Feeding

[shaz225]

Hello i am just looking for advice, my baby boy is 14 weeks old and currently weighs 14 pound 15 oz. He sleeps for 11 or 12 hours and has been doing so since he was about 10 weeks old, he has always fed every 4 hours and was having 6 oz bottles because he is sleeping all night he has been having 4 bottles in 24 hours most days sometimes he will have 5 bottles if he wakes up earlier. I had him weighed on Thursday and the health visitor told me to try and give him a 5th bottle and feed him every 3 hours. I have tried this before when i was worried he wasn't feeding enough and he was just sick a lot. My mum told me to take no notice as he is thriving. He was 9 pound 8 oz born and on the 91st percentile and is now on the 75th, the health visitor made me feel like i was doing something wrong! I have put him on 7 oz bottles now and he seems ok but he is still only having 4 bottles. Any advice?

If he's not hungry and is thriving if arty on as you were tbh. Some will drink more some will drink less than what yet in says. No need to feed til they are sick just to please a HV who doesn't even know him :)

I'd carry

iPhone is fucked

What the tin says

He is my first baby and was worried i wasn't feeding him enough even though he is gaining weight! hate the way HV make you feel like crap. Thank you xx

They said the same thing to me with dd2. But her weight gain had been poor due to illness. It ended up with a ridiculous "snacking" schedule that resulted in less milk being consumed than if I'd just let her eat when she was hungry.

Lasted about 2 days :o

Think I'm going to agree with the HV sorry. Your baby should be roughly having 2.5 ounces of formula per pound of weight per day. So a 15 pound baby should be having roughly 37.5 floz of first stage formula per day. There's some more info here

Are you giving him first stage formula? Have you tried offering smaller bottles more often?

Personally, I'd also try to introduce a dream feed.

Please don't ignore your HV she's flagged this up as he's dropped down the centiles.

He isn't taking a lot for a baby this age and while he may not be able to take more in the day. Adding a dream feed would be a good idea. Yes some babies are slew gainers but it is something to keep an eye on.

How are you getting on today shaz? Did you read the Dr Sears information? Have you decided what you want to do?

Forgot to say, sleeping 12 hours a day isn't a sign he's full. Hungry babies can be very sleepy too.

My ds was overcooked by 2 weeks & dropped down the centiles over time a bit, until he found his level, then hitting a fairly decent curve. I'd listen to the hv, but at the end of the day they'll eat what they'll eat & you can only do so much.
Feed when they're hungry & always make it up so they leave some in the bottle, they shouldn't be draining it dry. Stick to regular formula.

Dream feeding didn't work for us, but give it a go. Ds would go to sleep at 7pm, we'd wake & feed before we went to bed. He'd then sleep through till about 7am. That's how we got the fifth bottle in.