Surely bottle feeding can't be THIS hard ?!

[dontfollowmeimlosttoo]

Hi Everyone

Wanting to love 5 month old from breast to formula ... not sure how often and at what points during the day 🤦‍♀️
Nct feeding line said that they are not sure as usually with breastfeeding it's on demand but she was sure I would work it out when baby was hungry and we would get our own routine ...

Health visitor said he has to have 40-54 ounces in 24 hours

Cow and gate helpline said responsive feed

I am making up bottles constantly baby has 2 ounces .. break comes back to it .. this can go on a while. The most in one feed would be 4 ounces.

I think I'm not giving him the opportunity to be hungry to take a bigger feed but I just don't know how often I Should feed so am just feeding on demand like breastfeeding ( while giving him around 3 breastfeeds a day)

I am so confused please could you share with me how often you bottle feed and in what order you so things . So is it before or after naps or both.

Currently I would feed before a nap and even if that nap was only 30 minutes I would offer breast after .. maybe Iv been feeding too much but surely I can't do this same thing with formula .

Sorry should say wanting to move

Sorry I wasn't clear I am currently mix feeding ( so formula on top of 3 breastfeeds per day) before when baby was solely breastfed I would be feeding hourly or two hourly

How big are the bottles you’re making up?

6 oz

This might not be a very helpful response as I never bottle fed except for DC1 for one month at 11 months but with both of mine I started regulating breastfeeds at 6 months as part of weaning. So from 6 months I was doing 7am, 10.30/11ish, 3pm and 7pm to fit it around food.

If you could wait another month so you're weaning as well you might find a routine and planning bottle feeds easier.

Thank you @DappledThings how did you work those timings around naps would you feed then have some playtime and then nap

Have you been doing enough winding and are you sure the teat is big enough? (I haven't bottle fed, but DS had some expressed milk and would get very windy so DH always had to pause part-way through. I know from my mind group that everyone had to upgrade the teat as well.)

General schedule would be:
07.00 wake up
08.00 breakfast
09.00-10.00 sleep
Usually out and about somewhere after that so a feed somewhere around 11 depending on what we were doing
12.00 lunch
Two hour sleep somewhere between 12 and 3
BF on waking around 3
17.00 Tea
19.00 Last feed before bed.

At 10 months I dropped 11ish feed for a snack, at 12 months did same for 3pm feed. Then I swapped out the evening one for cow's milk at 13 months and the morning one at 14 months. Followed almost exactly the same for both DC.

Some babies dont drink much. My daughter never took more than 3 ounces at a feed ever, and she had bottles up until she was a year old.

@MRex yes the problem is baby starts playing around with the teat swirling it around in his mouth . We have tried numerous bottles and teats this is a dr brown one for high palate. The ones that apparently mimic breast he can't feed from at all. I want to switch to formula due to constant fussiness at breast pulling on and off and it has been hard to leave the house at times due to constant feeding ( Baby is doing very well weight wise ( no reflux or anything)

@MRex plays around after 2 ounces maybe4

@MonstranceClock did you end up feeding little and often then? I worry about complexly stopping breastfeeding because I am scared baby will lose weight due to how little formula he takes

@DappledThings very helpful thank you ! At the moment I am scared to cut out these 3 or 4 breastfeeds as I fear baby will lose weight due to not taking anywhere near the 40-54 formula ounces . Health visitor just says he is a big boy and has plenty of fat reserves so he would be ok. I feel this is irrelevant I wouldn't want him to be hungry

Whrn i swapped my dd to formula we just did 6oz bottles 4 feeds a day -
7am
11am
3pm
7pm

If my dd wasn't feeding or didn't want the bottle then i took it away and threw the rest away.

3-4oz is a totally normal amount for a breastfed baby. Many babies just never take more than that.

50oz a seems like a huge amount?

I would offer a feed every 3 hours in the, and try not to associate milk with sleep.

So 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm roughly.
Dreamfeed at 10-11pm before you go to bed.
Maybe one night feed around 3am if necessary but looking to drop this soon.

How much does your baby weigh?

The formula tub recommends 32-35oz a day for a 4-6 month old.

@AbbyHammond I know I thought that she just worked it out from his weight

@AbbyHammond 18 and half pound

@MRex fast flow teats

My five month old has been bottle fed since he was about three weeks old as breastfeeding didn't work out. I carried on doing a morning and evening feed until he was three months, but I don't think he really saw it as food, just comfort. His feeding pattern will be completely different to a breastfed baby as he has five big feeds a day target than feeding little and often.

On average he feeds every three hours and sleeps every two hours. The timings vary, he might have a long sleep which extends the feeding time or get hungry early sometimes, but generally it's about that. He's awake longer as the day goes on... yesterday he skipped his evening nap so was awake five hours (and very grumpy). He has 8oz per bottle, but does have reflux so some of that comes back up. He guzzles it down, no stopping, screams if you try to give him a break. He's following his centile line perfectly and has slept through most nights since about 12 weeks.

If I were you I would just offer 6oz bottles 7 times a day and trust him to take what he needs. It will reduce as you introduce food anyway.

OP whilst I agree to feed if hungry to an extent, hV has recommended an awful lot there.

36 oz in 24 hours is about right at five months, without any breast added on.

I mix fed to six months and she was on about 20 plus breast.

Now weaning and guidelines say about 20 a day but she takes nearer 24.

I think the confusion for me with formula was to not treat it as a snack like you do with BF. So a day would be
Bottle on wake say 7 am 6oz
11 6 oz
3 6 oz
7 6 oz
10 6 oz
Night 6 oz.

But som Babis will take bigger bottles, and go longer between. DD wouldn't ever take more than the six. Yours may only be taking four because if you are still BF baby is never really that hungry. That's certainly the mistake I made initially.

It kind of sounds like you’re having the same issue with bottles as breastfeeding, he’s just having little feeds often and it’s a pita..

I’d stop offering him feeds so often tbh, whichever method you’re going with. He can’t be starving if he’s fed recently, distract him, start ekeing the feeds out more...

Hi - my DD is 4 months old and bottle fed. Her usual routine is 4 or 5 x 6oz bottles a day.

4am
9am
2pm
7pm - bedtime
10.30pm (not always)

She doesn't really have a fixed nap routine, just as and when she needs to and this is not based on when she feeds.

@tabulahrasa that's what I mean, much better put by you. I was trying to offer formula whenever I thought she was hungry but she was never empty or needing an actual full feed. If you eek it out and get onto a three or four hourly pattern the ounces then follow. I don't know how many bottles I made up and threw away after she took maybe an ounce.