Calculate how much your baby needs to drink!

Calculate how much your baby needs to drink!

The dosage of the drinking amount for your baby is part of everyday life for you as a parent. Just one of your many new chores to take care of, not to mention dealing with acute sleep deprivation. You will quickly forget something and even everyday things will become a challenge. That's why we would like to relieve you of a task and have summarised everything for you about the dosage and drinking amount of baby formula. If you should forget something, you can keep track of the topic here and don't have to be afraid of doing something wrong.

How often do I feed my baby?

One of the first questions you have as a new parent is how to calculate the right amount to drink. So, how often should I breastfeed/feed my baby and how much milk should they drink per feed? Am I feeding too much or too little milk?

In the first six months after birth, your baby will be breastfed or fed with pre-formula. The following applies here: whether breastfeeding or bottle feeding - the frequency and duration depend entirely on the needs of the child.

Since your baby's stomach is still very small shortly after birth, an average of 8 feeds in 24 hours is completely normal in the first three months.

Calculate the drinking amount depending on the baby's weight in the first 3 months of life:

1st day of life: 50-70 ml/kg per day
2nd day of life: 70-90 ml/kg per day
3rd day of life: 80-100 ml/kg per day
4th day of life: 100-120 ml/kg per day
5th day of life: 100-130 ml/kg per day
1st-3rd Month of life: 160-180 ml/kg per day

The drinking quantity should be about 160-180 ml/kg per day from the 1st to the 3rd month of life. You can also take 1/6 of your child's body weight from the 6th day of life to arrive at the amount to drink per day.

Spread over the number of feeds , this means, for example, with a weight of 3300 g, you drink approx. 550 g per day (3300*1/6): spread over 8 feeds: 70 g / feed, spread over 6 feed: 90 g / feed and divided into 5 feeds: 110 g / feed.

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Introducing first foods:

The introduction of complementary foods starts at the earliest from the fifth month and at the latest from the seventh month. Your baby needs about five feeds a day at this stage of life. Each newly introduced porridge meal now replaces a milk feed. With around 8 milk feeds, there are still around three bottles of milk left over every day.

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How do I know that my baby is full?

If your baby drinks enough (not too much and not too little), your baby should gain about 150-200 g per week in the first six months of life and about 100 g per week in the second half of the year. By the age of 4 to 5 months, your baby has doubled its birth weight, and by 12 months it has tripled. It is important that the weight development is checked regularly by a pediatrician or a midwife.

But how do I know if my baby is full or hungry?

Here are 4 signs you'll know your baby is hungry:

it moves its head sideways to search for milk food
it is restless and kicks
it sucks its own fingers or fists
it smacks and chuckles

Eventually, if the subtle signs are not perceived in time, he will begin to cry.

And this is how your baby shows you that it is full:

it slows down eating and drinking
it is relaxed and content
no sucking and drinking
falls asleep when breastfeeding or drinking
it leaves a rest of the milk in the bottle

Can I overfeed my baby?

Breastfeeding mothers are often afraid of overfeeding their baby with breast milk, as the amount is difficult to estimate without a bottle. But we can reassure you, overfeeding through breastfeeding is not possible. Initial milk may also be fed as required. The number of bottles per day given on the packaging is for guidance. However, there is a risk of overfeeding with bottle feeding, albeit a very small one. In order to prevent this, it is important to make sure that you follow the preparation instructions (amount of powder, etc.) exactly. If your baby doesn't drink the whole bottle, that's perfectly fine, please never "force" the bottle. Even at this age, your baby knows how much it needs and when it is full.

So you can trust your baby's feeling of satiety!

Top 5 tips for preparing milk formula:

In order to always provide your baby with the best possible care, the preparation instructions on the packaging should be followed exactly. The right dosage ratio gives your baby exactly the nutrients it needs.
Please always use fresh drinking water.
It is particularly important to let the water cool down to about 40-50 °C after boiling it before you mix it with the milk powder. In this way, the heat-sensitive vitamins are preserved.
Prepare the bottle fresh for each meal. Please do not keep warm, as this will breed germs that your baby cannot handle yet.
Always close the opened pack tightly, store in a dry place and use within 2 weeks.

Can you reheat baby milk?

It is best to prepare the formula freshly before each meal and feed it to your baby right away. Leftover baby milk should not be reheated, but discarded.

Before you leave us and give your baby all your attention, take a look at our overview of different types of baby milk:Pre, starter and follow-on milk: Which baby milk is the best from when?