During your baby's first 3 months, breast milk or formula will provide all the nutrition needed. Doctors recommend waiting until your baby is about 6 months old to start solid foods. Some babies may be ready for solids sooner than 6 months, but wait until your baby is at least 4 months old.

What Changes Should I Expect?

As your infant grows, feeding will change. Babies will start drinking more milk during each feeding, so they won't need to feed as often and will sleep longer at night.

Your baby's appetite will increase during growth spurts. Continue to feed on demand and increase the number of feedings as needed.

Your infant also will become more alert as the weeks go by, cooing and smiling. So there will be more interaction between you and your baby during feedings.

The following are general guidelines, and your baby may be hungrier more or less often than this. That's why it's important to pay attention to your baby's signals of being hungry or full. A baby who is getting enough might slow down, stop, or turn away from the breast or bottle.

Breastfeeding: How Much and How Often?

As babies get older, they will start to breastfeed less often and sleep for longer periods at night. Your infant probably is eating enough if he or she:

• seems alert, content, and active
• is steadily gaining weight and growing
• feeds six to eight times per day
• is wetting and soiling diapers on a regular basis

Babies might not be eating enough if they:

• don't appear satisfied
• cry constantly
• are irritable, even after feeding
• are not making wet diapers

Call your doctor if you're concerned your baby isn't eating enough.

A few weeks after birth, breastfed babies tend to have fewer bowel movements (BMs, or poop) than they did before. At around 2 months of age, your baby may not poop after each feeding, or even every day. During growth spurts, you may notice that your little one wants to feed more often. This frequent nursing sends a signal to make more milk. Within a couple of days, supply and demand will get into balance.

Babies who get breast milk only should get vitamin D supplements within the first few days of life. Other supplements, water, juice, and solid foods aren't usually needed.

Formula Feeding: How Much and How Often?

Babies digest formula more slowly than breast milk, so if you're bottle-feeding, your baby may have fewer feedings than a breastfed infant.

As babies grow, they can eat more at each feeding and may go for longer stretches between feedings. You'll also notice that your baby is starting to sleep longer at night.

During the second month, infants may take about 4 or 5 ounces at each feeding. By the end of 3 months, your baby may need an additional ounce at each feeding.

It's easy to overfeed a baby when using a bottle because it easier to drink from a bottle than from a breast. Make sure that the hole on the bottle's nipple is the right size. The liquid should drip slowly from the hole and not pour out. Also, resist the urge to finish the bottle when your baby shows signs of being full.

Never prop a bottle. Propping a bottle might cause choking and it increases the chances of getting ear infections and tooth decay.

Should I Worry About Spitting Up?

It's normal for infants to "spit up" after eating or during burping. Spitting up a small amount — usually less than 1 ounce (30 ml) — shouldn't be a concern as long as it happens within an hour of feeding and doesn't bother your baby.

You can reduce spitting up in these early months by:

• feeding before your baby gets very hungry
• keeping your baby in a semi-upright position during the feeding and for an hour after
• burping your baby regularly
• avoiding overfeeding
• not jostling or playing vigorously with your baby right after a feeding

If your baby seems to be spitting up large amounts, is spitting up forcefully, is irritable during or after feedings, or seems to be losing weight or is not gaining weight as expected, call your doctor. And if your child has a fever or shows any signs of dehydration (such as not wetting diapers), call the doctor right away.

Call your doctor if you have any questions or concerns about feeding your infant.