Another Am I feeding too much/is this normal post

[islandbaby]

DS is 14 weeks, 15th percentile weight, 50th length.

I have been exlusively ebm feeding him up until last week, he now has two formula feeds a day because I can't keep up with him anymore.

He eats 7oz breastmilk/formula milk every three hours, including through the night (though occasionally we might get lucky and he does 4 hours once).

It seems to be just SO MUCH food, especially when on here I read the average is 26oz a day, and the formula boxes say he should only be taking 5oz five times a day.

He's eating between 50 and 56!!!

I really can't see how he needs this much food at night, especially, but he has no problem chugging the bottle down, (I never force him back to it if he's wriggling his head around or struggling to swallow) then settling back to sleep. He rarely vomits, doesn't burp much, but does fart a lot (which disturbs his sleep).

I'm probably silly for worrying, it just seems like so much more than any one else ever talks about their baby eating, and I'm gutted I just couldn't keep up with expressing that much!

thanks

Are you only expressing bm?

If you were bfing from source you wouldn't know how much they were getting.

DD was still feeding at least every 2hrs day and night at 7 months. Every 3hrs or longer sounds like ages to me. So it's not that extreme tbh.

Babies are very good at self regulating you know. And he's not exactly overweight by the sounds of it...

That does seem like a lot TBH as an ebf baby would be consuming between 600ml & 1L (20-33oz) from 1-6 months.

Are you using a slow teat or one he has to work at to get the milk out?

Yes, we only just went from newborn size 1 to size 2 (1+ month)

it's driving me crazy, i need sleep

My dd2 is 23 weeks and feeds every three hourly with one four hour sleep at night so it sounds about right :)!she is exclusively breastfed.

sorry so is it all bottles (expressed and formula).

If so, it is the method of bottle feeding (not the contents) that can lead to over eating. To make sure DD didn't have too much expressed milk we used to pre determine the amount. We found she always finished the bottle regardless of how much was there, but she wouldn't cry for more afterwards. If she did, then she was offered more. Also if you google 'how to bottlefeed the BF baby' I found those tips helped to slow down the feed giving her time to (i) realise she was full and (ii) not being in a position where she had no choice but to have lots of milk.

Actually www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/bottle-feeding.html here are some links The second one has a bit of faff at the top but if you keep with it there is some good info further down.

DD was another every 2 hourly, every 3 hourly in itself is fine. If your tired does DH do any of the feeds

ds1 was bf and fed every two hours for 25 mins each time until he was 10mos, when i decided it was really more important i got some sleep.

i think it sounds fine.

Hey. Yes, it's bottle feeding almost all the time, ebm or ff. I guess it's not so unusual, it's just tha my DH usually does the night stuff, but he's out of the country now for a few months, so I am on my own.

It just seems crazy that he will still wake and take more food 2 or 3 hours after draining 7oz!

He does tend to just finish whatever is in the bottle, and I used to only give him 5oz at a time, but I hoped upping to 7oz would fill him up with calories and help him sleep. Obviously it didn't work, and now if I give him less than 7oz he screams his little buddha face off.

If he's 15th for weight and 50th for length, he certainly isn't overweight.

Like rita said your ds certainly is not overweight. If he is hungry then feed him. Imo at this age , babies only eat for hunger and not for pleasure etc so unlikely that you are over feeding him.
Does he vomit much after feeds? Obviously this would be a sign that he is taking more than he needs.

Have you tried resting him for a couple of minutes halfway through a feed so his brain time to register he has eaten? If he still wants the rest of the bottle then it is genuine hunger.
Sounds perfectly normal to me.
My ds is almost 16 weeks and has 5 feeds a day and takes around 6-7oz per feed. Not sure what centile he is on but definitely more than 15 th