Recommended Feeding Guide For The First Year
Breast milk and formula are designed to be the primary sources of nutritionthroughout an infants first year of life. You should talk with your babyshealth care provider before starting solid foods. Solid foods should notbegin before age 4 months because:
- Breast milk or formula provide your baby with all the nutrients that are needed.
- Your baby isnt physically developed enough to eat solid food from a spoon.
- Feeding your baby solid food too early may result in poor feeding experiences and increased weight gain in both infancy and early childhood.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all infants,children and adolescents take in enough vitamin D through supplements,formula or cows milk to prevent complications from deficiency of thisvitamin. In November 2008, the AAP updated its recommendations fordaily intake of vitamin D for infants, children, and adolescents whoare healthy. It is now recommended that the minimum intake of vitamin Dfor these groups should be 400 IU per day, beginning soon after birth.Your babys health care provider can recommend the proper type andamount of vitamin D supplement.
How Much Food Does Your Baby Need Follow Their Lead
Feeding your baby isnt an exact science, and some days theyll eat more or less than the amounts listed in this article. Still, remember that your baby is a good judge of what they need and when and they wont be shy in telling you.
Spot their cues, follow their lead, settle into a routine, and enjoy every step. Itll be time for finger foods before you know it.
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Things You Should Know
Here are some important things to keep in mind about formula feeding:
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Hand washing. Always wash your hands carefully before preparing formula.
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Washing feeding equipment. If you wash and rinse bottles and artificial nipples carefully ââ¬â with hot, clean water ââ¬â boiling or sterilizing them is unnecessary. Be sure to clean out any leftover formula, which can spoil easily and upset your baby’s stomach.
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Heating formula. Never heat formula in the microwave. Microwaves heat the formula unevenly, and hotspots will burn your baby. Place the bottle in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes to bring it up to room temperature.
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Bottle position. Whoever is doing the feeding needs to hold the baby’s head at a slightly elevated angle and keep the bottle held up so she doesn’t suck in a lot of air.
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Throwing out used formula. Prepared formula can be kept in the refrigerator for 48 hours if the baby hasn’t touched the nipple. If she has, throw out whatever remains after a feeding.
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What Are The Different Types Of Infant Formula
There are 3 types of store-bought formula: ready-to-feed, liquid concentrate and powdered. Ready-to-feed and liquid concentrate are sterile until they are opened. Powdered formula is not sterile.
You can buy infant formula at most grocery stores and pharmacies. Follow the instructions on the label. Do not dilute the formula with extra water. Never use formula from a container with dents, bulges or other damage. Use the formula before the expiration date on the package.
Transporting And Storing A Made
Sometimes, transporting a made-up feed might be the only option . In this case, make up the formula at home, cool it in cold water and then cool it further in the back of the fridge for at least an hour before transporting it.
Made-up formula stored in a fridge should be used as soon as possible, but within a maximum of 24 hours.
Move the made-up formula from the fridge to a cool bag with ice packs just before leaving the house and use it within four hours .
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How Much Do Bottle
Newborn babies commonly have 6-8 feeds every 24 hours, but theres no set amount of food or number of feeds your baby should have. Different babies drink different amounts of formula or breastmilk. Some might have some feeds close together and others further apart.
For formula-fed babies, you can use the chart on the formula tin to see how much infant formula to make up in a bottle, but information about quantity for age on formula tins is just a guide. It mightnt necessarily suit your baby.
Just feed your baby whenever baby is hungry. You ll see baby cues that say Im hungry for example, your baby will make sucking noises or start turning towards the breast or bottle. Your baby will also let you know when theyve had enough by stopping sucking or turning their head away.
As the amount of solid food your baby eats increases, the total amount of breastmilk or formula baby takes in a day will decrease. The amount of formula will also decrease as your baby starts to drink from a cup instead of a bottle. By 12 months of age, when your baby is ready for cows milk, baby will generally be drinking around 500-600 ml of breastmilk or formula a day.
Can Babies Drink Too Much Formula
If youre concerned that your baby is feeding too much, there are some signs to watch out for. These will probably be very obvious, such as vomiting , or experiencing tummy pain or tension after a feed.
Although some spit up is perfectly normal in babies, if your little one is spitting up very frequently or in large quantities, it might mean that he or she is drinking too much. Feeding more frequently, but with a less volume at each feed, could help.
If you feel your baby is gaining weight rapidly, speak to your doctor about whether he or she thinks your baby might be feeding too much. This is most likely to happen if you feed your baby when they arent actually hungry, but are simply bored or wanting attention, or even just needing to be burped! Your pediatrician may recommend alternatives to defaulting to another bottle, such as cuddling or playing with your baby. Youll also want to make sure that youre preparing formula in the right proportions, so that your baby isnt accidentally getting too much formula powder and too little water.
As youll note from the formula feeding chart, older babies have fewer feeds , with larger bottles at each feed. Still, your baby should not be intaking more than 32 fl oz of formula per 24-hour period.
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Care Advice For Bottle Feeding
How To Warm Milk
- From frozen: thaw in refrigerator overnight or run under cool running water
- Refrigerated milk or thawed milk: run under warm running water or immerse in a pan of warm water. Mix/swirl the bottle and test the milk on your wrist to make sure it is not too hot.
- Never microwave formula or breast milk. Microwaves can have uneven heating, causing some areas of the bottle and milk to be so hot it could burn your baby. It could also cause the loss of the beneficial properties of breast milk.
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How Much Breast Milk Should A Newborn Eat
Wondering how much a newborn should eat? As pediatricians, we say to feed on demand, says Jennifer Trachtenberg, MD, a pediatrician in New York City and an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine. And luckily, when all goes right, breastfeeding is an ingenious, self-sufficient system. When baby suckles, it stimulates your breasts to produce just the right amount of milk to meet your childs nutritional needs. When baby needs more they suckle more, causing your body to crank up production. Genius. Of course, thats presuming that babyand your breasts cooperate.
Its hard to clock how much a newborn eats when youre breastfeeding. Use these guidelines to make sure baby is eating enough.
How many ounces should a newborn eat at a time? From the time your milk comes in a few days after birth, baby will likely take in 2 to 3 ounces at each feeding, working their way up to 4 ounces by the end of the first month. To gauge roughly how much milk baby needs, try this quick, easy calculation: Multiply babys weight by two and a half. For example, an eight-pound baby should be eating about 20 ounces a day.
When To Start Solids
Your baby needs to reach certain stages of development before you add solid food to their diet. If you breastfeed, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that you feed your baby breast milk alone until theyre about 6 months old. Many babies are ready for solids when theyre about this age.
Heres how to tell if your baby may be ready for solid food:
- They can hold up their head and keep it steady while seated in a high chair or other infant seat.
- They open their mouth for food or reach out for it.
- They put their hands or toys in their mouth.
- They can take food from a spoon and swallow it instead of dribbling it all out.
- They have doubled their birth weight and weigh at least 13 pounds.
Continued
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Six To Seven Months :
This is an important phase since solids are introduced for most babies after they cross the 6 months mark. If thats the case with your baby too, scale down the amount of formula he is being fed a bit. Babies should not be dependent on solids in this phase. It should only be used as complementary foods and most of the childs nutrition should come from either breastmilk or formula milk.
They would be consuming around 180 to 240 ml of formula milk per bottle in a day depending on how well the baby is responding to solids.
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How Often Should I Feed My Baby
It’s generally recommended that babies be fed whenever they seem hungry, which is called demand feeding .
Most newborns who are formula-fed feed every 2 to 3 hours. As they get bigger and their tummies can hold more milk they usually eat every 3 to 4 hours.
And if your baby is very young, or having problems gaining weight, you shouldnt go too long without feeding, even if it means waking your baby. In this case, talk to your doctor about how often your baby should be fed.
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Enjoy Mealtimes With Your Baby
Mealtimes are a time to be together and communicate. Just as adults and children enjoy talking with each other at mealtimes, so do babies. Hold your baby close to your body, facing you, when feeding. This should be an enjoyable and social experience for you both.Take the bottle away as soon as your baby has had enough.Do not put your baby to bed with a bottle, to feed alone. This is dangerous because your baby may choke. Also, older children who are regularly fed this way are more likely to get middle-ear infections and tooth decay.
Keep An Eye On Growth
The most important thing is that your baby is growing and gaining weight at a healthy rate. Checking in regularly with your pediatrician will ensure that he or she is tracking your babys growth curve, which is the best way to determine whether your little one is getting enough formula. Typically, infants gain between half an ounce and an ounce of weight every day for their first three months, and around half an ounce a day between the ages of three months and six months.
Its normal for babies to lose as much as 10% of their birth weight in the first five days, so dont panic if you notice your newborns weight dipping in those early days. By the age of two weeks, your little one should be back up to their birth weight.
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Topics Covered For Formula Feeding
If your baby is healthy, skip the “What to Do” section. Go directly to the topic number that relates to your question for advice:
What Should I Know About How Much Formula My Baby Needs
- Understand how to estimate about how much formula your 0 to 6 month old needs per day
- Learn about how formula needs change after 6 months of age
- Know how hunger and fullness cues are an important part of how much formula your baby drinks
When it comes to feeding your baby, responding to your babys hunger cues and feeding on demand is best. But as parents we often want more specific guidance, especially when it comes to how many ounces of formula we should be feeding our baby each day. How much is enough? How much is too much? Lets set the record straight.
How much formula for ages 0 to 6 months?
During the first 6 months when solid foods are not yet in the picture, theres a simple rule of thumb to figure out how much formula your baby needs:
1) Offer 2.5 ounces of formula per pound of body weight each day.1, 7 Remember that your baby may periodically take more or less than this amount depending on their hunger and growth spurts.
Here is an example for a baby who weighs ten pounds: 10 pounds x 2.5 ounces = 25 ounces total per day
2) To figure out the number of ounces per bottle, divide this number by the number of feedings your baby has in a day.
If your baby feeds 8 times per day, you would divide 25 by 8, which comes out to a little over three ounces per feeding: 25 ounces total per day / 8 feeding times per day = 3.12 ounces per feeding
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How much formula for ages 6 to 12 months?
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