My son wants to be fed every hour or hour an half. Is that normal?

[Beoley2011]

My son is 5 and half months old and he wants to have about 3-4 oz milk every hour or hour and half. Is this normal? I?ve asked so many ?professionals? health visitors etc. And their answer was a smile and a question: ?first child?? which is not very helpful. I think they forgot that once they had first child as well. If I was breast feeding it would be so much easier, but my son refused to breastfeed when he was born. So I have to bottle feed. It seems that all my time goes on making bottles and feeding him. I usually make up 7-8 oz and keep it for a couple hours, so when he is hungry he can have some milk.
This may sound funny to other people and would ask ?first child?? But could somebody tell me please is this normal or I suppose to force him to eat every 3 and 4 hours?

is this your first child?? KIDDING!

yes its normal - feed on demmand and don't worry about it - i would wager he's going through a big growth spurt and everything is just fine.

if he's ok in himself, lots of wet nappies, sleeping, jolly and content when he's awake then everything sounds good.

fwiw its bloody unhelpful when HV say things like that. not to mention patronising - surely its a good sign if a new mum asks lots of questions - of course it is!

Have you read the NHS guidelines on ff? Iirc it says you must make the bottles with 70C water to kill the bugs in the formula. But once made up you can store them in the fridge for 24 hours. Would it help if you make and wash bottles in bulk so you can do it only once or twice a day?

also if he's 5.5 months you can wean in a few weeks anyway - then the washing up goes off the scales but you know- variety!

Thanks for the quick replies. I think I had lot more help from Mumsnet than from the health visitors. I didn?t have much help at all about bottle feeding or how to make the bottles up properly either so I use the NHS guidelines and I do follow them when I make up the bottles, not the instructions on the box. I think they should put that on the box about the 70C water. I actually bought a thermometer for cooking to check the temperature, as 30 min cooling time can be too long depending on how much water you put in the kettle.

How bloody rude of HVs to be so smug!

I would totally go with the demand feeding that you are doing so well - I think it's a real temptation when formula feeding to try to stuff them full so they go a bit longer, and instead you are doing a fab job of being led by your baby on this.

FWIW although guidelines recommend an ideal situation of a fresh bottle per feed (or whatever it is), in your situation I would probably do the acceptable-but-not-ideal of making 3-4 small bottles in one go (with water at correct temp etc) so you have 4-6 hours' worth in the fridge.

agree with hopefully - and yes, the demmand feeding pattern sounds pretty good to me!