Stopped breastfeeding after 1 week - how much formula and how often?

[Momummy]

Im a new mum and had a terrible time breastfeeding so have switched to Aptamil. Is 90mls every 2-3 hrs too much? He finishes the lot (in about 15 minutes..burp every 30 mls) but does bring back up quite a bit. Was crying constantly last night so have also given him infacol. Am I doing the right thing?

Aptamil made my dd very windy. She started having the odd bottle about 3-4 weeks. She was very windy in general though.
Are you using the correct size teat? That sounds quite fast to me but mine was very very slow at feeding. I expressed the odd bottle to give her in the first few weeks and at just over a week I remember her having 2-2.5 oz of the 3 oz I had expressed for her.
Do you mean are you doing the right thing by switching to formula? Only you can know this, you and the baby's father are ultimately the only ones that can make that decision.
If you do decide to go back to bf the quicker you decide that the easier it will be to reestablish milk supply.

i would keep offering it every 2 hours during the day and revert to "demand" feeding at night. What flow teat are you using. If he is taking it too fast that might be the reason he is bringing it back up. Possiting is normal (a small productive burp) but if he is vomiting after every feed then i would probably speak to the HV or GP about possible reflux.

As to volume, every babies appetite is different. My DD is a big eater but my friends little girl is completely different. Both a doing just fine.

My DD had soem Aptamil durings weeks 1-3 while we were establishing BF - she always sicked a lot of it up, not sure why, she is not sicky on the breast, maybe dif formlua or bottle is the way to go?

We were advised by the health visitor and BF clinich that to work out how much your baby needs, multiply their weight in pounds by 2.5 to get the number of ounces they need in a day, then divide this by the number of feeds in a day. For example, a 10lb baby would need 25 ounces divided by, say, 8 feeds (if feeding roughly every 3 hours) and you get 3 ounces per feed. It's normally advisable to make an extra ounce or two per bottle in case they are hungrier at a particular feed.

I would still speak to your health visitor about how much they need though and how often to feed. Newborns need fed pretty regularly.

Formula babies also need fed on demand, but you may find that they settle into a predictable routine (our baby was fairly predictable at wanting fed roughly every 3 hours when she was very small). Or they may not! If you read their cues and know that they've just been winded/changed/just woken up etc and still grumbly chances are that they're hungry.

It also sounds like you might be using a fast teat - use a slow flow one to start with so they're not gobbling it down too much or too fast.

Hope you get on ok :)

PS - this is just a starting point - you will figure out how often and how much your baby wants at each feed soon enough, but like I said, have a chat with your health visitor too

At that age my son was taking 60ml 7-8 times a day.

Thanks everyone. Should have said baby is almost 9lbs so think between 3 and 4 ozs should be ok. I checked the tommy tippee teat and it's number one so think this is slow flow (it's the smallest bottle). I'll talk through with the midwife tomorrow but today has been a bit better. Thank you for your support - first time I've posted and was so chuffed to get so many useful responses :o)

The slow flow tommee tippee teats were too slow for my dd she had to go onto the number 2 teats straight away as she was really struggling to get anything out. When we switched to the number 2 teats she really got the hang of it and was taking about 4oz every 3-4 hours. She was 6lb 10oz at birth.