During the last week I've been tossing up whether I should give Eli other means of nutrition / food besides breast milk only because he's getting older and I worry that he's not getting enough for his growing body. A formula feed baby starts with 80mls of milk per feed and slowly increases to 150ml by four months so should my breast fed baby be drinking 150mls per feed?
Options at his age now could be rice cereal on top of breast milk and or as suggested by my mother in law (who is a retired midwife) topping up my breast milk with formula.
My concern about whether my baby is getting enough has been playing on my mind and making me doubt my ability to provide all he needs for the first 6 months. I've been emailing friends asking them what they did when their baby was Eli's age or their thoughts on my fears.
I googled to see whether my question has been circulated in other forums and found many different sources. Obviously your supply will adjust according to your baby's needs and there is an amount a certain aged baby should be consuming a day.
A really good source that I usually go to is Kelly Mom. The web site is dedicated to information just on breast feeding. I was able to find information as well as a calculator to determine how much my baby should be drinking per day. According to Kelly Mom my four month old baby who is nursing an average max 6 times a day, needs an average 125mls per feed which is how much I'm expressing, if I get a solid 3-4 hours time difference between last express.
So I guess I'm doing okay, he's doing okay for now. I do want to introduce rice cereal before I go back to work in February so I know whether he has any allergies to particular brands of rice cereal. Also I need to stop listening to "well meaning" mothers who last looked after a baby 20 plus years ago. Their old school and some times non proven approach to nurturing babies is how they did it at their time and I should just trust my decisions, my body and my baby on how I will nurture my baby today.
Did you ever worry about whether your older baby is getting enough on breast milk alone? What did you do to settle your concerns?
