Hungry baby, help.

[Lolarose999]

Sorry, posting for traffic as I'm exhausted and not sure what to do.

DS is 5 weeks old and is never content after a feed. At the moment, he drains 5oz bottles every 2 hours, and cries for more. I do try the usual distraction methods, like dummies, toys, walks, and constant pacing the halls. I'm not sure if this amount is too much? It's worth noting he isn't sick and keeps this amount down. Does anyone have any experience with hungry baby milk? His constant cries for feeds is taking over my day and I'm a walking zombie.

I thought you were supposed to feed on demand and not to a schedule, regardless if breast or bottle feeding?

When my daughter was tiny, she'd get through up to 9oz per feed! She was a hungry baby.

One thing that did help was the MAM Anti Colic Bottles. They leak everywhere and a pain to clean, but well worth it!

Of course, happy to update! We did take him to the GP and was fobbed off.

After alot of research, we switched him to Hipp Organic regular baby milk which made the world of difference. In the end, I stopped listening to what the HV advised me to feed him, and fed him on demand. Regardless of that being 4or 8! He soon gre out of it and he's a happy 25lb 10month old

Grew *

Thanks for coming back! Did you have any back arching or planking as a result of still being hungry? Was he ok to wind?

From what I remember, he would do that yes. But was never sick, just seemed constantly starving. But, did improve once swapped to Hipp Organic. Have you seen a doctor? It was tough those for few months, but I'd definitely say feed on demand or use a dummy if you think he's not hungry/silent reflux.

@Lolarose999 - if he’s draining the bottle at every feed, he needs more milk. Hopefully that will settle him down.

This is an old thread, just commenting to help the poster above :)

@Lolarose999 - sorry: i missed that your original post was from June 2023. Good for you for taking action and sorting it. One thing I learnt very quickly as a new mum (19 years ago…) is that there are no “one size fits all” rules. Glad to hear he’s thriving now!

Is baby settled for at least an hour after feeds, or constantly unsettled?

If never really settled, I would consider silent reflux or Cows Milk Protein Intolerance (CMPA). My oldest fed pretty much constantly, but didn't gain weight. Turned out she had CMPA and wasn't absorbing any nutrition from the milk, and appeared constantly hungry as was 'Comfort feeding'. Are their poos ok, any ezcema etc?

Some babies are just very hungry. I remember my son shouting at me while I ate when he was almost 5 months so I started him on yoghurt and croissants the next week.

@Bushmillsbabe it's really hit and miss! Sometimes he is, other times not! Or he will appear to be then all of a sudden decide to scream! He's like 0-60!

We thought he was unsettled cause he had trapped wind so we've been giving him infacol which helps get the wind up but still he can be fussy.

I have actually seen my GP and straight away he said he had allergy and prescribed Neocate but at first I wasn't convinced so we've not given him it yet. HV thinks he's still hungry and that's why he's screaming. She was round yesterday where he ended up guzzling 8oz but after that was very settled and fell asleep. Same happened today after he had 7oz. But I just can't get over giving so much to a young baby! That's why I'm wondering if he is comfort eating cause of silent reflux which is a symptom of allergy.

He's gaining weight lovely, never sick and he tends to just have one poo a day, which is on the watery side though I've read that can be common with kendamil organic which is what he's on.

This! Hungry baby milk is nonsense.

@Strawberry06 ours was so hungry, gained lots of weight, never sick, never happy, terrible sleeper, wind, bit better for Infacol. it turned out to be cmpa, she was so much better in every way once off dairy and soya. I'd suggest it's worth trying the allergy milk from the GP just in case.

@FTMbg oh really! Hmm he does sleep well during the night though and is content 'sometimes' though it only ever seems to be fit a short while. Otherwise sounds exactly like my son. I'm really wondering if he has CMPA now.

Did you see instant results when you switched to new milk? And which one?

I just breastfed so eventually tried cutting out milk&soya from my diet which they say can take a couple of weeks to work but there was a positive lasting difference straight away to skin sleep and happiness. I didn't realise and do it til nearly 18 months though when eczema was worsening (it started on introducing solid food). I hear there are a couple of different allergy formulas GPs can try so worth experimenting , many struggle with soya as well as milk. There are some helpful FB groups.

I always post on these threads now as I wish I'd worked it out earlier when I had a "colic"/"reflex" baby who was crying up to 8 hours a day, with red face, arching back, and feeding up to another 8 hours a day to start with. She fed for comfort so it was initially this awful cycle of feed till she briefly sleeps, then she wakes and screams in pain, feed again. She went from 50th centile at birth to 90s pretty quickly. We did twig after a while that the "hunger" again soon after feeding was her sucking to soothe pain so introduced a dummy and learned a million winding techniques, used Infacol, did things like angling cot/sleeping in a pushchair when a bit older, and she did gradually learn to sleep through the pain a bit but was never happy, couldn't tolerate tummy time, she was so much better once the dairy/soya went.