Breast Milk Calculator: What You Should Know

By: Bindu Raichura

Providing breast milk for at least the initial 6 months is necessary for the overall growth and development of your baby. But while breastfeeding, you cannot calculate the amount of milk you are giving and whether it is sufficient or not. Often mothers overfeed or less feed their child. While less feeding can result in malnutrition; on the other hand, overfeeding can cause premature growth. Thus to have a breast milk calculator is very important. No, you don’t have to buy a calculator from the market! A baby milk intake calculator is a breast milk chart that you can easily make regarding your baby’s weight.

Here you will get all your queries resolved about the breast milk calculator and the amount of breast milk needed by a baby as per their weight.

How Much Breast Milk Does a Baby Need?

How much milk do babies need, depends mostly on their weight and age. We will discuss the weight calculation later on. At first, you need to know the ideal daily milk quantities for babies according to their age:

• The newborn breastfeeding amount can be as little as one or two teaspoons (7ml to 14ml). On the first and second day after birth, you will produce colostrum only, so your baby will not get much milk. But this amount of colostrum is extremely beneficial for your baby.
• On day three, your baby can take about 38ml or 1.3fl oz of milk.
• Up to day 6, it will increase by 65ml or 2.2fl oz. By this time, your milk production capacity will also increase.
• From one month to the sixth month your baby will take about 3 ounces or 88.72 ml every 3 hours or 24 ounces per day.

Now that you know the breastfeeding amount according to age, you can easily make babies milk intake chart for your help.

How do I Calculate How Much Breast Milk I Need?

To ensure that you are not over or less feeding, you need to do the breast milk calculation by weight. It is a three-step process:

• At first, you will have to calculate your baby’s weight in ounces. One pound is equal to 16 ounces. So if your baby’s weight is 8 pounds 2 ounces then the calculation will be (8×16=128+2=130 ounces). To convert from kilograms to ounces you need to multiply the weight in kilogram by 35.2 to get the ounces. For instance, if your baby’s weight is 3.74 kilograms then h/she is 132 ounces (3.74 kg ×35.2=132 ounces)
• Now by dividing the weight in ounces by the number 6, you will get the total amount of milk that you need to feed your baby per day. So if your baby’s weight is 132 ounces then you need to feed 22 ounces (132/6=22) of breast milk every day to your baby.
• In the final step divide the ounces per day by the number of feeding times in a day. A newborn or infant should be fed every 3 hours, so you will have to feed your baby 8 times a day (24 hours/3 hours= 8 times a day). So we will calculate the total ounces per day by the number 8. Thus you will have to feed 2.75 oz or 82.5 ml of milk (22/8=2.75 ounces) to your baby every 3 hours.

Note: So the simple formula of breast milk calculator is (baby’s weight in ounces/6/8= ounces per feed). And if you are using milliliter marked bottles then just multiply this result by 30.

How Many Oz of Expressed Milk Should I Feed?

With the help of the baby milk intake chart and the above equation, you can easily understand how much expressed milk you need to feed at a time. You can also take immediate action by calculating how much expressed milk is your baby drinking- too much or too little? From the 1st month to the 6th month, giving 2.75 to 3 ounces of breastmilk every 3 hours is sufficient. But as your baby gains weight and as the time gap between the feedings increases, the ounces of milk per feed will also increase accordingly.

Storing Expressed Breast Milk – What You Should Know?

It is best to store 2 to 4 ounces of milk in a bottle at a time for small babies. Small babies cannot drink more than this at a time. So storing more than their requirement will lead to the wastage of the extra milk. But as your baby gets older s/he will require more and then you can store more. You will get the idea through the breast milk feeding chart and also through your personal experience.

How Much Milk Does a Baby Need When Eating Solids?

After the 6th month, when you start introducing solid food items to your baby, then naturally you will have to lower the quantity of breastmilk. After 8 months, when your baby is having solid meals three times a day regularly, you will have to provide at least 6 ounces of breastmilk per feed 3 to 5 times a day. And it will be beneficial if your baby starts the day with breastmilk as the first meal as it is the main source of nutrition for the baby even after 6 months.

Nothing can supersede the breastmilk. So store your breastmilk according to the baby’s need with the help of a breast milk calculator and start your parenting journey smoothly.

Source: https://www.beingtheparent.com/breast-milk-calculator-what-you-should-know/

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