How much milk your baby should have

You don’t have to carry all that accuracy and care in making your baby’s milk into feeding it to her.

Provided that milk is made to the right strength and as hygienically as possible you can treat it exactly as if it was breast milk. That means that your baby can have as much as she eagerly drinks whenever she tells you she is hungry.

She probably won’t want to suck quite as often a breast – fed baby because formula takes a bit longer to digest than breast milk. But don’t try persuade her to go for 4hours, or even 3 hours between feedings. She may want a couple of ounces every hour through the           Morning, then a big feeding and then no more for several hours.

Don’t ever try to persuade her to finish up a bottle. If she closes her mouth and turns her heads away she’s had enough for that moment. Give her a couple of minutes to rest and burp and then offer the nipple once more. If she still doesn’t want it don’t try to persuade her. Leave her milk-consumption to her; after all, if you were giving her breast milk you wouldn’t know how much she’d taken.

Ice cold milk from the refrigerator will not harm yore baby but she will probably prefer it lukewarm. Stand the bottle in a jug of hot water for a few minutes. Then shake it up and test the temperature by dripping a bit on your wrist.

If you are going out taking bottles with you it is not safe to carry the milk warm it in a wide-necked vacuum flask.

If you’ll be out all day the bottles will not stay safely cold. Put them in an insulated bag or take empty sealed bottles, milk powder and boiled water in a vacuum flask.