how to tell a growth spurt

[eenywifemum]

I have an 8 week old with colic who WAS feeding on demand every hour usually. The very nice HV convinced me he was getting overly full and it was aggravating his colic so since Tuesday I have been feeding only every 3 hours and for the most part he has not seemed to protest over that. Today he is especially fussy and I was worried he was going through a growth spurt and I should be feeding him more frequently. How can I tell? I dont want all our good work of getting to feeding only every 3 hours go to waste but I really dont want him feeling hungry for ages.

[SenoraPostrophe]

you can't tell really, until afterwards when they sleep for ages.

was the colic at certain times of day? if so why not try to space his feeds at that time, but continue to feed on demand at other times? and has the feed spacing worked?

[eenywifemum]

spaced feeding has helped enormously. He is actually sleeping now whereas he wasnt before. But unfortunately the colic is all the time, and BAD. The HV said it was the worst case of it she has seen in 2 years.

I guess my worry is, how do I know he is 'demanding' more milk rather than he is crying because he is overtired or some other reason.

[eenywifemum]

he's a very oral baby and wants to suck constantly. we do use a dummy to help tide him over for 3 hours.

[SenoraPostrophe]

that's the thing - you don't know, and (ime) neither does he, because when he has wind, he thinks he's hungry.

dd used to be a bit like that in the mornings. feed spacing helped for her too but my rule of thumb was that if she had been burped and still cried even when presented with a dummy then I'd feed her, and if not I didn't - so some feeds were 3 hours apart but others weren't. does that make sense?

[eenywifemum]

yeah it does. thank you. nobody said this baby raising stuff was easy!