Belly Balls

By Lisa Lactivist, on December 13th, 2011

Huge thanks to Nikki for writing about Belly Balls:

Belly balls as a resource for new mums and antenatally are fab!! Nothing else explains how tiny babies tummys really are in the early days.

Day 1 is a small marble, holding approx 5-7ml, tummy doesn’t stretch and grows with baby.
Day 3 is a bigger marble and holds around 10ml,
Day 10 is a ping pong ball and holds around 15ml.

This is from my set;

This tool makes it easy for new parents to visualise the sizeof their newborns stomach and how much milk it can hold at birth. This reinforces that supplements are not neededand that colostrum, the earlymilk, is more tha enough to meet a newborn’s needs.

But there is more; Researches have found on Day 1, the newborn’s stomach does not stretch to hold more as it will even a day or two later. This explains the experience of countless hspital nurseswho have learned the hard way that when newborns are fed an ounce or two by bottle during the first day of life, most of it comes back up. The walls of the newborns stomach stay firm, expelling extra milk rather than stretching to hold it.

On Day 1 a newborns stomach capcity isis about one-sixth to one-quarer of an ounce (5 to 7 ml) per feeding. Not surpriingly, this amount of colostrum is ready and waiting in the breast. By Day 3 as baby ideally gets more of these small and frequent feedings, his stomach expands to about the size of a shooter marble to hold more milk. By Day 10 it is the size of a ping pong ball.

Is it a good idea to give a newborn more milk at each feeding to stretch out the stomach sooner?

No. This is NOT the case of giving more is better. Why not?

Small frequent feedings set up a healthy eating pattern right from the start. Adults are now advised by experts that it is healthier to eat smaller amounts more often and the same is true for babies and children. Coaxing a baby to take more milk leads to over-feeding. If feeling overful at feedings becomes the norm for a baby, this may lead to unhealthy eating habits that could lead to childhood obesity later.

Adapted from Linda J Smith’s ‘Coach’s Notebook; Games and Strategies for Lactation Education’ Boston Jones and Bartlett 2002.”

Nikki says the problem that arises in 2011, is that Ardo change their balls, with very outdated research to Day 3 holding 22-27ml and day 10 a WHOPPING 60-81ml.

So upon the old research on the pack, our PCT and NHS decided to stick with the older ones. As to state such a MASSIVE leap in amounts with old research is just silly.

They are a fab resource! Nikki

Kate Buckley

December 13, 2011 at 3:16 pm · Reply

These are great as women are always shocked to see how small babies stomachs really are and it goes some way to explain the frequent feeding in bf babies.

Like or Dislike: 1 0

Karen McCully

December 14, 2011 at 11:18 am · Reply

We used belly balls in the US supplied by Ameda, and after a few years they decided to change the sizes too with the largest being a little plastic easter egg, very confusing.

In clinic we often used a walnut shell to help illustrate the size of a infants stomach. My son never received more than 4oz in his bottle at daycare ever. One carer tried to lecture me that I needed to increase the amount because all the formula fed babies were getting up to 9oz per feed. Imagine trying to eat something the same size as your arm for every meal?!

Like or Dislike: 0 0