# How much formula should my baby drink? | Clever Mum

> From about a week old, roughly 150–200ml per kilo of body weight per day, split across feeds — but appetite varies day to day, and responsive feeding (watching

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#  How much formula should my baby drink? 

    
 
Quick answer — How much formula should my baby drink? 

 
From about a week old, roughly 150–200ml per kilo of body weight per day, split across feeds — but appetite varies day to day, and responsive feeding (watching baby’s cues, not the clock or the tin) matters more than hitting a number. Steady weight gain and six-plus wet nappies a day are the real reassurance.

   
## Doing the maths

For a 4kg baby, 150–200ml per kilo works out at 600–800ml across 24 hours — typically six to eight feeds of 90–135ml in the early weeks. But treat this as a sense-check, not a target: healthy babies routinely take more one day and less the next, and the tin's feeding table is a starting point, not a prescription.

## Responsive bottle feeding

* **Feed on cues** (rooting, hands to mouth, stirring) rather than the clock — crying is a late hunger sign.
* **Pace the feed**: bottle roughly horizontal, regular pauses, and let baby draw the teat in rather than pushing it.
* **Let baby decide when it's done** — coaxing the last 30ml down "to finish the bottle" teaches overriding fullness cues, and leftover formula should be discarded within two hours anyway.

## The reassurance that actually counts

Steady weight gain along their centile line (checked in the red book), six-plus heavy wet nappies a day from day five, and a baby who's generally settled between feeds tell you far more than any ml figure. If those slip, talk to your health visitor before changing formula or volumes.

  
 **Go deeper:**  [Weaning guide](/baby/weaning-guide-when-and-how-to-start/) 

    
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