A newborn baby can normally weigh from 2.5 kg to 4 kg. It seems that one and a half kilograms is a bit, but not for a newborn baby. Outwardly, children with such a big difference in weight look very different, and their possibilities are also different. But any young mother cares about how much newborns should eat?
Immediately after birth, children usually lose weight: meconium is released, which has accumulated in the intestine for the entire intrauterine life. And the baby is still sucking out a little milk. Normally, weight loss should not exceed 10% of the original weight of the child. That is, for a small child it is 250 grams, and for a large child - 400 grams.
After two or three days, the weight gradually begins to recover. How much should newborns eat in order for weight to recover faster? On the first day, mother does not have milk, but this does not mean that the child does not need to be fed. The baby must suck colostrum in order to stimulate milk production and to improve the functioning of his intestines. How many milliliters should a newborn eat when it comes to colostrum?
Colostrum is a special fluid made up of antibodies and proteins. Water and carbohydrates in it are much less than in mature milk. The volume of colostrum is very modest: it is allocated from 50 to 100 ml per day.
If the baby often breastfeeds, he has normal urination, meconium comes out, then no matter how much the newborn eats, this is enough for him.
Colostrum is gradually replaced by the so-called transitional milk. It is more liquid than mature milk and is excreted in sufficiently large quantities. Transitional, and then mature milk for each comes on time: for someone this happens by the end of the second day, and for someone only on the fourth day after delivery.
After lactation is established, the baby should normally eat approximately 10 ml for each day of life. That is, 30 ml on the third day, 50 ml on the fifth, 70 ml on the seventh (calculation for one feeding).
By the month the baby eats about 100 ml per feeding. But all these norms are good for artificers, who are fed by the hour and strictly allocated volumes of the mixture. No one will tell you how much newborns should breastfeed. Such a rule simply does not exist. Now it is recommended to apply to the breast on demand, and this need for crumbs can occur every half hour. Of course, a baby who eats so often will not suck out at the same time the same volumes as a child who has not eaten for three hours.
How much should newborns eat if they have a small birth weight? Typically, such children have a very small amount of stomach, and therefore there is simply no way to eat a lot at once. But milk is absorbed quite quickly, they are often applied to the breast and gain more in a month than fat women at birth.
So how many milliliters should a newborn eat for each feeding, if he is breast-fed?
As much as he wants. This is not a biological machine, a newborn is a living person, and his appetite is curled from well-being and even mood. Sufficiency of feeding is determined by the number of urinations per day. There should be at least twelve. If a child urinates 12 or more times a day, he eats enough, you can be sure of this.