EPing for 5 week old : volume vs spitting up

[Alexian28]

I EP for my 5 week old DS. His feeds are anywhere from 4-6 oz depending on the time of day. We offer 4oz first then give him more 1oz at a time if he's still hungry.  But... he spits up a decent bit (not in pain just a "happy spitter").  Even when he eats 6oz he drains his bottles; we just don't give him more if he doesn't show hunger signs. Are we doing this right? I feel as if we're giving him too much because he spits up so much, but we're following his hunger cues.

[Lolly]

How often are you feeding him and what flow teat are you using? By EP do you mean you are expressing breast milk for him? Can you post your routine (or as much of one as you have!)

Laura

[Alexian28]

Sorry for the delay in replying, this week has been crazy. He's been eating every 4hrs, size 1 bottle nipple and yes I'm expressing for him since he was in the hospital. Routine has been the same except morning shifts between 6:30 to 8am.

7a 6oz
8:15 sleep
11a 6oz
12:30 sleep
3pm 6oz
4 sleep
5pm 4oz
Bath
6pm 4oz
Bedtime
11pm 6oz
3am 5oz

He's been pretty consistent although as I said his morning wake up times vary. Volume has gone down yesterday and today (5oz instead of 6 and only up once at night last night from 7p-6a) so maybe he's ending a growth spurt?  He's 6 weeks old as of yesterday. Today with the lower volume was:

6am 5oz
7 sleep
9:30 5oz
10:30 sleep
1pm 5oz (woke him to eat here)
2:15 sleep
3:55 5oz
4:30 sleep (he's taking this snooze right now).

He's been sleeping more the past couple days too; harder to keep him up for feeds when it had been pretty easy the last few weeks which also leads me to think growth spurt.

[Lolly]

I forgot to come back to you! Sorry!

I'd say you were doing ok really - if he's spitting up a lot the only thing I would change is to go to 3 hourly feeds rather than 4 hours but only offer 4oz, smaller feeds more often can help. For his age, 3 hourly feeds fit the routine you need as he won't have the A time to keep the EASy pattern. You do have some 3 hour intervals, and some a bit shorter maybe regulating a bit will help the spitting up (may not though!).

As he is on breastmilk I would expect a smaller feed volume than a formula fed babies, they do seem to need less volume of breastmilk.

Is he burping well? Sometimes needing to burp can look like hunger cues.

Laura