Ways to determine an infants caloric needs

An infant's caloric needs vary widely and depend on many factors such as current weight, body composition, birth weight, mobility, health status, age and gender of the infant. little.

How to determine the amount of calories your baby needs?

You should understand and recognize the signs your baby shows when full and hungry. Signs of hunger include crying and making noise, while the baby signals fullness by becoming sleepy while eating and releasing the nipples while feeding. While determining an infant's actual calorie needs is tricky, there is a simple equation for how much calorie intake your baby needs.

Put baby on the scale to know the weight in kg.

Multiply your baby's weight by 120 if your baby is full term and healthy. An average full term infant will consume 120 calories / kg of weight for 1 day to develop healthy. For example, if your newborn weighs 4.55 kg, multiply 4.55 by 120. The result, 546 is the number of calories your baby needs in one day.

How many calories are in infant milk?

For every 100 ml of adult breast milk (milk produced 21 days after breastfeeding) there is about:

70 calories;

89.97 g of water;

7.4 g carbohydrates (mainly lactose);

4.2 g of fat;

1.3 g of protein.

The composition of milk also changes during lactation. Breast milk is then different from colostrum - milk for the first few days after birth. Each 100 ml of colostrum yields about:

58 calories;

5.3 g of carbohydrates;

2.9 g of fat;

3.7 g of protein.

Colostrum is low in fat and carbohydrates, so there are very few calories in the early days of breastfeeding. Colostrum is yellow due to the content of beta carotene 10 times higher than normal breast milk. In addition colostrum also contains high concentrations of vitamin E and zinc.

If you still wonder if your baby is getting enough calories and nutrition, contact your pediatrician and dietitian for advice and answers.