Newborn formula question?

[Alb1]

My Ds is 4 days old now, we switched to formula yesterday (tried expressing but it's far too painful) and after a night of throwing up every feed that's settled now but hel only drink 1oz every 3-4 hours before going back to sleep. He's so windy aswell he's gettin hiccups 2-3 times between each feed n needing winding it throwing up about every 20mins... Basically my question is is 1 oz enough? I try n wake him for more but he's not interested n if I force him he just throws up more! If u can't guess he's my first, an I'm struggling a little with the guilt of stopping bf so i apologise if my post is a little stupid

[Memphisbelly]

A baby of that age only has a stomach the size of a walnut so I would think and ounce is about right. When I had ds we were given one of those small glass pre prepped bottles and they said he would feed to the top of the label and not much more as if they are too full they will be sick.
Their stomachs grow quickly though so should start taking a bit more over the next week.

[Gagesb1]

Can I ask why you stopped Bf?

[hollie84]

If you were still breastfeeding your milk would have only just come in, if at all yet, so he would only be having a few mls at a time. I'm sure an oz is fine. Please don't try to force him.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

When dd was a newborn Id make up 3oz bottles and she rarely took the whole lot, so id say 1oz a time is about right and it will build up.

[Discoflame]

Maybe experiment with different bottle teats? We discovered DD did not get on with the vari flow ones they have her hiccups and wind!

Make sure you wind properly after each feed as well, even if it takes 10 mins.

O and do not feel guilty at all. Your baby is being fed, that's all that matters. Congratulations on your snuggly newborn!

[Discoflame]

www.aptaclub.co.uk/article/how-much-how-often

Does this help at all? Guidelines on how often to feed, I'm pretty sure these are on side of the formula pack and that's what we used as a guide.

Hope link works, I'm on phone!

[bonzo77]

Babies can be very clever at telling you how much they need. DS2 was tube fed. Once he moved to bottles, he was meant to have a certain amount. Anything he didn't finish was meant to go down his tube. If I actually did that he would vomit up the whole feed. They were weighing him daily, and he only started to gain when I took to throwing away the left over milk. BTW, he was 5lb3 and the feeds were about 45ml (1.5 oz) every 4 hours at that stage and I was chucking at least 10ml a feed, often more.

[Alb1]

gages I stopped because altho baby was latching on well and feeding as he was suppose to (got great support in hospital) I found it incredibly painful and it was making me anxious to the point were I was crying every time it was time to feed n all the way through every feed, and it's very relentless in the first few days and he wasn't sleeping at all, combined with struggling with post birth recovery (very sore episiotomy and tears) it was just too
Overwhelming, I just wanted to enjoy my baby... I feel guilty as I no
Many women persevere through the first few weeks and it gets much better, and of course it's better
For the baby and I loved the closeness, but switching to bottles has meant that the baby sleeps rediculously more, my partner can help, I can recover and enjoy me baby without panicking every time he routes. Sorry for the long explanation, struggling with the guilt ..,

Thanks everyone for your advice

[bonzo77]

The boxes of formula always suggested my babies were not drinking enough. I think they advise you to make up bigger bottles so you get through more powder and they make more money!

Somewhere there are charts for how many ml of milk per kg of baby per 24 hrs. I'll see if I can find them.

[Discoflame]

Honestly do not feel guilty!

I switched to bottle feeding after one day of breastfeeding, the guilt was terrible. I cried in the middle of sainsburys buying the formula!! (I may have been suffering sleep deprivation!)

DD is almost 2 and the feeding thing is such a small part of her life, she is the brightest most adventurous wee girl.

Don't beat yourself up, you need to look after yourself as well. I wish I had someone who had told me this when I was going through it cause I felt guilty for well over a year and it was such a waste of emotions.

[finallydelurking]

1oz is perfectly normal for a newborn and sleeping 3-4 hours is brilliant! Congratulations on your baby.

[NeedaDiscoNap]

That sounds fine to me. If the reflux/wind problems continue it might be worth trying vented bottles. I used these with my baby for reflux (Tommee Tippee closer to nature) and combined with infacol it really helped.

My baby was cup fed then bottle fed on expressed breast milk, then mixed fed EBM and formula because she was very, very small when she was born and although she could latch on she was so sleepy and she couldn't get the volumes she needed. She had very small amounts to begin with.

1oz is fine if you feed him little and often - don't try to give him more if he won't take it as he'll just be sick.

Be kind to yourself about the feeding - a happy, well-rested mum is such a good thing for a baby. I stressed myself out about not breastfeeding and felt so guilty for weeks and weeks.

[LittleBearPad]

Please don't feel guilty.

Little and often is fine for a newborn.

You may find that propping him up for feeds helps a bit with the windiness and vomiting. Dr Brown bottles helped DD with wind too.

[bonzo77]

Just looked it up. Official guidance is 150-200 ml per kg per 24 hours, but less in the first week. So lets say baby is 3kg , which is a bit under 7lb, thats 150x 3= 450 ml. Which spread over 8 feeds is 56 ml (2 oz) per feed. I think you'll find that by the time baby is a week old he will be taking near enough this. They do get hiccups a bit, it's very hard work learning to feed and they are not used to having full tummies. I hate to break it to you, but at this stage they are often a bit sleepy, after all the stress of being born. Once they wake up a bit they also get hungrier!

Lots of cuddles and lots of small frequent feeds (which is what they get if you BF). If you are bottle feeding you could also give a dummy, the sucking / swallowing helps them keep the feeds down, my Dr recommended it with my reluxy DS2 and it definitely helped.

[Gagesb1]

Please don't feel guilty.
My wife really struggled to bf but the midwife helped us to latch properly. We still use formula now & again especially at night when we are struggling to feed enough (she seems to be in the growth spurt stage).
We are also first time parents and after the first two nights I was questioning my sanity!!!!!!
Enjoy your baby and I wish you so much happiness.

[OrangeyTulips]

please don't feel guilty. I found bf very painful and Ds could never latch properly. I told my midwife that feeding was excruciating and that I was exhausted - she told me it was all part of being a new mum. If she had checked my notes properly she would have seen that I was anaemic. Switched to bottles as I was becoming an unhappy exhausted mum. all will work out fine for you

[Plateofcrumbs]

We had similar problems when DS was born - it is initially very difficult to give them anything like the amount of formula you are supposed to, but bear in mind their stomach capacity increases quickly so you can start to up the volumes quite quickly.

If you don't want to persevere with BFing don't beat yourself up, it's not worth sacrificing your happiness and health.

However, I notice you say you've found expressing too painful - I found the first few days of manually expressing colostrum were awful, but I then got a decent electric pump / my milk started coming in and it was 1000x easier. We were then using a mix of formula and expressed milk whilst gradually getting BF established. If you've already been using a good hospital grade pump, ignore me.

Whatever you choose to do, good luck and try not to feel guilty.