How Much Should A 3 Week Old Baby Eat?
How much should a 3 week old baby eat? There seems to be a lot of conflicting information out there about how much I should be feeding my baby, so I am starting to get a little bit confused about how much formula she actually needs. I’m afraid that I may be under feeding her. Can you please give me a good idea of how much formula I should be giving her and what type of schedule she should be on?
Unfortunately, babies do not come with a manual, so it is quite difficult to know exactly what they need, especially this early on as you are just becoming familiar with being a parent. To make things even more complicated, each and every baby is different in terms of how much formula they will actually need.
How Much Formula Does A Three-Week-Old Baby Need?
The most common way to determine how much formula your baby actually needs is to multiply her weight by 2.5. The number that you come up with will be how many ounces you need to feed your baby on a daily basis.
As an example, if your baby weighs 7 pounds, you will need to feed her:
7 (weight) X 2.5 = 17.5 ounces of formula
So you will want to feed your baby between 17 to 18 ounces of formula each day. However, keep in mind that your baby’s digestive system is still quite immature and you will need to break these feedings up into multiple sessions.
3 Week Old Baby Feeding Schedule
At this age it is preferable to feed your baby around seven or eight times today, using around 2 to 3 ounces at each feeding. You want to try to space these feedings out to every 2 to 3 hours. Your baby’s stomach is really quite tiny at this age, so never be tempted to overfeed her, or it is likely that she could throw up all of the formula.
Also keep in mind that when babies are around three weeks, many of them typically may experience a growth spurt. It is at this point that your baby will demand to be fed more, usually with plenty of tears and screaming, leading you quite frustrated. You will have to take your baby’s cues and determine how much to increase the amount of formula you are giving her at each session through trial and error.
Related posts: