July 4, 2025 • 17 mins
Lactation Consultant Angie Rosier shares insights about baby weight gain and how to know if your baby is getting enough milk. Many parents prepare extensively for labor but overlook preparing for breastfeeding, which generally lasts much longer than the birth experience.
• Newborn stomachs are tiny—marble-sized on day one, growing to walnut-sized by day three
• Weight loss up to 10% is normal for newborns in the first days
• Babies consume approximately 24 ounces daily for the first 16 weeks
• Healthy weight gain is typically one ounce per day during the first four months
• At 16 weeks, babies' metabolism changes and weight gain slows to about half an ounce daily
• Three ways to know baby is getting enough: weight gain, diaper output, and arm relaxation
• Feeding patterns evolve from many small feedings to fewer larger feedings
• Seek support and education to prepare for your breastfeeding journey
Thank you for listening to The Ordinary Doula Podcast. Make a human connection today—digitally or in person—through a touch, eye contact, a smile, or a message, and make a difference in someone else's life.
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Show Credits
Host: Angie Rosier
Music: Michael Hicks
Photographer: Toni Walker
Episode Artwork: Nick Greenwood
Producer: Gillian Rosier Frampton
Voiceover: Ryan Parker
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast with
Angie Rozier, hosted by BirthLearning, where we help prepare
folks for labor and birth withexpertise coming from 20 years
of experience in a busy doulapractice, helping thousands of
people prepare for labor,providing essential knowledge
(00:35):
and tools for positive andempowering birth experiences.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Hello and welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast.
My name is Angie Rozier, I'myour host and I am so glad to be
with you here today.
So I want to take I know thisis called the Ordinary Doula
Podcast, but I'm also alactation consultant.
I'm an IBCLC.
I work in a couple of localhospitals.
I live in the Salt Lake City,utah area and do private
lactation as well.
So I'm seeing people rightafter their babies are born in
(01:08):
the coming days, like day one,day two, day three, in hospital,
and then I'm seeing peopleprivately in their homes
anywhere from I don't know thefirst day home from the hospital
to months afterwards.
So the breastfeeding journey, asI've been reminded by clients
even this very day, is muchlonger than labor is right.
So a lot of times people, well,as a culture, we're really kind
(01:32):
of programmed to do some prettydecent preparation for labor,
birth delivery and that's a.
You know it's a very pivotalexperience, but it's also
relatively short, like that willbe over within one calendar day
, maybe two, maybe three.
But then we have all these days, weeks, months of breastfeeding
(01:54):
or infant feeding.
You know for bottle feedingafterwards that we do not
usually give as much preparationto.
So I had a few lactation visitstoday in people's homes and a
couple of the people I'd hadthree visits and two out of
three said you know what.
I did not prepare for this,like I just thought this would
be great, I thought it would befine, I thought it would go well
(02:16):
.
I prepared really well forbirth.
That's done over and gone andnow I'm doing all this work day
after day on lactation.
So I want to just talk aboutthat a little bit and it
definitely deserves someattention and preparation.
So I want to talk specificallyin this episode about baby
weight gain.
So a big pressure that parentsfeel after that baby's born and
(02:40):
we come home is like is thisbaby getting enough right?
Are they eating enough?
Are they going to be able togain weight?
And we watch that reallyclosely in the beginning and as
time goes by we can be a littlemore lenient on things, of
course.
But I want to talk about thosefirst days and weeks and how we
can know babies are gettingenough.
So there are growth charts,right, there's some growth
(03:01):
charts put out by the worldhealth organization, the cdc.
They each have a slightlydifferent one for different ages
of babies.
If we were to really get intothe details of things, we would
have one chart for breastfedbabies exclusively breastfed
babies and a different chart forformula fed babies, because
they are a little bit different.
The, the gains are a little bitdifferent, the trajectory that
(03:23):
we see is a little bit different.
We don't differentiate thatnecessarily when you go to your
pediatrician.
They don't look at it by thechart.
We have one general chart, sokeep that in mind as well.
Depending on how you're feeding,your baby might be not totally,
totally accurate to thesegrowth charts.
And these growth charts areaverages.
If you've ever seen one theyhave like average.
(03:45):
They have some outliers.
You know, babies who are bornvery small are going to be on
the low end.
Of course.
Babies who are born large aregoing to be on the higher end.
They may start in a differentplace.
Then they kind of get to thebaby born big we call LGA large
for gestational age might end upon a regular curve in time.
A baby that's SGA small forgestational age might end up on
(04:09):
a regular curve at some point orthey might just kind of stay on
that SGA curve.
So there's a lot of things tolook at, to consider with that.
That's something you generallywill do with your pediatrician
or a lactation consultant, ifyou're checking weight gains
with a lactation consultant.
So let's say, a baby's born,hopefully we know that their
intake levels are very small inthe beginning.
(04:30):
Their stomachs are the size of amarble on day one and they work
up to be the size of about awalnut or a ping pong ball by
about day three.
That third day is when wegenerally expect the milk to
come in.
Sometimes it's day four or dayfive, but generally it's day
three is what we can look for,and their stomach has done a lot
of growing and changing in thatamount of time.
(04:52):
So as I work in the hospital,so so so many times as I'm going
into rooms on day one, two,three people say my baby's not
getting enough, there's notenough, I'm not making enough
milk and it's true Like there'snot very much because their
meals are so tiny.
At that point, with that tinytummy, there's not a lot of
(05:16):
colostrum.
The babies don't need a lot ofcolostrum, so it all works out.
But we need to understand thatand trust that and we watch the
weight gains is one of thethings.
I'll talk about.
A couple other key indicatorsthat can help us to know if
babies are getting enough.
But meals on that first day aretwo to 10 milliliters.
That is tiny, tiny.
Second day we've got five to 20milliliters, you know, we're
like half an ounce.
(05:36):
Maybe by the third day, whenyour milk comes in, we're 10 to
30 milliliters.
That's one third to one wholeounce per feed.
Right, this is per feed.
So it takes a while for babiesto kind of ramp up and get their
volumes higher.
So most babies, almost allbabies, are going to have some
kind of weight loss in thebeginning.
(05:56):
And it's small, right.
These babies come pretty smallas far as human beings go, and
they it's very normal to havesome weight loss.
I'd say it's incredibly rare,for baby has no weight loss.
But babies are born with whatwe call brown fat.
They put that brown fat on inthe last three to four weeks of
pregnancy.
They're gaining about a half apound a week in utero.
(06:19):
So that's like eight ounces aweek sorry, eight ounces a week,
about an ounce a day in averagethat they're going to be
gaining in those last three tofour weeks.
And that's brown fat, not thecolor brown, but it's a fat that
has some high energy stores forthem that they're going to need
in those coming days before themilk comes in.
So babies are going to kind oflean on that, those fat stores,
(06:40):
and as those get depleted andused up by their body as they
should, they might have a weightloss.
So a hospital generally willweigh the baby, usually once a
day, right, and if differenthospitals they might like we
weigh all our babies at midnightor whatever the case may be.
So you're going to have someweight checks in the hospital
and a discharge weight.
So mom's going home, she's beendischarged from the hospital,
(07:03):
they'll get a weight check thereand then you see a pediatrician
within a few days, right,hopefully within a few days of
going home, you're going to seea pediatrician.
We'll also do a weight checkthere and that's how we kind of
check those weight gains.
Now, up to 10% loss is normal,right.
So if we have a 10 pound baby,that's a one pound loss.
So that's normal.
(07:24):
If it's creeping up to be seven,eight, 9%, those who are
interested, that would be yournurses in, you know, the
postpartum or mother baby unit.
That would be your pediatrician, your lactation consultant.
They're going to take notice ofthat and they're going to want
to be very cautious about that,that the weight gain doesn't
creep up.
10 is normal, but we'rewatching it.
(07:44):
We're watching it prettyclosely at that point and after
that milk comes in, that baby'stummy is can hold more volume.
There is more volume comingfrom the breast.
So all of that works out.
It's a nice system.
So once mom gets, the mom getsto full milk production, which
you know it takes a few days forthe milk to totally transition
(08:05):
to what we call mature milkBabies are going to work up to.
It's not immediate but it takes,you know, a good week, week and
a half.
They're going to work up totheir daily intake, which is
going to be about 24 ounces aday, about 24 ounces a day.
Now if we're just breastfeedingor we're combo feeding or we're
(08:26):
pumping and doing some bottlefeeding, we might not have a
super accurate assessment of thebaby's actual intake by the day
.
If we're bottle feeding orpumping and bottle feeding, we
are going to be able to get thataccurate.
We can easily track how much isgoing in from a bottle, from
the breast.
Not as easy to track we're moretracking time than we are
amount not as easy to track.
(08:46):
We're more tracking time thanwe are amount, but if we were to
be tracking it we would knowthat babies are taking in on
average about 24 ounces a dayonce they get up to full milk
supply and that rate sticksaround for 16 weeks.
So babies are going to intake24 ounces a day, some up to 30
if we have our big eaters.
Some might be a little bit less, but we're looking at about an
average of 24 ounces a day.
(09:07):
And then their weight gains.
What babies are going to begaining by weight is also going
to be pretty predictable for 16weeks.
So four months, 16 weeks, is apretty good marker for some of
these things.
So we expect babies to begaining one ounce a day for
those first 16 weeks.
So that's about, you know, halfa pound a week.
(09:28):
Basically is what they're goingto be gaining kind of what they
were doing in utero before theywere born.
So as you work with, if you workwith a lactation consultant,
that's kind of what they'll bewatching for.
If you know, if you're workingclosely with a pediatrician and
you don't see your pediatriciancrazy often, usually it's like
what?
Day three or four and thenmaybe week two and then one
(09:50):
month.
So we've seen three times inthat first month and then two
months, four months.
So we're not doing regularweight checks.
However, if you work with alactation consultant, we do home
visits.
Of course we can do thoseweighted feeds, check on baby's
weight gains over time.
And the older a baby gets, thebetter data we have right,
because we're always dealingwith a loss well, almost always
(10:11):
dealing with a weight smallweight loss in the beginning.
Over time we get more data thatgets more accurate so we can
kind of assess oh yeah, thisbaby's gaining one and a half
ounces a day or this baby's 0.75ounces a day.
There is a range of normal thatwe look for.
Some babies will be on the lowside of gains, where they're
gaining like half an ounce a day.
I watch those babies veryclosely.
(10:32):
Other babies are going to be onthe high gainers.
I've seen over two ounces a day, for some of our chunky monkeys
are gaining quite quickly.
But again, the standard on theaverage is one ounce a day.
I have noticed in my life maybeyou have two, maybe this
happens to you.
In my practice, both as a doulaand as a lactation consultant,
the things often happen inthrees, like we're working in.
(10:56):
I don't know why this law ofthrees all the time, but I have
had this week I had three visitson one day and all those babies
were slow gainers.
So they were like, I think,0.47, 0.52 and 0.49 ounces a day
and they were, you know, theirages ranged from like a couple
of weeks to almost a month old.
So I worry about those babies alittle bit.
(11:18):
That is in a range of normal,but it's a range of normal that
I'm going to watch prettyclosely, so doing some pretty
close follow-up with those moms.
So again, the numbers aregaining one ounce a day,
intaking 24 ounces a day,keeping one, and that lasts for
16 weeks.
Now, a cool thing about that 24ounces a day, while that
(11:41):
remains for four months.
The math around the 24 ounces aday changes quite a bit.
In the beginning babies arehaving very small meals many
times a day.
So we might have up to 12feedings a day, maybe they're
two ounces each.
Those are lots of little mealswhen their tummy is small and
they're burning through thatfood pretty quickly.
(12:01):
Breast milk is like high octanefuel for babies and they're
going to burn through thoselittle meals pretty quickly.
So to get to our 24 ounces, wemight have about two ounces a
time, 12 times.
Right Now, when we're bottlefeeding a baby, we can give
pretty measured amounts that areconsistent with every feed, and
when a baby's breastfeeding theamounts are going to fluctuate.
We don't always know that, nordo we care, we just kind of
(12:23):
trust it.
But their amounts are not goingto be the same all the time.
But we can say an average oftwo ounces a time, 12 times a
day.
That would get us to 24 ouncesand then in time the babies are
going to take more food and theyactually take it more quickly,
which is great.
They get more efficient.
(12:44):
So maybe they're getting twoand a half ounces a day, 10
times a day.
Sorry, two and a half ouncesper feed, 10 times a day, and
that gets them to the 24 about24 ounces a day.
Then maybe they work up tothree ounces.
A lot of babies plateau at threeounces for a while.
So maybe they drop a couple offeeds and they're taking three
ounces a time, but we're onlyfeeding them like nine times a
day and then we're going to takea little bit more.
They're going to work up tothree and a half four ounces at
(13:05):
a time, but maybe we're doingthat seven times a day.
So the math around the 24ounces changes over time, but
they're always taking about thatuntil 16 weeks, and at 16 weeks
they some things change intheir metabolism.
Babies will drop their gains.
Instead of gaining an ounce aday, they drop.
That about in half is what wecan expect.
(13:26):
So they're getting more mobile.
At this time they're working upto you know, preparing for
solid foods in the next coupleof months probably, and their
weight gains drop from seven,eight ounces a week to three to
four ounces a week.
They get a little bit moremobile and so their food changes
and of course the breast milkis always changing at that time
(13:47):
as well, right, which is prettyfascinating.
So ways to know that babies aregetting enough is weight gains.
That's what we've been talkingabout in this episode.
We can also know by output.
That would be peas and poops.
If they've got stuff coming out, they've got stuff going in,
and then also their little upperarm.
I call this a fullness lever.
Babies will usually start outtheir feeds pretty tight, like
(14:09):
tight fist, tight elbow, and asour little belly fills up that
wrist and that hand loosens up,the fingers open up, the hand
becomes soft.
That whole arm will become muchsofter.
So, parents, you can test thatas a little fullness lever on
top, so when that's a wet noodleyou can just pick it up and
drop it.
There's no tone left in it.
The baby's pretty satiated.
We can anticipate that theirbelly is kind of full.
(14:31):
So that's a quick little dittyon baby weight gains.
A lot of parents, we feel a lotof pressure about this, right
Like we have this massiveresponsibility to take care of
this baby and keep them alive,right, and we're like it feels
like a lot of pressure,especially at three in the
morning, and we might berecovering from labor, from
(14:53):
delivery maybe it was a surgicaldelivery.
There's a lot going on as wemove into that breastfeeding
timeframe.
So please do a littlepreparation for yourself.
Understand what's normal as youwork into the much longer phase
of breastfeeding your babyafter you've given birth to your
baby.
It's a pretty incrediblejourney.
We hope it's positive forpeople I've seen, you know, as I
(15:15):
work with different people witha variety of challenges, and
it's interesting how challengesare totally opposite sometimes.
Right Like we can have folkswith you know, fussy babies or
super chill babies, and both ofthose are challenges.
We can't get them to eat, wecan't get them to stop.
We have an oversupply, we havean undersupply, like there's
(15:36):
challenges that people face andthere's combinations of
challenges.
So seek support, gain educationand preparation so that you can
feel that you have the toolsthat you need as you move into
this journey.
That is as long as you want itto be right, whether it's a few
weeks you're working on this, ora few months or years.
Hopefully your breastfeedingjourney can be supported along
(15:57):
the way.
Thank you so much for being withme here today on the Ordinary
Bedula podcast.
This is Angie Roser, your host,signing off, and, as always, I
encourage you to reach outSomeone you know or someone you
don't.
Make a human connection today.
Make it digitally, make it inperson, make it a touch, make it
eye contact, a smile, a message, whatever that might be.
Reach out and make a differencein someone else's life.
(16:19):
Hope you have a good one andwe'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Thank you for listening to the Ordinary Doula
Podcast with Angie Rozier,hosted by Birth Learning.
Episode credits will be in theshow notes Tune in next time as
we continue to explore the manyaspects of giving birth.
Thank you.
Welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast with
Angie Rozier, hosted by BirthLearning, where we help prepare
folks for labor and birth withexpertise coming from 20 years
of experience in a busy doulapractice, helping thousands of
people prepare for labor,providing essential knowledge
(00:35):
and tools for positive andempowering birth experiences.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Hello and welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast.
My name is Angie Rozier, I'myour host and I am so glad to be
with you here today.
So I want to take I know thisis called the Ordinary Doula
Podcast, but I'm also alactation consultant.
I'm an IBCLC.
I work in a couple of localhospitals.
I live in the Salt Lake City,utah area and do private
lactation as well.
So I'm seeing people rightafter their babies are born in
(01:08):
the coming days, like day one,day two, day three, in hospital,
and then I'm seeing peopleprivately in their homes
anywhere from I don't know thefirst day home from the hospital
to months afterwards.
So the breastfeeding journey, asI've been reminded by clients
even this very day, is muchlonger than labor is right.
So a lot of times people, well,as a culture, we're really kind
(01:32):
of programmed to do some prettydecent preparation for labor,
birth delivery and that's a.
You know it's a very pivotalexperience, but it's also
relatively short, like that willbe over within one calendar day
, maybe two, maybe three.
But then we have all these days, weeks, months of breastfeeding
(01:54):
or infant feeding.
You know for bottle feedingafterwards that we do not
usually give as much preparationto.
So I had a few lactation visitstoday in people's homes and a
couple of the people I'd hadthree visits and two out of
three said you know what.
I did not prepare for this,like I just thought this would
be great, I thought it would befine, I thought it would go well
(02:16):
.
I prepared really well forbirth.
That's done over and gone andnow I'm doing all this work day
after day on lactation.
So I want to just talk aboutthat a little bit and it
definitely deserves someattention and preparation.
So I want to talk specificallyin this episode about baby
weight gain.
So a big pressure that parentsfeel after that baby's born and
(02:40):
we come home is like is thisbaby getting enough right?
Are they eating enough?
Are they going to be able togain weight?
And we watch that reallyclosely in the beginning and as
time goes by we can be a littlemore lenient on things, of
course.
But I want to talk about thosefirst days and weeks and how we
can know babies are gettingenough.
So there are growth charts,right, there's some growth
(03:01):
charts put out by the worldhealth organization, the cdc.
They each have a slightlydifferent one for different ages
of babies.
If we were to really get intothe details of things, we would
have one chart for breastfedbabies exclusively breastfed
babies and a different chart forformula fed babies, because
they are a little bit different.
The, the gains are a little bitdifferent, the trajectory that
(03:23):
we see is a little bit different.
We don't differentiate thatnecessarily when you go to your
pediatrician.
They don't look at it by thechart.
We have one general chart, sokeep that in mind as well.
Depending on how you're feeding,your baby might be not totally,
totally accurate to thesegrowth charts.
And these growth charts areaverages.
If you've ever seen one theyhave like average.
(03:45):
They have some outliers.
You know, babies who are bornvery small are going to be on
the low end.
Of course.
Babies who are born large aregoing to be on the higher end.
They may start in a differentplace.
Then they kind of get to thebaby born big we call LGA large
for gestational age might end upon a regular curve in time.
A baby that's SGA small forgestational age might end up on
(04:09):
a regular curve at some point orthey might just kind of stay on
that SGA curve.
So there's a lot of things tolook at, to consider with that.
That's something you generallywill do with your pediatrician
or a lactation consultant, ifyou're checking weight gains
with a lactation consultant.
So let's say, a baby's born,hopefully we know that their
intake levels are very small inthe beginning.
(04:30):
Their stomachs are the size of amarble on day one and they work
up to be the size of about awalnut or a ping pong ball by
about day three.
That third day is when wegenerally expect the milk to
come in.
Sometimes it's day four or dayfive, but generally it's day
three is what we can look for,and their stomach has done a lot
of growing and changing in thatamount of time.
(04:52):
So as I work in the hospital,so so so many times as I'm going
into rooms on day one, two,three people say my baby's not
getting enough, there's notenough, I'm not making enough
milk and it's true Like there'snot very much because their
meals are so tiny.
At that point, with that tinytummy, there's not a lot of
(05:16):
colostrum.
The babies don't need a lot ofcolostrum, so it all works out.
But we need to understand thatand trust that and we watch the
weight gains is one of thethings.
I'll talk about.
A couple other key indicatorsthat can help us to know if
babies are getting enough.
But meals on that first day aretwo to 10 milliliters.
That is tiny, tiny.
Second day we've got five to 20milliliters, you know, we're
like half an ounce.
(05:36):
Maybe by the third day, whenyour milk comes in, we're 10 to
30 milliliters.
That's one third to one wholeounce per feed.
Right, this is per feed.
So it takes a while for babiesto kind of ramp up and get their
volumes higher.
So most babies, almost allbabies, are going to have some
kind of weight loss in thebeginning.
(05:56):
And it's small, right.
These babies come pretty smallas far as human beings go, and
they it's very normal to havesome weight loss.
I'd say it's incredibly rare,for baby has no weight loss.
But babies are born with whatwe call brown fat.
They put that brown fat on inthe last three to four weeks of
pregnancy.
They're gaining about a half apound a week in utero.
(06:19):
So that's like eight ounces aweek sorry, eight ounces a week,
about an ounce a day in averagethat they're going to be
gaining in those last three tofour weeks.
And that's brown fat, not thecolor brown, but it's a fat that
has some high energy stores forthem that they're going to need
in those coming days before themilk comes in.
So babies are going to kind oflean on that, those fat stores,
(06:40):
and as those get depleted andused up by their body as they
should, they might have a weightloss.
So a hospital generally willweigh the baby, usually once a
day, right, and if differenthospitals they might like we
weigh all our babies at midnightor whatever the case may be.
So you're going to have someweight checks in the hospital
and a discharge weight.
So mom's going home, she's beendischarged from the hospital,
(07:03):
they'll get a weight check thereand then you see a pediatrician
within a few days, right,hopefully within a few days of
going home, you're going to seea pediatrician.
We'll also do a weight checkthere and that's how we kind of
check those weight gains.
Now, up to 10% loss is normal,right.
So if we have a 10 pound baby,that's a one pound loss.
So that's normal.
(07:24):
If it's creeping up to be seven,eight, 9%, those who are
interested, that would be yournurses in, you know, the
postpartum or mother baby unit.
That would be your pediatrician, your lactation consultant.
They're going to take notice ofthat and they're going to want
to be very cautious about that,that the weight gain doesn't
creep up.
10 is normal, but we'rewatching it.
(07:44):
We're watching it prettyclosely at that point and after
that milk comes in, that baby'stummy is can hold more volume.
There is more volume comingfrom the breast.
So all of that works out.
It's a nice system.
So once mom gets, the mom getsto full milk production, which
you know it takes a few days forthe milk to totally transition
(08:05):
to what we call mature milkBabies are going to work up to.
It's not immediate but it takes,you know, a good week, week and
a half.
They're going to work up totheir daily intake, which is
going to be about 24 ounces aday, about 24 ounces a day.
Now if we're just breastfeedingor we're combo feeding or we're
(08:26):
pumping and doing some bottlefeeding, we might not have a
super accurate assessment of thebaby's actual intake by the day
.
If we're bottle feeding orpumping and bottle feeding, we
are going to be able to get thataccurate.
We can easily track how much isgoing in from a bottle, from
the breast.
Not as easy to track we're moretracking time than we are
amount not as easy to track.
(08:46):
We're more tracking time thanwe are amount, but if we were to
be tracking it we would knowthat babies are taking in on
average about 24 ounces a dayonce they get up to full milk
supply and that rate sticksaround for 16 weeks.
So babies are going to intake24 ounces a day, some up to 30
if we have our big eaters.
Some might be a little bit less, but we're looking at about an
average of 24 ounces a day.
(09:07):
And then their weight gains.
What babies are going to begaining by weight is also going
to be pretty predictable for 16weeks.
So four months, 16 weeks, is apretty good marker for some of
these things.
So we expect babies to begaining one ounce a day for
those first 16 weeks.
So that's about, you know, halfa pound a week.
(09:28):
Basically is what they're goingto be gaining kind of what they
were doing in utero before theywere born.
So as you work with, if you workwith a lactation consultant,
that's kind of what they'll bewatching for.
If you know, if you're workingclosely with a pediatrician and
you don't see your pediatriciancrazy often, usually it's like
what?
Day three or four and thenmaybe week two and then one
(09:50):
month.
So we've seen three times inthat first month and then two
months, four months.
So we're not doing regularweight checks.
However, if you work with alactation consultant, we do home
visits.
Of course we can do thoseweighted feeds, check on baby's
weight gains over time.
And the older a baby gets, thebetter data we have right,
because we're always dealingwith a loss well, almost always
(10:11):
dealing with a weight smallweight loss in the beginning.
Over time we get more data thatgets more accurate so we can
kind of assess oh yeah, thisbaby's gaining one and a half
ounces a day or this baby's 0.75ounces a day.
There is a range of normal thatwe look for.
Some babies will be on the lowside of gains, where they're
gaining like half an ounce a day.
I watch those babies veryclosely.
(10:32):
Other babies are going to be onthe high gainers.
I've seen over two ounces a day, for some of our chunky monkeys
are gaining quite quickly.
But again, the standard on theaverage is one ounce a day.
I have noticed in my life maybeyou have two, maybe this
happens to you.
In my practice, both as a doulaand as a lactation consultant,
the things often happen inthrees, like we're working in.
(10:56):
I don't know why this law ofthrees all the time, but I have
had this week I had three visitson one day and all those babies
were slow gainers.
So they were like, I think,0.47, 0.52 and 0.49 ounces a day
and they were, you know, theirages ranged from like a couple
of weeks to almost a month old.
So I worry about those babies alittle bit.
(11:18):
That is in a range of normal,but it's a range of normal that
I'm going to watch prettyclosely, so doing some pretty
close follow-up with those moms.
So again, the numbers aregaining one ounce a day,
intaking 24 ounces a day,keeping one, and that lasts for
16 weeks.
Now, a cool thing about that 24ounces a day, while that
(11:41):
remains for four months.
The math around the 24 ounces aday changes quite a bit.
In the beginning babies arehaving very small meals many
times a day.
So we might have up to 12feedings a day, maybe they're
two ounces each.
Those are lots of little mealswhen their tummy is small and
they're burning through thatfood pretty quickly.
(12:01):
Breast milk is like high octanefuel for babies and they're
going to burn through thoselittle meals pretty quickly.
So to get to our 24 ounces, wemight have about two ounces a
time, 12 times.
Right Now, when we're bottlefeeding a baby, we can give
pretty measured amounts that areconsistent with every feed, and
when a baby's breastfeeding theamounts are going to fluctuate.
We don't always know that, nordo we care, we just kind of
(12:23):
trust it.
But their amounts are not goingto be the same all the time.
But we can say an average oftwo ounces a time, 12 times a
day.
That would get us to 24 ouncesand then in time the babies are
going to take more food and theyactually take it more quickly,
which is great.
They get more efficient.
(12:44):
So maybe they're getting twoand a half ounces a day, 10
times a day.
Sorry, two and a half ouncesper feed, 10 times a day, and
that gets them to the 24 about24 ounces a day.
Then maybe they work up tothree ounces.
A lot of babies plateau at threeounces for a while.
So maybe they drop a couple offeeds and they're taking three
ounces a time, but we're onlyfeeding them like nine times a
day and then we're going to takea little bit more.
They're going to work up tothree and a half four ounces at
(13:05):
a time, but maybe we're doingthat seven times a day.
So the math around the 24ounces changes over time, but
they're always taking about thatuntil 16 weeks, and at 16 weeks
they some things change intheir metabolism.
Babies will drop their gains.
Instead of gaining an ounce aday, they drop.
That about in half is what wecan expect.
(13:26):
So they're getting more mobile.
At this time they're working upto you know, preparing for
solid foods in the next coupleof months probably, and their
weight gains drop from seven,eight ounces a week to three to
four ounces a week.
They get a little bit moremobile and so their food changes
and of course the breast milkis always changing at that time
(13:47):
as well, right, which is prettyfascinating.
So ways to know that babies aregetting enough is weight gains.
That's what we've been talkingabout in this episode.
We can also know by output.
That would be peas and poops.
If they've got stuff coming out, they've got stuff going in,
and then also their little upperarm.
I call this a fullness lever.
Babies will usually start outtheir feeds pretty tight, like
(14:09):
tight fist, tight elbow, and asour little belly fills up that
wrist and that hand loosens up,the fingers open up, the hand
becomes soft.
That whole arm will become muchsofter.
So, parents, you can test thatas a little fullness lever on
top, so when that's a wet noodleyou can just pick it up and
drop it.
There's no tone left in it.
The baby's pretty satiated.
We can anticipate that theirbelly is kind of full.
(14:31):
So that's a quick little dittyon baby weight gains.
A lot of parents, we feel a lotof pressure about this, right
Like we have this massiveresponsibility to take care of
this baby and keep them alive,right, and we're like it feels
like a lot of pressure,especially at three in the
morning, and we might berecovering from labor, from
(14:53):
delivery maybe it was a surgicaldelivery.
There's a lot going on as wemove into that breastfeeding
timeframe.
So please do a littlepreparation for yourself.
Understand what's normal as youwork into the much longer phase
of breastfeeding your babyafter you've given birth to your
baby.
It's a pretty incrediblejourney.
We hope it's positive forpeople I've seen, you know, as I
(15:15):
work with different people witha variety of challenges, and
it's interesting how challengesare totally opposite sometimes.
Right Like we can have folkswith you know, fussy babies or
super chill babies, and both ofthose are challenges.
We can't get them to eat, wecan't get them to stop.
We have an oversupply, we havean undersupply, like there's
(15:36):
challenges that people face andthere's combinations of
challenges.
So seek support, gain educationand preparation so that you can
feel that you have the toolsthat you need as you move into
this journey.
That is as long as you want itto be right, whether it's a few
weeks you're working on this, ora few months or years.
Hopefully your breastfeedingjourney can be supported along
(15:57):
the way.
Thank you so much for being withme here today on the Ordinary
Bedula podcast.
This is Angie Roser, your host,signing off, and, as always, I
encourage you to reach outSomeone you know or someone you
don't.
Make a human connection today.
Make it digitally, make it inperson, make it a touch, make it
eye contact, a smile, a message, whatever that might be.
Reach out and make a differencein someone else's life.
(16:19):
Hope you have a good one andwe'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Thank you for listening to the Ordinary Doula
Podcast with Angie Rozier,hosted by Birth Learning.
Episode credits will be in theshow notes Tune in next time as
we continue to explore the manyaspects of giving birth.
Thank you.
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