To demand feed not schedule feed?

[SleepingStandingUp]

Even if it means they drink more than they "should"?

Twins are 12 weeks and about 14lb 7.

They take 5 oz / 150 ml every 3 hours. Sometimes it's more like 4oz /120 ml so they probably lose 5oz over the course of the day.

Every 3 hours they'll start crying and they stop when I feed them.

DH thinks I'm over feeding them and when they cry they're really hungry and I should wait or stop feed earlier.

So am I making my babies too fat and I should limit them to the guideline volumes or is she bu

The HV will tell you to feed on demand. My baby wasn't a sicky baby but one of my friends had a proper puker - vom, wail for food, feed, vom - and the advice given to her was also to feed on demand even if the baby was sick afterwards (no allergies, just a vommy baby). Babies and toddlers balloon outwards then get longer/taller, that's how they grow.

Honestly your husband would find this out for himself if he did some really basic research instead of making you feel miserable

My dd is 15 weeks and feeds 6oz every 3 hours. Sounds normal to me.

Every 3 hours sounds about right in terms of frequency at their age. Volume is really baby spefic and no two are the same.

You could monitor for a few weeks, you might find it plateaus, and they have regular growth spurts in these early months too that require more food.

Are they sleeping ok?

My DD cluster fed for the first 3 months. I expressed when I could and was expressing a LOT (one of the midwives who visited PP was seriously surprised as many women who express can't express a 5th of what I was ) each time, so she must have been eating a lot.
She grew quickly too.
As long as baby's are content feed them as much as they want.

What utter dick told you to schedule feed? Demand, you cannot impose a feeding schedule on tiny babies.

Schedule feeding hasn’t been recommended in yonks.

Your babies will also have times where they want milk more frequently that what they are having now- that’s also normal.

I think it sounds like you and your partner would benefit from a sit down with a HV.

I think demand feed is the recommended way now isn't it, you might get the odd old fashioned HV who suggests a 4 hour schedule but most these days just go with feeding a baby if it's hungry

As long as it’s just breast or formula, I don’t see how you can overfeed a baby that age. They feed until they’ve had enough.

There’s a very good reason why babies are typically chubby. If they get sick, they can lose weight alarmingly quickly. My Gds was a real roly-poly when very little , but he was then in hospital with a bad case of bronchiolitis and lost a good bit of it very quickly.

He put it back on and is now a normally slim 3 year old.
They nearly always lose the chub quite quickly when they start running around anyway.

Please don’t worry about how many ml they’re having. There is no ‘right’ amount, since babies are not all the same - some are hungrier than others. . FWIW I remember a nephew at only about 2 months wanting 2 full 8 oz bottles at a time! He grew into a perfectly slim and very healthy child and adult.

I've no idea how anyone manages to schedule feed what do they do for the hour the babies screaming for the milk??? You are doing the right thing. I think parenting is one of the few area where mners popular "tell him to do it then" doesn't fit. You will both have different ideas based on your own childhood, rules/guidelines change ect you need to find what works best for you as a couple to decide which path is best to take - maybe reading the guidelines together as you reach each milestone may help, talking to hv together etc. I don't think my oldest lost that pop out tummy till he was about 2 and he was perfect weight.
I bf for 2mths but had to switch to formula with my now 1month old. Before weaning started he fed approx every 3hrs in daytime around 5oz then he cluster fed early evening having between 10 and 12 oz between 6pm and 8pm he did/does sleep 8 till 630 most nights though. Disclaimer: just had 2 mths of night waking first really bad cold/cough then cutting 2 teeth.

*10month old

Schedule feeding is horrendous! You feed on demand. as PP said, you can't make milk fed babies fat - baby tummies are supposed to look like that.

I would be wanting your partner to have some serious education/therapy before he gives your children image complexes and/or eating disorders down the line with that kind of arsehole "you're making them fat" mentality.

If scheduled feeds worked we’d have a firm word with babies about nothing after 10 or before 6 n all sleep fantastically..

Not have a tiny hungry banshee.

3 hours is normal, they’ll eventually go a bit longer... when? That’s a complete mystery. Round bellies are also normal, babies don’t have six pack abs.

Just tell him to shut it or sleep with his hearing aids in? Surely there’s a way he can take on a few night feeds... or evening feeds and he can miss his dinner.

Ignore your ignorant husband.

If you did wait until they were really hungry, they'd drink so fast that they swallowed loads of air and then scream all night with wind.

Three hours is completely normal.

I'm a sahp. My husband has a job. He also shockingly does night feeds.

Feed on demand, lovely wee normal chubby tummy

I thought schedule feeding went out years ago.
I had my children in the 90s and feeding on demand was definitely recommended then - at least for the first few months. Sometimes they'd go for 4 hours between feeds. Sometimes they'd go for 30 minutes!

I remember my mother used to say things like 'oh it's time for the 6 o' clock feed' but my siblings and I were all born in the 1960s when that was normal.

I always fed on demand, why would anybody wait half an hour to feed a hungry screaming baby so they keep to a feeding schedule.

Feed on demand. You can’t tell babies they aren’t hungry for goodness sake. I demand fed both of mine, only my eldest liked two hour feeds for months!

What a cute squidgy tum.

Of course you're not BU.

I second the poster who said amounts are guidelines not absolutes.

If it helps, my LO was the hungriest baby I've ever known (health visitor and midwife said the same!) and I got really paranoid about over feeding at one point because for his pre-bed bottle he would honestly sometimes take between 10-14oz if I let him. It was ridiculous! He also used to have a big tummy after a feed.

I worried about it to my DH who fortunately was far more relaxed and just pointed out that he always did eventually stop when he'd had enough and suggested just going with the flow.

Sure enough, he's now 98th percentile for both height and weight, chubby but not fat and incredibly active. His milk intake has dropped down since starting solids (which he also guzzles down!)

Some babies are just hungry growers early on. I think it's fine so long as you're not forcing them to have more when they turn their heads away etc. If they're crying for more and are content once fed, just feed them!

Did you have to be taught how to manage your first, because of health issues?
It's completely different with healthy babies.
He's been fed since birth. He took bottles from 9 weeks til 4 months when he became orally averse and he didn't drink again until 2.5 years.

Ask your DH if he is hungry at regular times every single day with no deviation whatsoever. Breakfast 730, snack 1030, lunch 130 etc.

We all eat different amounts at eat meal and feel hungry at different times. Babies are no different!

You could monitor for a few weeks, you might find it plateaus
Tbf it's been 5oz 3 hourly for the last 6 weeks
Are they sleeping ok? meh. Hit and miss in the day, OK at night apart from waking 3 hourly, and they struggle to settle after the 5am feed

Your baby looks perfect ( and gorgeous! ) All babies tummies look like that till after they are toddlers!

Please get your OH to speak to the HV.

Does he have an issue with weight?

As long as you are pacing the feed (search "paced feeding" - it should be difficult to overfeed even with bottles. Make sure you not up ending the bottle & letting the baby drink so fast that their tummy doesn't have time to register how full it is. Take some time over it, pause every couple of ounces to wind etc. Check with a dummy that it isn't just that they want to suck for comfort.

But absolutely demand feed!

Then I think they sound completely normal (if not good!) little feeders. they've settled into a nice little routine. The 5 am being unsettled is so common, I was told it's due to the digestive system starting to get going and their body clocks starting to regulate. At that weight though you might find they could stomach a bigger night/dream feed (10:30 pm) that might see them through to 5 or 6 am. I wouldn't worry about that though, it's trial and error at 12 weeks, just do what keeps them happy, fed and comforted.

Are you getting them weighed with HV? Every 3/4 weeks will give you reassurance that they're following a steady line x