Am I using the right formula?

[Piercy]

Hi

I have a DS just under 2 weeks old, his first 6 days were spent in SCBU oxygen, infection, and feeding through a tube.

We managed to get him up to about 70-80ml per feed in a bottle before we were allowed home, and I'm doing a mixture of both FF and Expressed.

However now we find that he needed more so up'd the amount of mild to 100ml and all OK at first now however, he takes about 60ml and falls asleep (we did struggle with this in hospital) however it doesn't matter what you do - change nappy, blow on face, undress him he wont' wake up to take the remainder of his bottle.

He then naps and about an hour later wants the rest then an hour or so later wants more food and so the whole cycle begins again.

Neither is satisfying him breast or normal infant formula, the flow of the teat is right as he is not struggling to suckle milk through teat.

I'm wondering if I should move him to hungrier baby milk that way he can fall asleep but had a full feed - not sure any advise to a very frustrated and worried mother would be very gratefully received.

Thanks

Not sleeping is normal newborn behaviour. Hungry baby formula contains starches babies can't digest, its not suitable for even healthy newborns imo. Stick with the standard formula and ebm, if he needs more an hour later, feed him an hour later, babies have tiny stomachs.

Have you spoken to the midwife if you haven't been discharged yet? Either that or your health visitor, they are very good with feeding advice. If he's putting in weight and you have plenty of wet nappies though, not sure you'd need to go on to the hungry baby stuff and I personally would want a healthcare professional to agree that the hungry baby formula was right before trying it. Do remember they only have tiny stomachs, and certainly my first was feeding that frequently and that kind of amount first couple of weeks. Definitely speak to someone in RL.

Piercy, 60 mls at a time sounds about right for many new babies....where is the insistence on 100 mls at a time coming from? Trying to keep him awake when he wants to sleep does not work and is upsetting for you - why would you not let him sleep? Has someone told you he shouldn't sleep?

Two hourly feeding is easily on the normal spectrum at this age.

Hungry baby formula is normally not thought suitable for newborns.

Hope you can get some good help from someone who understands the situation.

Hi

We were told by the hospital however came home and midwife contradicted everything we were told in hospital - health visitor came today and she just said feed when he wants for now as we think he is also suffering badly from wind causing him to snack - this made sense and things are better today.

Sorry paranoid 1st time mum - but got some answers today and a better day than yesterday!

Thank you

P

In that case may I recommend Gripe water for when he gets to four weeks, you can give it to him whenever he shows symptoms of wind and it tastes reasonably pleasant. Infacol has a nasty synthetic orange taste and you have to give it to them before they feed. When you wind sit him upright or over your shoulder and rub his back in circles starting lower back to ease it up. I find patting ineffective. Sorry if you know all this! My ds suffered terribly with wind.