These are example patterns, not prescriptions. Babies vary, and the right schedule is the one where nappies, weight and your own sanity all hold up. Breastfeeds are always on demand; the "schedule" is really about which feeds are formula.
Amounts for the formula feeds below come from the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics and are averages, not targets [4] [6]. Let your baby stop when full [4].
Most newborns feed 8–12 times in 24 hours, breast or bottle [4] [7]. This is the period when supply is being set, which is why every major body advises establishing breastfeeding before adding formula [7] [8] [9].
If you must supplement now — on medical advice for weight, jaundice or low supply — the pattern that protects breastfeeding best is breastfeed first, then offer a small top-up, and express after any feed where the baby did not drain the breast [3] [7]. Typical formula amounts at this age are 1–2 oz (30–60 ml) per feed in the first days, rising to 3–4 oz (90–120 ml) by about a month [4] [6].
Feeds space out to roughly every 3–4 hours [4] [6]. This is the common starting point for combination feeding.
Total formula here is 8–10 oz a day; a fully formula-fed baby of this age takes up to about 32 oz [6], so the rest is coming from you.
Many babies settle to five or six feeds a day. A working parent's pattern often looks like this:
If you want to keep the daytime milk you are not giving, express once or twice during the day; expressing releases prolactin and maintains production [3].
Both the AAP and WHO advise introducing solid foods at about six months while continuing breast milk or formula [1] [2]. Milk feeds drop to about five or six a day, with 6–8 oz (180–240 ml) per formula feed [4] [6].
Change one thing at a time: do not start solids and a new formula feed in the same week.
The feed most families hand over first is a late-evening or first-waking bottle, so the breastfeeding parent gets one longer stretch of sleep. Two things keep this from hurting supply: keep the same night feed as formula every night rather than alternating, and keep the early-morning feed as a breastfeed [3] [8].
For the night bottle, the formula safety rules still apply: made fresh or taken from a batch prepared within the last 24 hours and refrigerated, used within an hour of starting the feed, and leftovers discarded [5].
The AAP's average for fully formula-fed babies is about 2½ oz (75 ml) of formula per pound of body weight per day, capped at roughly 32 oz (960 ml) [6]. For a combination-fed baby, subtract the breastfeeds — you cannot measure those, so use nappies and weight as the check, not the maths.
A printable one-page version of these tables is available at /combination-feeding/schedule.pdf.
Newborns feed 8–12 times in 24 hours whatever they are fed, so a schedule is really a pattern of which feeds are breast and which are bottle. A common pattern from six weeks is breastfeeds morning, mid-morning and bedtime, formula mid-afternoon and late evening, and breast or formula overnight depending on who is awake.
Many families keep the last feed before bed as a breastfeed and let a partner give a formula bottle for the first night waking, then breastfeed again in the early morning when supply is highest. Whoever gives the night bottle prepares it fresh or uses one made within the last 24 hours from the fridge.
Use the same per-feed amounts as a formula-fed baby of that age for the formula feeds — roughly 1–2 oz per feed in the first days, 3–4 oz by one month, 6–8 oz by six months — and let breastfeeds run on demand. The AAP's ceiling of about 32 oz of formula in 24 hours applies to fully formula-fed babies, so a combination-fed baby will take less.
A schedule that keeps the same breastfeeds every day, especially the morning one, and that was reached by dropping feeds gradually, is the least risky for supply. What hurts supply is skipping different breastfeeds at random and topping up after every breastfeed.