12 week old - how much milk?

[wools]

My DS will be 12 weeks tomorrow. His birth weight was 8lb 4ozs. My worry is I think his milk intake may be too low. He is bottle fed on C&G Premium and takes approximately 3 ounces per feed - 7 bottles a day. He is fed roughly every 3 hours. He is a difficult baby to feed and fidgets and complains whilst feeding and clearly doesn't seem to enjoy it. He is putting on weight although has dropped quite considerably on the centile chart. I did investigate reflux with my GP and was prescribed Gaviscon which made no difference whatsoever. I've also changed the bottles from Avent to Mam which for a short time (2 days) seemed to do the trick and he would drink more milk (approx 5 ozs) a feed. I'm about to try him on Aptamil 1st as my GP did suggest maybe the milk may not agree with him (I personally don't think this is the problem.) Could it be that he just is not really interested in feeding and is only ever going to take the bare minimum that he has to in order to survive. Have any other mums had a similar problem?

[Cristina7]

DS drank little and fussily (9lb+) at birth. He only drank more when fully asleep at night. The formula tins have a guidance chart of how many oz a day. I'm breastfeeding DD and I firmly believe I can't be producing that much milk.

[Mojomummy]

perhaps you could try a different bottle/teat ? something like the nuk ones with the latex teat. They are much softer. Although my Dd was breastfed, she did have a bottle at nursery & wouldn't drink from the avent ones ever. You can pick up a small NUK bottle from superdrug for £2-£3.

Cristina7, how old is your DD & how much does she weigh ? You'd be amazed at the amount BFind babies drink so as long as she is doing well, I'm sure you're doing just great

[wools]

Christina7 - that is exactly what my DS does as well - feeds much better at night. The formula tins are what got me worried in the first place - if I hadn't read them I probably wouldn't realise that he wasn't drinking enough according to them. And I guess if you're breastfeeding it's hard to know exactly how much milk they are taking in anyway. I know I should take comfort from the fact that there is a slight weight gain but I'm one of these worriers who always thinks that there is something wrong.

[mummyhill]

DS is 10 days old and wouldn't latch so bottle fed till supplyu came in and now feed ebm with formula. Milk supply is gradually increasing and we are able to drop 1 formula feed in favour of ebm every two days. You can supply sufficient to keep your baby fed and happy do not doubt yourselves you are doing a great job.

[mummyhill]

Wools there are lots of different bottles and teats out there keep trying till youfind one that suits. Also it could be the milk I bottle fed DD and found that she would only take sma gold. C&G made her constipated and she was fussy with the aptamil. Somr babies like to feed little and often if you keep a chart over the course of a couple of days as to how much he takes each feed and see how the total compares to the recommended amount on the tin. At the end of the day though this is just a guideline some babies take more than this and some take less, as long as he is gaining weight and the health visitor isn't in a flap about you should be ok.

[Poochuk]

My 8 week DS is bottlefed on EBM and C& G Premium and the rule I follow is that he should be getting 75ml for every pound. I initially started using Avent bottles, but found that they made him colicky, and so switched to the Bfree bottles and they have made a huge difference.