Bottle fed baby wants feeding every three hours

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My wonderful 8wk old DD is bottlefed. She wants feeding every two and a half to three hours - is that normal? What is normal?! Sometimes she'll go four hours at night but not v often. She's having 120ml of formula.

She also doesn't sleep much at all in the day, or for that long at night. Are they connected?

mine werent ff but should still apply. youre doing really well. it took dd about 3 months to go that long between feeds. i was told to every 3-4hrs but on demand if she wanted more frequently. when theyre tiny they feed little and often and ime sleep is the same.
all sounds good to me and congratulations!

I have formula fed 3 children from birth and have fed all of them on demand. All 3 of mine were being fed every 2.5 - 3 hours at 8 weeks. I've had one brilliant sleeper, one dreadful sleeper and one in between. I've never felt there was a connection between their feeding and sleeping. Congratulations!

Babies have tiny stomachs and feeds are food, drink and snacks to them - think about how often you have a cuppa or a snack during the day, your stomach is a lot bigger than an 8 week olds!

Feed baby when she is hungry. At that age they are growing a lot and milk is only liquid, it goes through them quickly. So feed baby when she wants.

DD was fully ff by one month and didn't go more than 3 hours between feeds during the day until she started dropping feeds once weaned. Its also normal for them to wake as often at night at this age. Feeding four hourly is considered outdated now, unless the baby falls into a four hourly routine naturally.

no experience of FF but my EBF daughter fed every 90 mins to 2hrs day and night til about 12 weeks so I'd say 3 hrs is a long time for a tiny person

Thank you all for such supportive advice! I've been feeling such a failure thanks to my mother in law telling me she should be on a four hour schedule by now.

Ah Mother-in-law advice ------> bin

Seriously I never had a feeding schedule with my 3 until I was weaning them, even now at 7, 4 years and 16 months they eat when they eat [shrug]

Sounds about right to me. although we used to offer her, maybe 180ml , she would drink 160ml, so that would be what we made up for a few weeks. THen if she wasn't going for long between feeds a few weeks later we would make it up to 200ml, she would drink 180ml, and that would be the offer. We found she always needed more than the recomended amount that was on the tin.

Hi OP, I think 2-3 hours is fine for a young baby! I was feeding my DS every 3 hours, but I'm stretching it back to every 4 hours now he's 6 months old and having three solid meals a day.

It's better to just feed them than have them crying in hunger and trying to stick to too tight a schedule (not saying that is what you're doing btw!). Aim for every 3 hours and when your LO is finishing all of the bottles, increase the amount of formula by 1oz or 30mls.

Also I found on the NHS website a good formula for the amount of milk to give 2.5 ounces of milk per pond of baby in 24 hours, so a 10lb baby should be having around 25 ounces of milk a day.

Hope that helps!

P.S. Follow your instincts and you'll be fine.

Hi

My DS was on 2.5 hr feeds until he was 14 weeks old getting him to 3hr feeds was an accomplishment. He's now being weaned and down to 4 bottles a day.

If taking all the bottles up them by an oz see if that makes a difference.

Good luck

She sounds perfect.

God I love mumsnet! Having thought I was doing everything wrong (and being told that) I now feel like I've been doing pretty well! I just want to enjoy our little one rather than feel she 'should' be doing something different.

Hello

My DD was just the same. She would demand to be bottle fed every two to three hours for AGES. In fact I think it was only when she got to about 12 weeks did she start to go for longer, as her tummy got bigger presumably. I was constantly being told she should be on a four hour schedule, right from the first day she was born.

No way would this sit with her!

The whole four hour thing is rubbish and just an attempt at exerting control. I couldn't leave her crying for milk for a whole hour as was suggested by one health visitor. Barbaric. Keep feeding her and gradually upping by an oz. Soon she will go for longer between feeds!

As for night times I found putting her upstairs and making a clear distinction between 'day' and 'night' helped with the sleeping although my little one didn't stop waking for feeds every few hours until she was nearly 1. She is now 2 and half and still wakes in the night for a drink.

Enjoy your fabulous baby!

My LO was fed every 3 hours at that age: 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm with a 1am and 4am feed too.
It was at the age of 16/17 weeks when he went four hourly and fed only once in the night. He 'goes' 7pm to 7am with one feed at 1am (he dropped the 4am) at about 12 weeks.

Hello
I have twins boys who are now 4 months,can you please advice how many ounces they should be drinking and how often if formula milk?