I don't know how much to feed my 3 month old

[October89]

My dd is 12 weeks. She usually wants a bottle every 4-4.5 hours during the day and sleeps from around 12am until 10am without waking up for a bottle during the night. She was on 6oz 5 times a day but am finding it hard to fit in 5 bottles in during her awake time since the 5th bottle would be at 2am but by then she's asleep and doesn't wake for it. She is also draining the 6oz and sometimes drains a 7oz too. She was born at 8lb 5oz and is now roughly 14lbs 11oz though I'm not sure as she's not been weighed by a Dr since she was 10 days old. I am weighing her myself. What should I do?

[Ihaveoflate]

Offer her 8oz every four hours? That would be 32oz. I think the general rule of thumb is around 2 - 2.5oz per lb of body weight, which would be about right.

I think at that age though, you should just feed her if she’s hungry. Draining a bottle is an indication that they would take more, so I would up it by an oz each bottle.

My baby only had 4 bottles a day at that age (every 4 hrs) plus a small night feed which she dropped at 5 months.

[Letsallscreamatthesistene]

Honestly I never track it. My baby eats what he wants and stops when he's full. When he routinely starts finishing bottles I added more per feed.

As long as your babies weight gain is fine and your baby is otherwise healthy, I think this approach is ok

[Lockdownseperation]

It’s recommended that you pace feed and feed on demand. For bottle feeding that means offering a milk when they want it and they should take as much milk as they want so there should always be milk left in the bottle because they have decided they have enough.
If she is draining the bottle you need to be making more milk.

[Lazypuppy]

Bigger bottles but fewer is the obvious answer. Work out how much baby should be having in a 24hr period, and split it into 3 or 4 bottles

[October89]

If I have calculated it correctly then she'd need over 35oz in a day which is 4 almost 9oz bottles and I don't think she'd drink that. Sometimes it is random like today she's had 2 5oz bottles, 1 7oz and 1 6oz. I had to wake her early this morning so she will have 1 more bottle tonight but that will not add upto 35oz today...

[Lockdownseperation]

Don’t worry about input, focus on output. Is she weeing/pooing enough and is she following her weight curve in her red book?

[October89]

She poops once a day and I get plenty of wet nappies. I'm not sure about the curve in her red book as it's not been filled out at all

[Letsallscreamatthesistene]

Babies arent textbooks though. I doubt you eat exactly the right amount of calories per day. As pp said, worry about output rather than input. One dirty nappy a day and loads of wet one is great. If shes not waking for a feed, I wouldnt wake her. Babies will never let themselves starve....

[Lazypuppy]

OP i thought you said you had been weighing her? Just fill the growth curve chart out each time you weigh her

[Letsallscreamatthesistene]

Also something to think about is that if you were breast feeding you'd have no idea how much she was taking

[October89]

@Lazypuppy

OP i thought you said you had been weighing her? Just fill the growth curve chart out each time you weigh her

I'm weighing her by weighing myself and then again when holding her and working it out from there. I mentioned this to a dr and he said it wasnt accurate enough to go by.

[Letsallscreamatthesistene]

It may not be super accurate, but if you're using the same method each time you'll notice a trend in weight gain

[movingonup20]

Even if you are bottle feeding current advice is that it's on demand (within reason). If your baby finishes bottles they need to have more in

[Lazypuppy]

OP thats fine as a way of weighing them if you're being consistent, weight may be out a little but the weight gain will show

[crazychemist]

Give her as much as she wants at each feed. If you were breastfeeding, you wouldn’t know how much she was taking. Babies obey their own satiety cues pretty well, so It’s generally best if there’s always a bit left in the bottle after the feed as it shows they have fed all they want to.