How much formula for an 8 month old?

[Heloise1982]

I have 8.5 mo twins (7.5 months adjusted), they've been breastfed up til now (apart from a 9 oz bottle at night.) I'm slowly moving them onto formula for a variety of reasons (not least that I'm back at work in the new year!) My difficulty is that's be got no idea how much breast milk they were taking and am at a bit of a loss as to how much formula to give them... They seem to want a lot more than the 'recommended' amount on the packet. (They've always fed at least every three hours, often more frequently, but I sort of assumed they were snackers.) But they are guzzling it down!

They have (bf times are very variable)

Bf at 6 ish
Bf at 8.30 ish
Bf at 11ish
8 oz bottle at 1
8 oz bottle at 4
9 oz bottle at 7
At least one bf at night, often 2 or 3.

Does that seem like a lot of milk?? What happens when I change the breast feeds for formula, surely 6 8oz bottles a day is too much?? (No plans to drop bf at night, though I wish they'd do it for themselves!!) Or are they just hungry babies?

Thoughts?

[dementedpixie]

Maybe they need more filling solid foods as that is a lot of milk. A minimum of 20oz is recommended but they are taking more than double that. How is their weaning coming along?

[Heloise1982]

Yes I agree it seems a lot!

Doing baby led, so obviously a lot of sucking / spitting / dropping going on. They are definitely eating - it's hard to tell how much, but it seems about the same as my daughter at that age, which is my only basis for comparison. Usually we do three sit down meals a day now.

Their weight is following its curve fine (they were tiny at birth - siugr - don't know if that makes a difference.) Is it possible to overfeed a baby, and how do you know??

Hmm may drop in to baby clinic this weekend and ask the HV what they think.

[Caterina99]

Obviously all babies are different, but when my DS was 7/8 months he was on 4 8oz bottles a day at roughly 7, 11, 3 and 7. He took well to solids and we dropped a bottle around 9/10 months I think which helped him to eat more.

[EstelleRoberts]

My DD was on 4 8oz bottles a day at that age. She was born on the 2nd centile at 37+5, went up to 25th after a few weeks and has hovered around the 25th or a bit above ever since.

You could get them weighed and see what's happening. If they are shooting up the centiles and their weight is becoming disproportionate to their height maybe think about reducing a bit. Don't forget, though, that as they get more proficient at feeding themselves, they will naturally drink less milk. My experience of BLW at that age was that not much food actually got eaten, and what did get swallowed often came out the other end looking pretty similar to how it went in. I always thought that my DD was getting less calories/food actually digested than if she had been eating purées. Which is a rather long-winded way of saying you probably don't need to worry.