bottle feeding amounts?

[Kendaljanet]

my son is 10 weeks old, about 11 1/2 pounds. i am using sma gold. he has 5 ounces every 3-4 hours, but never seemes satisfyed after a feed. he suffers with colic, but that is starting to get better. it seems like he has a lot of feed in one day, (sometimes up to 8) is that normal? should i up the ounces in each feed, or maybe try hungry baby milk?

[Hai1988]

Sounds like hungrier baby milk sounds like it may work, i changed ds to that at about the same age.

[BertieBotts]

I'd up the ounces first. It's quite young for hungry baby milk and a 5oz bottle is small.

Also 8 feeds is definitely normal in a day for such a little one, possibly more :)

[meganw]

Babies should have roughly 2.5 x their amount in weight as ounces of formula. For your baby at his current weight that is about 29-30 oz a day. But these are just guidelines and all babies are different. If he is drinking the bottles dry, try putting an extra ounce in one or two bottles and see if he takes it - he won't eat if he isn't hungry. 8 bottles is quite a lot, but as he gets older and sleeps longer, he will take more in day time feeds and drop a couple of the night feeds.

Don't use hungry baby milk - it is designed to delay the onset of early weaning, and it causes constipation in a lot of babies. If your baby is hungry just give him a bit more normal milk - he is growing all the time and knows how much he needs to eat.

[BertieBotts]

I thought that guideline amounts of formula were outdated now, as it's recognised it's not harmful for babies to drink more than this, if they're asking for it, and it's best to feed on demand as far as possible.

I also don't think that 8 bottles is a massive amount, I know it's different, but a breastfed baby would still be expected to be feeding 10-12 times a day at 10 weeks.

[meganw]

It is used as a guideline - it gives people a starting point when feeding their baby as not everybody knows. As I said above all babies are different, I'm not suggesting that OP does anything except feed her baby a little bit more in each bottle if he wants it, which is the same as feeding on demand isn't it?

Of course 8 bottles is fine, but I'm just saying that as her baby possibly drops a nightfeed, and ups what he takes during the day he may find that he drops one.

[Kendaljanet]

Thanks everyone. Think I'l try upping to six ounces for a few days, see if that satisfys him more. Thanks for the advise :)

[wigglesrock]

My health visitor told me to up the bottle amount if they were draining the bottle. I formula fed my children on demand and it would be about 8 bottles over a 24 hour period. Sometimes more, they also clusterfed