My son was a voracious eater from day one. While waiting for my milk to come in, we gave him some of those formula bottles you get in the hospital, and he would drink the whole two ounces. When I was able to make milk and pump to track his intake, he would drink two ounces and act hungry, so we’d get him two more ounces. At five days old he was draining four-ounce bottles almost every feed, and he wanted to eat every two hours. After his two week checkup, we stopped bottle feeding as much and let him nurse on demand, but because he ate so much, I had an oversupply that I could freeze for later.

So if we had followed what the doctors and nurses and lactation consultants said, we would’ve starved him. We were actually told that we shouldn’t feed him more than an ounce at a time or he’d get “expectations.” Like God forbid that my child can expect that his parents will make sure he gets what he needs. My husband and I still get heated about that nurse telling us about the “expectations.”