4 Week 3Day Baby Boy How Much Should He Be Eating?

Hi P.,

Congratulations on your new baby!

Babies need to be fed every single time they ask for milk. Here are some facts (I'm a training lactation consultant):

1. If possible, do breastfeed and skip the formula. Babies who drink formula have distinctly different brain chemistry than breastfed babies. That makes sense, right? They are usually just fine, mind, but breastmilk is nature's perfect food. SOmetimes nursing exclusively is impossible and you should not feel bad if you absolutely can not do that. If it is an option, however, it is healthier for your baby to be solely breastfed.

2. Your baby's stomach is about the size of his fist. He can't store up a lot of food in there. The little he takes in is digested pretty quickly. More so if he is breastfed. He needs nutrition often to keep from being hungry.

3. Babies need constant supplies of protein to grow. We do not store protien for growth. If we ingest more protein than we need at the moment, it gets converted into fat for energy storage. If there is no protein available when we need it for growth (which is every second for a newborn) then we have to break down muscle to provide the protein. If he's going too long between meals he'll not have access to the protein he needs to grow. That alone is argument enough for feeding him as often as he asks. For this reason my personal opinion is that scheduling feeding is not the best way to go. When baby's body requires protein, a series of hormonal signals tell him he's hungry. Bodies are very smart things.

4. Please take the cereal out of his diet. Before the age of 6 months your baby's digestive system is not physiologically ready to handle the stress of the cereal. There are a number of reasons for this which a pediatric nutritionist could explain to you if you're interested, but it's quite a litany of reasons. There are studies which clearly link juvenile diabetes to early exposure to foods or formula. There are actually many scarey digestive diseases caused by early exposure to things other than breast milk. Death of cells of the intestinal lining, type one diabetes, food alergies and pain are some of the problems caused by early feeding/ formula feeding.

I hope this helps. You can PM me if any of that needs clarification.

Our son ate 2 oz every 2 hours for the first month. Then we uped it to 3 oz as he was hungery before 2 hours were up. I am supprized that your pedi said to put cereral in his bottle. Most doctors say not to give cereral till they are 5 months. It has something to do with development of allergies. Good luck.

I would agree with the other posters. You should not be giving cereal to a 4 week old baby. At that age, my son was still eating every 2-3 hours I think and he was solely breastfed. If it seems like his appetite has picked up, he could be going through a growth spurt. Just nurse him more often and feed him when he's hungry. At that age, you really should nurse on demand and not on a schedule. You may want to be sure he's hungry though and not tired. At any rate, please reconsider giving him cereal in the bottle. Besides the fact that it can lead to food allergies, it can also cause your child to become overweight very early on. He doesn't need the cereal....breastmilk or formula is all he needs to be healthy.

You really aren't supposed to feed rice cereal until 4 months. You son is probably going through a growth spurt and would do better just nursing on demand. Nursing or taking a bottle every 3 hours is very normal at this age.

I breastfed mine for the first four weeks. Her weight gain was almost none and the doc recommended supplementing. I started her on the formula and then shortly after started adding rice cereal. I started with a teaspoon and then a little more. Not even enough to phase her. I then started with her what I did with my son. He had hearty, hearty appetite and reflux.

Start with 24 oz of water in a blender. 1 cup of formula (I use the Enfamil and measured 12 scoops = 1 cup). I started putting about 10 oz. of rice cereal in and hitting blend. The more cereal you use the less bubbles you have. My baby is two months old today and we're up to 2 cups of rice cereal in the blender. It makes up a whole day's worth of bottles and is really nice and easy and she's satisfied. I'll be switching to oatmeal as soon as her system seems to be able to handle it. With my son, I used even a lot more cereal. I've been using the Little Tummy's laxative (1/4 of a dose) about every three to four days for constipation. The oatmeal really works better for constipation, but I'd most definately start with the rice cereal. The medium flow nipples (Evenflo) work great without having to slit the opening. The blender breaks it up and it's a really smooth thick liquid. She has five 4-5 oz. bottles a day. The recommended amount of formula is around 20 oz a day at this age.

I started both my children on cereal at about five weeks. In the beginning I was very against it and my mom convinced me. The doc was fine with it and they've both done great. My son is now three and his weight is perfect. Reflux and colic symptoms went away with this method of bottle prep.

I have a very, very happy and content baby who's thriving now like you wouldn't believe. She goes to sleep at night about 10:00 and sleeps until 6:00 or 7:00.

When my daughter was 2 weeks old I was beside myself because she was so unhappy, crying all of the time and never satisfied with her formula. My husband and others said, "Just feed her!" I started putting a little rice cereal in her formula, every feeding, and the change was incredible. She was happy from that moment on. She slept through the night, every night, and thrived. I told my pediatrician what I was doing and he told me that some children just need that extra bulk and it was fine and to continue what I was doing. As she grew, I increased the rice cereal in her formula, and made larger slits in the nipples to accomodate the thicker formula. She never became overweight and never developed alergies as a result of the small amount of cereal in her formula.

I'm old, my kids are old--college & postgraduate degrees & gainfully employed--and the cereal they had beginning around 4 weeks never seemed to hurt them. No serious allergies, no eating disorders, their personality quirks all traceable to (haha) dad's side of the family. My third child was hungrier--bigger baby and interrupted by older siblings every time mom sat down with him. Do what you feel is best; if he eats enough everyone will have a good night's sleep! Love them all a lot when they're little & cute & like you!!!