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How often do you feed your newborn baby? And at what age does the feeding change?

I have a 13 day old newborn baby, and I've heard SO MANY different feeding tips from each doctor that I go to. I was told to feed my baby every 2-3 hours, but not to go over 4 hours. I feed her anywhere from 2oz-4oz at each feeding. She is ~8lbs. She is fed formula, not breast milk. (Have had too many problems). Anyway, do you have any suggestions for me about feeding my newborn?

And at what age does it change?

Public Comments

1. my son has colic hes 3 months on the 7th and he still only eats 2 -4 oz every two -5hrs and he weighs 12 lbs but hes tiny comparied to the other rolly pollies so i dunno im a first time mom the dr told me feed em when ever they want but wen there little like urs u gotta wake em up every 4 hrs

2. My LO is 7 weeks, 14 lbs and formula fed. He eats anywhere from 2-3 hours and usually 2-4 oz. Sometimes he wants more, and usually 1 oz does the trick. Its hard to know when they are that small what is right and I know the first 2 weeks, I OBSESSED about when, and how much I was feeding him. Now I just pay attention to his cues and I know how to distinguish his "hungry" cry. If she is hungry feed her and don't worry about the clock. Oh and my baby sleeps 6+ hours some nights so I wouldn't worry about going over 4 hours with a feed. Sometimes formula keeps them full longer so go with your gut. She will let you know if she is hungry!! Good luck:)

3. i used to feed my daughter every 3 hours but let her go 4 hours during the night because i had to wake her up for the feed. but i would say to let your baby be the judge. feed on demand

4. My daughter is 2 weeks and 3 days old, at birth she was 8lbs 4 oz and last wed she was 8lbs 14oz. In the hospital they told me to feed her 2 oz every 3-4 hours. But my baby wanted the 2 ounces every 2 hours so I gave it to her. When we got home I decided it would be easier for me to give her 3 ounces every 3 hours so I started doing that when she was 5 days old. On Saturday I moved her up to 4 ounces every 3.5-4 hours. She seems to be doing very well. She is content and almost sleeping completely through the night. Here is my advice, doctors will give you guide lines "for every baby" but every baby is different. You know your baby better than any doctor does. I will post the general guidelines for feeding but ultimately you know what is best for your baby.

newborn-2 weeks
2-3ounces 8-10 feedings per day about 24 ounces daily

2 weeks- 8 weeks
3-5 ounces 6-8 feedings about 28 ounces daily

Since our babies were on the larger side just try to make sure they are getting at least 24 ounces a day. If you are getting 6-8 wet diapers and at least one poopy diaper in 48 hours your baby is eating enough.

5. When my daughter was born she got 2 oz every 2-3 hours. Well, she seemed to be sucking that down pretty fast, so at around 2 weeks I upped it to 3 oz. She was happy with that for a while, she would always leave about half an oz. extra in the bottle when she was done. Then at around 8 weeks 3 oz did not do it for her, she would cry when the bottle was empty, so I upped her to 4 oz. She stayed at 4 oz until about week 12 then 5 oz was the rage. We are at week 15 and she is still at the 5oz.

I fed my baby when she was hungry. If you try and feed her ahead of time then she won't take the whole thing. Wait too long and she will be so frustrated she almost forgets how to take a bottle. Some times my baby did not eat for 5 hours, sometimes she ate at 1.5 hours. Your daughter has a hungry cry, you know what it sounds like, feed her when she cries like that.

Also, be ware, right around 2 weeks my daughter would cry hysterically at around 7pm. I had just fed her at 6, how could she be hungry? Well she WAS! Don't worry about making your baby fat, worry about meeting your babies needs, feed them when they want to be fed. Oh, and that bit about waking them up to feed...WHATEVER, that was the best sleep I got! She use to sleep from around 6am-11am, it was GREAT! Then I would wake up make her a bottle immediatly and we would start the day. My baby was sleeping 7-9 hours a night at week 7!

Oh, and about bottles. This is what I did and it worked out GREAT! I pre-made 7 bottles. Every night I would take out all the bottles in the refridgerator and then make enough bottles to equal 7, because that is about how many she was eating in 24 hours. I always rotated the bottles so that the oldest ones got drunk first. I used the playtex drop ins and they were awesome! And I used the liquid Enfimil Lipil, once again AWESOME! The only thing I had to wash were the nipples, which the Dr. said i could soak them in hot soapy water for 15 minutes and rinse well. No sterilizing, no microwave bags, none of that crud!

I highly reccomend them! Good luck!

6. Well, at this age my baby would nurse and nurse and nurse. So I would say feed on demand.