Keeping a Baby Feeding Diary for a Weigh-In or Lactation Consultant: What to Record, and for How Long

A baby feeding diary records every feed with its time and either the side and minutes or the mL, plus every top-up, expressing session and wet and dirty nappy, over complete 24-hour days. Your midwife, child health nurse or lactation consultant reads it beside your baby's weight to see how feeding is going.

You might have been handed this job at a weigh-in, a midwife home visit or when you booked a lactation appointment. This guide shows what to write down, a filled 24-hour example, how many days to keep it, what the person reading it looks for, and what to bring on the day.

What should a baby feeding diary include?

A useful baby feeding diary has one line for every feed, top-up, expressing session and nappy, each with the clock time. For a breastfeed, write the side and the minutes. For a bottle, write the mL and whether it was formula or expressed milk. Mark each nappy as wet, dirty or both.

Here is what to capture for each kind of entry:

• Breastfeeds. The start time, which breast, and roughly how many minutes on each side. Note the side you finished on, so you know where to start next time.
• Top-ups. The time, the mL offered and the mL taken, and what was in the bottle: expressed milk or formula. Write down how it was given too, such as a bottle, a cup or a syringe.
• Expressing. The time and the mL from each side, or the total if you pump both at once.
• Wet nappies. One tick per wet nappy, and a note if the wee looks dark or orange.
• Dirty nappies. One tick per poo, with the colour. From about day 5, breastfed poo is usually soft and yellow-mustard, says the Australian Breastfeeding Association(opens in a new window) (ABA).
• Anything else the reader should know. A very sleepy feed, a baby you had to wake, a feed that ended in tears, or a nipple shield you used.

Keep the diary in one place that everyone who feeds or changes the baby can reach. A diary with the night shift missing tells half the story.

If your nurse has asked about sleep too, our guide to a baby sleep diary covers what to record for sleeps and night wakes.

What a useful 24-hour feeding diary looks like

A useful 24-hour feeding diary starts at the same clock time each day and has one line per event, so the totals can be added up at the bottom. The example below is for an imaginary 2 week old baby, breastfed, with two small top-ups on a midwife's plan. The numbers show the layout, not a target for your baby.

Three things make this diary useful to the person reading it:

• Every line has a clock time. The gaps between feeds, and the long stretch overnight, are part of the picture.
• Top-ups sit in their own column. The reader can see how much of the day's milk came from the breast and how much from a bottle, and whether it was formula or expressed milk.
• The totals are added up. Feeds, top-up mL, expressed mL, wet nappies and dirty nappies each get a number for the day.

The evening run of feeds close together is common. Our guide to cluster feeding and the witching hour explains why it happens.

How many days should you keep a feeding diary?

Keep the feeding diary for as many days as your midwife, nurse or lactation consultant asks. None of the Australian health services we checked sets a number of days. If nobody said, start now and keep it until the appointment, with at least two or three complete 24-hour days.

Complete days matter more than the count of days. Children's Health Queensland(opens in a new window) notes that babies may feed more often at certain times of the day or night, and that how often and how long they feed varies a lot between babies. A diary that covers only the daytime can look far better or far worse than your baby's real pattern.

The same idea applies to weighing. The ABA says test weighing(opens in a new window) before and after a feed is only useful if done at every feed for 24 hours, and that counting wet and dirty nappies is often easier.

Children's Health Queensland · Is my baby getting enough breast milk

A judgement on your baby's growth is best made only after a series of measurements rather than a one-off measurement.

A diary that runs from one weigh-in to the next lets the nurse line up what went in and came out against the change on the scales. If you are asked to keep going after the appointment, keep the same layout, so each day can be compared with the last.

What will the midwife, nurse or lactation consultant look at?

The midwife, child health nurse or lactation consultant compares the diary's daily totals with the usual signs that a baby is getting enough milk: how many feeds, how many wet and dirty nappies, and how the weight is tracking. They read these beside how your baby looks and feeds, so no single number decides it.

The Australian services use slightly different wording for those signs. Here they are sign by sign, for a breastfed baby:

• Feeds in 24 hours: ABA: 8 to 14 or more. Children's Health Queensland: 8 to 12 is normal. Raising Children Network: aim for at least 8 to 12 when building supply.
• Wet nappies from day 5: ABA: at least 5 heavy disposables (or 6 very wet cloth). Children's Health Queensland: at least 5 wet disposables. Raising Children Network: at least 5 very wet disposables (or 6 wet cloth) after the first few days.
• Dirty nappies: ABA: 3 or more runny poos a day under 6 to 8 weeks. Children's Health Queensland: 3 or more soft, mustard-yellow poos a day from day 5. Raising Children Network: soft poos 3 to 4 times a day under 6 to 8 weeks.
• Early weight loss: ABA: up to 10% in the first week. Children's Health Queensland: up to 10% in the first few days. Raising Children Network: a little in the first week is normal.
• Back to birth weight: ABA: by 2 weeks. Children's Health Queensland: by 14 days. Raising Children Network: not stated.
• Weight gain after that: ABA: varies week to week; a month's average often helps more. Children's Health Queensland: 150 to 200 g a week in the first 12 weeks. Raising Children Network: gaining some weight, plus length and head growth.

The wet nappy count for each day of the first week is in our guide to how many wet nappies a day. The other signs of enough milk, such as calm spells between feeds, are in the guide to how much milk a baby drinks.

Two things change how the reader uses your top-up column. The ABA's page on top-ups(opens in a new window) says you can't judge your breastmilk supply by how much your baby takes from a top-up, because bottles flow faster and babies may drink even when full. It also says regular extra formula can reduce your supply.

So the reader looks at the top-up mL as part of a plan, not as proof of what your breasts make. Our guide to mixed feeding and top-ups walks through a full top-up day and what triple feeding involves.

Weights go on the growth chart in your baby's record book. Our guide to baby growth charts and percentiles explains how to read the curve. Children's Health Queensland suggests weighing on the same scales each time, with the baby undressed and no nappy.

A lactation consultant also watches a feed. Pregnancy, Birth and Baby(opens in a new window) describes an appointment of up to an hour, in which the consultant observes a breast or bottle feed, does a feeding assessment and makes a personal feeding plan with you.

What to bring to a lactation consultant appointment

Bring the feeding diary, your baby's personal health record, a list of any medicines you take, and the feeding aids you use. Plan to feed during the visit too, because the consultant watches a feed.

• The feeding diary, with each day's totals added up.
• Your baby's personal health record, the blue book or red book in some states and territories, with the weights recorded so far.
• A list of medicines you take, or the boxes, including prescribed medicines, herbal supplements and vitamins.
• Feeding aids you use, such as a feeding pillow, nipple shields, your breast pump flange, or the bottles and teats you use for top-ups.
• Your questions, written down. Three or four on paper survive a crying baby better than a list in your head.
• A baby ready to feed, or close to it, so the consultant can see a real feed.

The health record, medicines list and feeding aids come from the Pregnancy, Birth and Baby list.

You do not need a referral to see a lactation consultant. Medicare doesn't cover a lactation consultant's fees, although breastfeeding support within your midwife's postnatal care may be covered, so ask about cost when you book.

For a routine child health nurse check rather than a lactation visit, see what to bring to a baby health check.

Between appointments, the ABA's National Breastfeeding Helpline on 1800 686 268 puts you through to a breastfeeding counsellor, 24 hours a day.

When slow weight gain needs a call today

Some signs can't wait for the booked appointment. These are the ones Australian health services name.

Not back to birth weight by about 2 weeks is worth raising with your midwife or child health nurse even if everything else seems fine. Pregnancy, Birth and Baby(opens in a new window) says most babies regain it between 10 and 14 days.

For advice, the Pregnancy, Birth and Baby helpline on 1800 882 436 connects you to a maternal child health nurse from 7am to midnight (AET), 7 days a week.

Keeping the diary on your phone

Paper works. A sheet on the fridge with a pen beside it does the job, as long as everyone who feeds or changes the baby writes on it. The weak spots are the 3am feed nobody wrote down and adding up the totals by hand.

BabyLog's free plan keeps the same diary on your phone. A breastfeed is logged with a timer, the side you ended on and how the minutes split between left and right. A bottle top-up is logged with its mL, an expressing session with the mL from each side, and each nappy as wet, dirty or both, with the poo colour.

The bottle entry holds the mL only, so write "formula" or "expressed" in its note. Your partner can log on their own phone after you share the baby, so the night feeds land in the same diary.

At the appointment, the Data Table lists every feed with its time, minutes or mL, side and note. If that would save the paper chase, you can start free in the browser on your phone.

When a nurse wants a longer picture, such as the weeks before the 6 to 8 week visit, a Pro Checkup Report turns a date range of at least 7 days into one summary of feeds, nappies, sleep and growth, shared as a private link with a code or as a PDF.

When your baby is near a standard child health visit age, the report builder suggests a date range to cover. It summarises what you logged and is not a clinical assessment.

Common questions