It can be confusing trying to determine how much expressed milk to leave your baby if you are away from them.

In exclusively breastfed babies, milk intake increases quickly during the first few weeks of life, then stays about the same between one and six months (though it likely increases short term during growth spurts).

Current breastfeeding research does not indicate that breastmilk intake changes with baby’s age or weight between one and six months. After six months, breastmilk intake will continue at this same level until — sometime after six months, depending in baby’s intake from other foods — baby’s milk intake begins to decrease gradually.

The research tells us that exclusively breastfed babies take in an average of 750 mL per day between the ages of 1 month and 6 months. Different babies take in different amounts of milk; a typical range of milk intakes is 570-900 mL per day.

We can use this information to estimate the average amount of milk baby will need at a feeding:

• Estimate the number of times that baby feeds per day (24 hours).
• Then divide by the number of feeds ie 8
• This gives you a “ballpark” figure for the amount of expressed milk your exclusively breastfed baby will need at one feed.

Another way to estimate feeds in the early days is 150mls/kg.day ie if a baby weighs 3kg, they would need approx 450mls a day or 56mls per feed (8 feeds in 24 hrs)

These pumps are highly recommended for expressing.