4 hour feeding, how do you know when and other questions....

[bettieblue]

My DS is 12 weeks (ff) and on a 7, 10, 1, 4, 6.30pm routine through the day and sleeps from 7pm to 6am (i'm lucky i know). I'm thinking ahead but don't know when you start thinking of moving to 4 hourly. I asked the health visitor and she said i could now by waiting to see if he can go longer between feeds. I did try for a couple of days but haven't really got his naps sorted during the day so felt it was too soon. What I don't understand though is if you completely drop a feed do you have to increase the other feeds during the day so he takes the same amount over 24 hours but in 4 bottles? What do you need to look for before you start thinking baby might be ready (or is it a particular age?).

[tiktok]

No need to do anything, really :) If your baby is happy on this routine, why change? When your baby starts having solid foods, things will change again.

He may never go four hours between eating or drinking...in fact I am rather older than 12 weeks and I don't go this long, usually.

[bettieblue]

Hi

I don't demand feed as such because I have a bedtime routine at a set time and I found that waiting till he got ravenous meant the feeds before bedtime were too close together. He seems ok on the 3 hourly feeds and even if he isn't crying for food he always wolfs the bottle.

I guess I thought 4 hourly feeds is a natural progression.

[Hunter1106]

Can I just ask how much he's taking at each feed. My HV told me to leave my 9 week old DS at least 4 hours between feeds as he wasn't finishing a 5 oz bottle at each feed, but he still doesn't alway take full 5 oz even after 4 hrs!! He's a big boy at 13lb 9 and I.m not sure how to get him to feed more through the day as he wakes 3 times through the night!!!

Advice would be appreciated, sorry for jumping on your thread!

[bettieblue]

My DS takes 210ml per feed (is that 7oz....hes a piglet!). Im afraid I can't offer you much advice, this is my first baby but can just let you know what I did. I have always fed at least every 3 hours (it was more frequent when he was younger) but never let him go longer much longer than 3 hours and woke him up from sleep (between 6am and 7pm) to feed him. (I always made sure he had at least 5 feeds in that time period) Not everyone agrees with this method (i posted on here a few times and have tried to be a bit more go with the flow but failed miserably!) however hes now been sleeping from 7pm to 6am for the last 2 weeks continually , before that it was 5am but i started putting him to bed earlier and this seem to help him. (I also have a bedtime routine and put him down regularly for naps regardless of whether he actually sleeps or not!) Whether he would of done this if id have demand fed I don't know.

You could try feeding every 3 hours (during the day)and even if he takes less in oz per feed he might take more in that 12 hour period. which might help you at night time?