• Spotting the Hunger Cues
• Tracking Breastfeeding
  • The Bottle Feeding Math
• The Importance of the 24-Hour View
  • Track Intake Automatically

A complete guide to tracking daily intake, recognizing hunger cues, and ensuring healthy weight gain in the first few months.

One of the most common sources of anxiety for new parents is feeding. Because babies can’t tell us when they are full or if they are still hungry, we are left trying to decipher cues and calculate daily minimums.

§Spotting the Hunger Cues

Crying is actually a late sign of hunger. Ideally, you want to start a feed before your baby gets to that point of frustration. Look for these early signs:

• Rooting (turning their head and opening their mouth)
• Smacking lips or sticking their tongue out
• Putting their hands or fists to their mouth
• Increased alertness and physical activity

§Tracking Breastfeeding

When breastfeeding, you can’t measure the exact volume of milk your baby is getting. Instead, tracking focuses on time and sides.

Newborns might nurse anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes per feed. The most important thing to track is which side you finished on, so you know which side to start with next time to maintain a balanced milk supply. A well-fed breastfed baby will seem satisfied and relaxed after a feed, and their hands will unclench from tight fists into open, relaxed palms.

§The Bottle Feeding Math

If you are bottle-feeding (either formula or pumped milk), tracking is much more precise. The general rule of thumb for a baby’s 24-hour intake is based on their weight:

• Target: 150ml per kilogram of body weight
• Range: 100ml (Min) to 200ml (Max) per kg

For example, a 4kg baby should aim for roughly 600ml in a 24-hour period, divided across all their feeds for the day.

§The Importance of the 24-Hour View

Babies are humans, not machines. Some feeds will be large, and some will be small “snacks.” Instead of stressing over a single feed where they didn’t take a full bottle, look at the rolling 24-hour total.

§Track Intake Automatically

Whether you breastfeed or bottle-feed, tools like Baby Upkeep remember which side you last fed on, time your sessions, and automatically calculate 24-hour liquid targets based on your baby’s latest weight.