Feeding Your Newborn at Home.
It is very important to keep track of your baby's feedings.
Formula-fed newborns should eat at least every three
to three-and-a-half hours.
Some bottle-fed newborns may eat more frequently.
Feed early when alert and cuing.
Wake up your newborn if they are not up
by three to three-and-a-half hours.
Do not allow your newborn to go longer
than three-and-a-half hours
until you talk with the pediatrician.
How much do you feed your baby at home?
If bottle feeding, start with the amount your baby is taking
the day they are discharged from the hospital.
Most newborns can eat at least 30 milliliters
or one ounce or more from a bottle at discharge.
By day four, most infants can eat 30 milliliters
to 60 milliliters, which is about one to two ounces.
Burp when your infant slows down during the feeding,
or when your infant has eaten half of what you offer.
Remove their blanket or sleep sack
if the infant is sleepy with the feeding.
Add more to the bottles every couple of days.
Add more to the bottles
if your baby eats the amount offered quickly,
within 10 minutes or less,
or if they're eating more for frequently
than three to three-and-a-half hours.
After burping, if your baby leaves a little left over,
they are probably satisfied.
Your baby is cuing if they are awake and alert
around feeding time, sucking on their fingers,
smacking their lips, rooting or turning their head
and opening their mouth for a nipple, or fussing or crying.
Here are some reminders when making powdered formula.
Always check the expiration date
on the formula can before purchasing,
gather your supplies like your measuring cup,
bottles, and a pan.
Use sterilized water.
Bottled water, distilled water,
or fluorinated water are not sterile.
Heat your tap water on a stove in a pan
until boiling for one minute.
Let the water cool for up to 30 minutes,
and then use to mix the powder.
Now, I'm gonna show you how to mix powdered formula.
Before you begin, you need to clean your surface
and wash your hands,
and get like a dish towel, clean dish towel.
Lay that down for your workspace.
You're going to need a pan, some measuring cups.
Now, if you do not have a measuring cup,
the NICU can supply you with this measuring cup,
which can make larger volumes of formula.
Your bottles, a spoon for mixing,
and a knife for leveling the scooper,
and, of course, your can of formula,
and a clean, wet dishrag so that you can wipe off the can.
First, I'm going to boil water on the stove.
I wanna look at how much formula I'm going to make.
I also wanna make sure I've checked the expiration date,
which is always on the bottom of the can.
I'm gonna follow the recipe on the can.
I want to make a larger amount of formula
for the rest of my day.
So I'm gonna start with the eight fluid ounces
mixed with four scoops.
So now that I figured out how much water I'm gonna need,
I'm gonna go ahead, and from my tap,
I'm going to add water to my pan,
and I'm going to boil that on the stove
for at least one minute.
Once this is boiled, I'm going to take the lid off,
and let that cool for 30 minutes.
And now that my water is cooled,
I'm gonna go ahead and pour eight ounces of water
to make my eight-ounce recipe.
This is a fresh can of formula,
so I definitely wanna wipe off the top of this container
and that foil before I open the can.
Remember, too, to go ahead and wash your hands again.
Now when you're measuring your scoops,
you want to get a big scoop,
and then you want to level that.
You don't wanna pack your formula.
So you just get a big heaping scoop,
one, two, three, four, five,
that will ensure that you get
all the little air pockets out.
Measure that off,
and go ahead and put that into your eight ounces of water.
Now, I'm gonna do that three more times.
One, two, three, four, five,
and there we go.
Heaping scoop, one, two, three, four, five.
We'll level that off,
so that's the third scoop.
And the last scoop,
one, two, three, four, five, perfect.
And I would leave this outside of your can
to keep your powdered formula as clean as you can.
So we'll go ahead and put the lid on that and set that aside
and you can wash this and reuse it.
So now I have my powder mixed with my water,
and you can see that it's clumpy.
So now I'm going to take my spoon,
and I'm gonna go ahead and mix it up until it's smooth
and there are no clumps in it.
You can also get a little container
to store your formula in in the refrigerator.
This is a Mason jar that I actually have a lid for it.
I can put the lid on it and shake it up a little bit,
(formula sloshing)
and that will help get all the lumpiness
out of your formula.
My baby is taking two ounces of formula, or 60 milliliters.
So I'm gonna challenge my baby.
I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna give my baby
a little bit more than two ounces.
Now, before you feed your baby,
always check the temperature of the formula
because we let it cool on the stove,
but we wanna make sure that it's cooled down enough
to safely feed your baby with.
So a great place to always check a temperature of formula
or even bath water is on your inner forearm.
So I've just now tested the temperature,
and it feels just a little lukewarm,
and it's fine if it's room temperature.
Now that I have this big batch of formula,
the storage of this formula is gonna be extremely important.
This formula is good for 24 hours in the refrigerator.
If I don't put this formula in the refrigerator,
it's only good sitting out for two hours.
Once my baby eats off the bottle
and doesn't eat the whole thing,
I'm gonna need to discard that amount within an hour.
After your can of formula is opened,
it is good for 30 days or from the expiration date,
whichever comes first.