My boy recently went through a major growth spurt that happened to coincide with his reaching 4 months of age. My super sleeper (who had dropped his early morning feed at 8 weeks) was waking up in the early hours of the morning again, demanding to be fed and had an appetite that I was struggling to keep up with. This dramatic increase in hunger saw me go from breastfeeding him 4-6 times per day to feeding him 8-10 times per day. I was exhausted and started to question my ability to produce enough breastmilk.
It was also around this time that the issue of introducing solids was mentioned to me. I heard, “if your boy is hungry, perhaps you should give him some rice cereal” a number of times. A visit to the pediatrician reassured me to keep persisting with breastfeeding and that with time my boy’s ferocious hunger would ease. I am glad I made the decision to continue breastfeeding my son on demand because after a couple of weeks my boy stopped demanding the breast so often and has fallen into a fairly predictable 5 times per day feeding schedule (with no more early morning feeds). I haven’t introduced solids yet, despite being aware that many parents have started solids by now (my boy will be 5 months old next week).
This recent period of increased breastfeeding, had me wondering about what is ‘normal’ when it comes to number of feeds per day. Although the current position by the World Health Organisation is to breastfeed on demand, I realise that many parents have switched to formula by now and may be left wondering how much milk, on average, their babies may be having per day.
The typical number of breastfeedings/bottles per day and range of intake might look a little something like this*:
| Age (months) | Number of Feeds per day | Range of Intake per Feeding |
| <1 | 7-8 | 2-4 ounces (60-120ml) |
| 1-3 | 5-7 | 4-6 ounces (120-180ml) |
| 3-6 | 4-5 | 6-7 ounces (180-210ml) |
| 6-9 | 3-4 | 7-8 ounces (210-240ml) |
| 9-12 | 3 | 7-8 ounces (210-240ml) |
I find the above guidelines particularly useful when expressing breastmilk. Inherent with breastfeeding is the inability to know exactly how much breastmilk our babies are consuming at any one feeding. By knowing, on average, how much milk babies typically consume at a given age, it helps me to know just how much breastmilk to express and store.
*Source: Adapted from Samour and King, 2006 as cited in Delaney AL, Arvedson JC. Development of Swallowing and Feeding: Prenatal through first year of life. Dev Disabil Res Rev. 2008;14:105-117.
