Am I feeding my formula fed baby incorrectly?

[user2233]

AIBU to now think I'm feeding my baby incorrectly?

Hi,

I had my baby at 37w2d and she weighed 2810g at birth. She's now almost 8 weeks (tomorrow).

I've included her weight chart for reference.

Up until the last two days I've been feeding her 2oz every two hours but it seems as though recently she's been wanting more as she's finishing her feed completely and crying for more straight after. I'm trying to now up her feeds to 3oz but my issue is she's still wanting to be fed every 2 hours. Surely 3oz every 2 hours can't be correct for her weight?

Background information:

She has a suspected CMPA and is currently drinking prescribed milk m

@Obimumkinobi How many Oz was your baby drinking every two hours if you don't mind me asking?

Although the baby's stomach is the size of a walnut, the milk passes through into the intestines gradually, so the baby doesn't end up with five ounces of milk just sitting in its stomach!

Following on from everyone's responses I decided to make her 4oz bottles. I've kept a log of how often she feeds and how much she drinks.

I've attached it.

Does this seem normal?

Hi OP your baby weighs slightly more than mine 8lb, 7 weeks corrected age and your latest post is similar to what my Dd would take she feeds every 3 hours and takes between 3.5-4.5oz.

OP, firstly you are doing FANTASTIC! It is bloody hard to work out feeding measurements and at this early stage you are still working out your baby's cues

What you've just uploaded seems great. But I wouldn't take any notice of what people's views are online

The most important question is: does you baby seem content at the end of the bottle? Does she stop feeding herself (ie as she's had enough rather than milk being taken away from her?). If she cries and seems upset and it's been more than a couple of hours since her last feed, offer her some milk and if that settles her then she's probably hungry. Try and make sure she's upright and burped after a feed especially with the prescribed formula.

And enjoy those lovely newborn naps in your arms-binge on some Netflix and soak up those early windy smiles

Paced feeding means how you feed the baby the bottle, pacing it rather than just tipping it into the baby with no break. You can look it up on YouTube, baby needs to be held a bit upright, frequent breaks from the bottle, leaving a gap at the teat not having milk flowing non stop at the baby’s mouth. It stops them “guzzling” it when they’re not really guzzling, but are trying to keep up with the constant milk flowing into their mouth which they can’t stop.

It’s so conflicting when you have a newborn. You are begging for someone to come in and say “so they weigh X that means feed them X amount every whatever hours”, the only answers you get are super vague - the frustration is TERRIBLE!

I would probably say don’t try and read google and the likes too much and get to know your baby - I found the more I read, the more it impeded my “motherly instincts”. Like an info overload. If the baby is hungry they’ll let you know, if she’s full she’ll pull away from the bottle. Just give her little burp breaks between every 1-2oz and let her digest, then carry on feeding and see how she goes. Hopefully if baby takes a bigger bottle and goes longer between feeds you can have a bit of a breather because feeding every 2 hours must be killing you.

Ds was breastfed, but he fed every 90min-2hr for about 6-9months! So I don’t think there’s anything wrong with feeding every 2hrs. Ds was 4kg born (almost 9lb)

As far as I understand it you can only overfeed a FF baby if you’re not following paced feeding (which refers to how you’re holding the bottle when feeding, rather than the length of times between feeds) as their natural suck reflex means they’ll continue feeding past the point of fullness.

I remember the confusion of feeding with DC1.

Ive had 3 now. My experience has taught me to follow the baby not the conflicting advice. Babies will generally stop eating when full. If they are too full they will sick some up, that’s all. You can tell when they are hungry, I never woke for feeds or followed a chart. Sometimes they needed fed ‘too soon’ after a feed, sometimes they will go a little longer but once you pick up the ques it’s easy to tell! With one of mine he would eat a little bit, have a break and then finish the bottle. It’s all fine!

Honestly don’t overcomplicate it too much 🙂

I would say relax a bit op.

My DD 8 weeks, was only 6lb5 at birth and is now having up to 4oz, sometimes a tiny bit more sometimes less. I feed her when she is hungry, not ‘every x hours’ and give her what she wants at the time. She is doing great.

Health visitors know nothing about CMPA.

Both my kids were on nutramigen for cmpa. My eldest was a vomiter, as in would projectile vomit after a feed. My youngest was sicky too but not as much.

I always just followed the guide on the back of the tin. Always fed on demand rather than on a timer. I always made 1oz more than what they usually took - so if they were drinking 4oz I made 5oz and so on.

Both my kids followed their growth curve perfectly.

Is it nutramigen you are using?

But a full breast feed is about 5oz - 7oz so that isn't comparable.

Hi yes that looks normal!! Looks like she is a grazer rather than a guzzler- has a meal and then comes back for a snack after!
I think offering 4oz per feed is ideal, even if there is some wastage.

@TheShellBeach - yes that’s what I meant. If a full breastfeed is approx 5-7oz, Ds still had that every 90mins-2hr for months and months. Feeding that often is very normal. I wouldn’t expect an 8week old if formula fed to suddenly have to go to 3-4hr gaps, regardless of oz amount

Pretty sure she should be on 3oz at 8 weeks

The bottle fed baby is much more likely to last four hours between feeds is he's given five ounces.

3oz, which obviously went up as they grew.
You sound like you've got it under control. Good luck!