to ask why you would put your 'hungry baby' on a diet?

[ICBINEG]

I don't understand the logic...please help me out.

Hungry baby milk has the same calories per 100 grams as normal, but takes longer to digest....or in other words hungry baby formula is a diet food....it makes the baby feel full longer and hence reduces their daily calorie intake, by reducing the number of feeds.

Similarly with introducing solids. Mashed potato or whatever has about the same calories per 100g but they are almost impossible to digest. Again the baby feels full longer but gets less calories in a day because they will ask for less feeds.

So would you respond to thinking your baby is hungry by:
a) feeding them more often so they get more calories
b) feeding them diet food, so they get less calories

?

[Bogeyface]

Seeker yes there was. It was SMA white cap, as opposed to yellow cap which was standard milk. DS is now 22 and he had it.

[ChoudeBruxelles]

Cos your baby is drinking 9oz milk every two hours and you can hear it sloshing around inside them - like my ds at 13 weeks. Switched to hungry baby formula and then weaned at 17 weeks. He was a very big baby and is still a very tall/broad nearly 7 year old

[ICBINEG]

bogey thats odd that is...I mean the normal milk should hit the spot faster than the hungry baby stuff as essentially normal milk is high GI and hungry baby milk is lower GI (and potato is sub zero GI).

But there is always one :)

I guess given they have different ingredients one could trigger voming and the other not so much....

I think the way to avoid the distended stomach thing must be little and often....

Ahh well it seems I am not totally off base regarding this not being the most logical parenting decision...unless you are doing it to get more sleep...in which case it is very logical and I would imagine very effective.

[hazleweatherfield]

ICBINEG, every time I see a post in some way slagging off the big bad baby poisoning formula companies, you are the OP.

Okay, we get it, you don't like formula, now give it a sodding rest, would you?

[PeneloPeePitstop]

My boys necked 9oz bottles 10 times a day, even on HBM.

[ICBINEG]

hazel what about the potato? I hate the potato too! Please don't leave the potato out of this....

[ICBINEG]

whoa pen that's incredible!

Tis hard to know how much my DD was having but feed number easily doubled during spurts....actually I think she didn't really have much in spite of being 98% centile throughout.

[goldenlula]

There was a form of hungry baby milk when my mum had my brother 40 years ago I believe. There was certainly hungry baby milk 17 years ago as I was a pharmacy assistant and both sma and cow and gate had 2 versions.

[ilovepowerhoop]

I have never heard of anyone starting weaning with potato btw

[PeneloPeePitstop]

You'd think they'd be obese now but no, skinny as rakes at 9 and 7. DD fed like a bird, still does.

[goldenlula]

I should add, ds1 never went on hungry baby milk, ds2 did as he was a hungrier baby and like his big brother, the more milk he drank the sicker he was so I used the hungrier milk so he wasn't feeding every hour and hen constantly being sick, with the hungry baby milk he would go 3 maybe 4 hours and then he would be sick for the first hour and then have a break from it. Dd didn't have hungry baby milk, but then she was never a huge milk drinker and I was always being told I should force feed her more bottles!

[drivingmisspotty]

Interesting way of looking at it OP, never thought of HBF as diet food before.

But doesn't breastmilk change too? So the milk your body produces for a 6 month old is different/richer than for a 4wk old? Like hungry baby breastmilk?! Or not is that just a myth I heard?

[noblegiraffe]

I know they say you can't over feed a bf baby. Does that mean that you can over feed a formula fed baby, and if you don't switch to hungry baby stuff you might over feed them and end up with an obese baby?

[PeazlyPops]

Why do you care, OP?

Are you thinking of moving your baby onto hungry formula? If you give some more info about your baby's appetite, maybe we can help.

[lola88]

DS couldn't go on hungry baby because they don't do it lactose free but by 10 weeks he was on 9 6oz bottles a day, you could hear the milk in his tummy and he throw it up at night because it would all just lay in his tummy. DS wasn't a hungry baby he was a greedy baby so i weaned him early which helped fill his tummy if i could have gave him hungry baby i would have.

[sleepyhead]

All formula was "hungry baby milk" in the 60s and 70s. Hungry baby milk is just casein based formula, as opposed to whey based formula which the manufacturers developed as it was "closer to breastmilk".

Casein based formula takes longer to digest. I suspect that they kept making it because a lot of people would have wanted to maintain the traditional 4 hrs between feeds which might not have been possible with the newer formulation of milks.

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

Yes breast milk changes as the baby gets older, so they don't just keep needing more and more.

Genuine question here, I am not having a pop.
Do any people who choose formula and have all these issues with it wish they had chosen to BF instead? Or do the pros still outweigh the cons?

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Does seeker mean before that time as well though, when there wasn't even formula milk and the vast majority breastfed? I think before the 19th century, babies were weaned later than they are now, more like 9 months? Just dragged that from the depths of my memory, so not sure how true it is

[Pickles101]

DD has HBM on the recommendation of her HV. Made a huge difference, she is now a full, happy baby and not a wailing child with a sore tummy. I think it will benefit her long term too because she won't associate food with pain.

[shellshock7]

alibaba the issues with FF were tiny compared to those I/DS had with BF!

[VisualiseAHorse]

I used hungry baby milk at about 16 weeks - baby seemed constantly unsettled and hungry (clearly he was going through a growth spurt). I'd spent two days pinned to the sofa while he fed on and off. I felt drained, hadn't slept.
Step-dad went out and bought hungry milk. Baby slept for 7 hours! (so did I!). After that I used it every now and then when I wanted a break from breastfeeding, up until he was 6 months. Then I switched to follow-on because I had vouchers for it.

[beatlegirl]

Alibaba, I didn't breastfeed because I found every single feed immensely painful. Not just sore nipples, but thhe letdown reflex itself actually cause me to sob in agony! I tried with all 3 of my babies. I honestly think that the 'every woman can breastfeed' thing is bollocks.

I think that because most women have some pain or discomfort, they think they know about the pain and judge those of us who can't manage it.

A 'lovely' colleague of mine sneered at me, apparently 'after 18 months you get used to it'. But honestly, I've seen other people breast feed. It truly isn't the same for everyone. If it hurt them the way it hurts me, they'd have given up too.

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

I can understand if you've tried BF and found it painful, difficult and not had support to resolve anything, that FF and whatever associated difficulties would still come out on top.
beatle that was nasty of your colleague.

I guess I am more curious about people who chose before birth or very soon after that they don't want to BF but haven't had actual 'problems' as such.

[AmberSocks]

one thing i dont understad is why,whe your baby wants more milk at like 3 or 4 months,some people decide to wean?surely there are more calories in milk than there are in fruit and veg?

[AmberSocks]

alibaba there are lots of reasons and im sure that you know them really.

it might just not be the done thing in their little world,ad no one has challenged them(happened to me with ds1)

they may think its unnatural(obv rubbish but some people do,my own mum included)

they may have issues from their past such as abuse which makes them not want to try bf