't say how old your lo is?
My dd (20wks) tends to nurse every 2.5 to 3hrs during the day for around 20mins, but the last couple of days she's been nursing anything between 10mins and an hour ...gives me chance for a lie down .. lol. As for giving your lo an ebm bottle, my dh does this regularly as he loves to be able to do something for Elisabeth, (apart from the nappy changes of course ..lol!) However, I wouldn't recommend it earlier than 6wks or so, due to nipple confusion, and getting your wife's supply fully established. Elisabeth tends to take around 6oz from bottle, although in the "early" days she only wanted 2-3oz, and once again I guess it depends on time of day. Obviously I have no idea how much she has from me ... but she soon lets me know when's she's had enough. Also, as long as your lo is content within themselves, producing plenty of wet/dirty nappies, growing happily ... then fret not. DH always tended to do the last feed of the evening. Although she's been sleeping through for the past fortnight, and has missed "their" nursing time together... HTH. (remove the no spam after the at if you want to reply) "Wrangler 4x4" wrote in message ... My wife and I are confused about how long she should nurse. She has a gut feeling our son isn't getting enough. On average the feedings last about 20-25 min. There are times though, that he will nurse for an hour. Should we stop him after a certain amount of time? When we feed him her milk in a bottle, we start with 3oz, but he always seems to want more. |
#6
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Amount to feed?
My wife and I are confused about how long she should nurse. She has a
gut feeling our son isn't getting enough. What makes you think that? How old is your son? How is his weight gain? How is his diaper count? Does he seem content at the end of a feed, however long it lasts? These are all more reliable signs of 'getting enough' than the number of minutes he feeds. On average the feedings last about 20-25 min. There are times though, that he will nurse for an hour. Very normal. Some babies will occassionally have times when they will want to nurse for long periods of time. This is most common in the evening, but can happen at any time. Sometimes the baby will then go on to sleep a little longer than usual before the next feed, sometimes not. Should we stop him after a certain amount of time? If your wife is getting tired/frazzled, and you are getting the sense that baby isn't getting much milk any more but is nursing for comfort, she CAN stop the feed if she wants to, but there is no reason that she has to, or 'should', if she is otherwise willing to continue with it. (And if she's getting tired, you can help here by making sure that she has everything she needs to be comfortable during these long feeding sessions -- the remote, snacks, something to drink, etc.) When we feed When we feed him her milk in a bottle, we start with 3oz, but he always seems to want more. As others have said, you aren't saying why you are bottle feeding some feeds. With a young baby, this usually isn't a good idea. (If she is getting ready to return to work, you will, of course, need to start teaching baby to take a bottle at some point, but, unless she is returning very early, it can usually wait until baby is 6-8 weeks old. If baby is younger than this, I probably would stop the bottles. The time and trouble spent on pumping will just tire your wife, and if there are concerns about feeding or baby getting 'enough', the possibility of nipple confusion will just make things worse. But ... to answer this particular question ... babies will often take more from a bottle than from the breast. Maybe the ease with which the milk flows makes them want to take more than they would normally. Or maybe they drink it so fast and then they want to keep sucking for the pleasure of sucking, so you think they are still hungry when they really aren't. For a youngish baby, 3-4 ounces sounds pretty typical to me. If he wants more, give him more. (But don't start with a large amount, because then if he DOESN"T take it, you will waste it, and pumped milk IS liquid gold...) But again, unless there is a really good reason to be doing so, I probably wouldn't be bottle feeding at all. Still, it sounds to me like your baby is doing great. Your wife should be nursing as often and as long as baby is hungry, and he will take as much milk as he needs to grow. Naomi CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator (either remove spamblock or change address to to e-mail reply.) |
#7
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Amount to feed?
Wrangler 4x4 wrote: My wife and I are confused about how long she should nurse. She has a gut feeling our son isn't getting enough. On average the feedings last about 20-25 min. There are times though, that he will nurse for an hour. Should we stop him after a certain amount of time? When we feed him her milk in a bottle, we start with 3oz, but he always seems to want more. Those feeding times sound normal, but the best ways to tell whether a baby is getting enough to eat are the # of wet/dirty diapers and weight gain. If there's enough output, there must be enough input. You don't say how old your baby is - at 3 or 4 weeks, my son would drink about 3 oz. from a bottle, and by the time he was 2 months old, he'd drink 4-5 oz. However, I think sometimes babies will drink more from a bottle than they really *need*, because they keep on sucking for comfort even after their hunger is satisfied. Clisby |
#8
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Amount to feed?
Wrangler 4x4 writes:
: My wife and I are confused about how long she should nurse. She has a : gut feeling our son isn't getting enough. On average the feedings last : about 20-25 min. There are times though, that he will nurse for an : hour. Should we stop him after a certain amount of time? When we feed : him her milk in a bottle, we start with 3oz, but he always seems to want : more. OK. Your question raises a lot of other questions in what it doesn't say. Let's start with "How old is yoru son?" Is he a newborn, or is he an "older" baby. How many times a day does your wife nurse, total? How often do you feed EBM (expressed breastmilk) in a bottle? Who does the feeding? Do you ever supplement with formula? Actually, everything you say in your post sounds within the range of normal, including the 25 minute feeds, and the occational hour nursing session. The best way to tell if you are feeding enough in the short term is to count wet (not poopy) diapers. If he is having 6 (dispoable) to 8 (cloth) wet diapers a day, (as a newborn) that is good. Other than this, how is nursing going. It it relaxing for baby and mother, or is is stressful. Does she feel comfortable with the process. Larry |
#9
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Amount to feed?
Thanks everyone. My son is about 5 weeks old now. The reason for the
bottles is because my wife is returning to work next week (full time). I'm going to be a proud stay home dad. He has been doing good so far going back and forth from breast to bottle. If he will need more than my wife can pump (3oz.) aren't we going to run into trouble soon? The reason she feels he isn't getting enough is because when we feed him more from the bottle, he seems to sleep better and have a happier disposition all around. |
#10
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Amount to feed?
Wrangler 4x4 wrote: Thanks everyone. My son is about 5 weeks old now. The reason for the bottles is because my wife is returning to work next week (full time). I'm going to be a proud stay home dad. He has been doing good so far going back and forth from breast to bottle. If he will need more than my wife can pump (3oz.) aren't we going to run into trouble soon? The reason she feels he isn't getting enough is because when we feed him more from the bottle, he seems to sleep better and have a happier disposition all around. All babies are different, but no, I wouldn't expect a 5-week-old to go for 8 hours on just 3 oz. of expressed milk. How often does your wife pump, and what kind of pump is she using? Will she be able to pump once or twice at work? If she's not already using a double-electric pump, she should rent or buy one and try that. I got the best results from pumping at about the same time every day, rather than randomly doing it whenever I had a few minutes. Clisby |
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