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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

When is the earliest anyone has started baby on solids? V hungry baby.

61 replies

mummy22gorgeousboys · 02/09/2011 21:17

I know 4-6 months tends to be the general rule, but has anyone started earlier? And what did you start with?

I have an insatiable 8 week old. He's on hungry Aptimal milk and feeds every 2-3.5 hours with 4oz. He won't drink any more per feed.

At 7 weeks he weighed 15lb 9oz. He hasn't been weighed this week.

Although I'm not necessarily thinking about putting him on solids just yet, any help, advice or thoughts would be hugely appreciated.

Many Thanks.

OP posts:

MoaningMcMyrtlepants · 02/09/2011 21:23

I was breast feeding dc3 every 1.5/2HRS until he was a week shy of 6 months and then started him with BLW.

girliefriend · 02/09/2011 21:23

TBH he doesn't sound that hungry - sounds about normal to me! Is he following any sort of routine? You might find trying to make him go a bit longer between feeds means he will take more than 4oz iyswim?!

Def no solids yet and I'm not convinced that 'hungry' milk is that much use. Have a chat with hv.

Lougle · 02/09/2011 21:25

If he is 8 weeks old, it is very normal for a baby to still be feeding 2 hourly. I BF mine, but none of them ever went longer than 2.5 hours between feeds until they were starting solids.

4 hours between feeds is a myth, I think.

jocie · 02/09/2011 21:31

at 7 weeks his stomach is still really small so he might juct need to feed little and often.
as for weaning the guidelines say 4-6 months cos the'yve researched it have found that babies stomach are'nt mature enough to handle solids till at least 17 weeks. I know lots of people will say that they were started earlier than that and they've turned out just fine which is all well and good but they hadn't done the research back then. The guidelines are there for a reason. However they are just guidelines and no one can tell you what to do. My advice though would be to wait til at least 17 weeks.

How soon did you move him on to hungry milk as i think this is slightly different to first milk at so it might be that its sitting to 'heavy' on his stomach which might be why he's only taking 4oz. Have you considered moving him back on to first milk to see if he'll drink more of that?

seeker · 02/09/2011 21:35

That's normal for his age!

Georgimama · 02/09/2011 21:41

Sounds completely normal. You cannot give a baby that young solids.

DuelingFanjo · 02/09/2011 21:43

8 weeks is far too young so thank goodness you aren't considering giving him any solids.

I have heard stories of people weaning at 13 weeks which I find incredibly sad. 2-3 hours between feeds sounds normal to me.

heroinahalfshell · 02/09/2011 21:45

Sounds totally normal ???!! I even thought to myself hmmmm that's not much at all!!

When DS was that age he was drinking 6oz bottles every 3.5hrs.

Jojay · 02/09/2011 21:49

I'm no good with quantities but feeding every 2-3 hrs is perfectly normal and par for the course I'm afraid.

I'm very glad you aren't going to give him solids yet - he's far too young.

Why do you give him hungry baby formula? I thought it was for babies who take a full 8oz feed and are still hungry, but are too young to wean.

Alibabaandthe80nappies · 02/09/2011 21:51

That is completely normal.

I do not understand the obsession with trying to leave 4 hours between feeds - do you go that long without any food or drink?

DS2 is 5 months old, I BF him. The longest he goes during the day is about 3 hours. Very often it is 2 hours or less.

Jergens · 02/09/2011 22:22

Think you're right to not start solids yet. Way too young!
My DD was EBF and never went more than 3 hrs between feeds before 6 mos.

ChippingIn · 02/09/2011 22:27

I agree - it sounds normal or less than normal, certainly not excessive. I would also go back to the 'first milk'.

AitchTwoOh · 02/09/2011 22:30

did you know that hungry baby milk doesn't pack more cals in, it just sits in their stomach longer because it's an old-fashioned milk, less processed and the proteins are bigger? (i didn't know that, i should say, but it was explained to me on here).
so what about ditching the hungry baby stuff and he might take on more cals, iykwim? (but actually those timings sound fine).

WoofToYouTooLady · 02/09/2011 23:43

normal and what aitch said

RitaMorgan · 03/09/2011 08:42

Some babies just like to feed little and often! Sounds normal to me too, and I'd drop the hungry baby milk too.

You know that 4-6 months isn't a "general rule" - weaning before 4 months opens your baby up to all kinds of issues, increased risk of infections, intolerances, digestive issues in later life. I think it would be very unfair to expose your baby to the risk of early weaning - wait til 17 weeks minimum, nearer to 6 months is safer.

scarlettsmummy2 · 03/09/2011 08:46

Why don't you put a couple of rusks in his bottle and then make the teat bigger with a earning needle???

Joke, but my mental mil did this and was most annoyed at me refusal too.

Original poster

mummy22gorgeousboys · 03/09/2011 10:24

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

My confusion really is that I too BF my first for 5 months exclusively and he fed roughly every 2 hours until we started weaning.

This formula malarky is a pain. I was under the impression babies went longer on formula between feeds.

Hv advised hungry milk about 4 weeks ago but it doesn't seem to have made any difference tbh. So I will try the first milk again and see if that makes a difference.

But is it still normal for him to need feeding 2-3 hours at night? My friends babies are sleeping through and it's very frustrating to hear. I'm insanely jealous.

I struggled with the tiredness with my first and one of the reasons I decided to bottle feed was so hopefully I wouldn't be as tired and so I'm nore relaxed etc with my now 2 boys. Wish I'd bf now!

Thanks for yopur input girls!

OP posts:

Tyrionlovingyourwork · 03/09/2011 10:33

an old fashioned rule of thumb used to be 12 weeks or 12lbs. I was in the same position as you and the only thing that increased time between feeds was an increase of volume. At this aged my DS vomited if he had too large a volume and so I increased this very slowly.

I can imagine how frustrated you are with tales of other babies sleeping through. Take turns feeding with OH if this is possible.

By the way my DC is a cracking sleeper now and I had to wake him at 8:30.

Love isn't all you need; sleep is x

ChippingIn · 03/09/2011 10:41

He's 8 weeks and you are objecting to feeding through the night? Seriously?

WoofToYouTooLady · 03/09/2011 10:47

also ''sleeping through'' can mean different things to different people

eg your mate's baby is ''sleeping through'' so you imagine 7 til 7 but in reality it's more like 11 - 4

and of course people lie, too.

WoofToYouTooLady · 03/09/2011 10:49

and as you've found the hard way, sleep patterns in young babies isn't necessarily dictated by feeding method

Original poster

mummy22gorgeousboys · 03/09/2011 10:55

ChippingIn I am absolutely not objecting to feeding through the night. Like I said I bf my first every 2 hours or so for five months. I was just under the impression that formula fed babies slept longer, as I've found out - they don't.

I just wanted some more info / advice / input from other ladies.

OP posts:

skrumle · 03/09/2011 11:05

my advice would be to try a different milk. i fed DD on aptimil and looking back it just didn't suit her - i had a HV suggesting weaning to me when she was 8weeks old...

with DS i started using aptimil as top-up but decided to switch to hipp organic as it was cheaper and he was 50/50 breastfeeding. he was soooooo much happier with the hipp, and i wish i'd tried a different brand with DD (i did try hungry baby aptimil with DD which was a disaster).

i was panicked that there was no way we would make it to 16 weeks without weaning (16 weeks was the official advice at the time) but actually she was 17 weeks before we started as she did slow down a bit about 14 weeks.

JiltedJohnsJulie · 03/09/2011 11:37

mummy22 I weaned DS at 16 weeks, the advice then was to wean at 4 months. He was bf and fed often. If anything it made him worse. Filing up their little tummies with pureed fruit and vegetables or a bit of rice that contains hardly any nutrition often makes many babies more hungry, not less.

By the time we had DD the advice had changed to 6 months. If I were you I would try to aim for this as much as possible. DD was so much eaiser to wean. It used to take up to an hour for DS to eat a small amout of puree, DD could scoff a ham sandwich in 5 mins.

There is some information here on why it is best to wait.

Agree with skrumle that maybe a different milk is the answer. My DN was happy on Hipp too.

So sorry too that you've found out the hard way that there are a lot of myths regarding ff and unfortunately so many of them aren't true. There is some information here on solids, formula and sleep.

heroinahalfshell · 03/09/2011 11:41

I agree with what others say about hungry baby formula. We only moved onto that when DS started drinking 9-10oz bottles at 13 weeks...

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