will my bottle fed bub get fat?

[adensmum]

please help! i've been checking out this wonderful site I found but am still very confused! My bub is 12 weeks old and formula fed, has been from 2 weeks old due to being unable to breastfeed, he drinks 180mLs 5 times daily every three hours and sleeps thru the night but latley he cries after i feed him like he is still starving, he will settle after 10 mins or so and i don't know whether to increase his feeds?? people have told me that he will get fat and is just being a gutz but he is a big boy! i am ripping my hair out cause i don't know what to do, i have ppl say to try him on baby rice but after reading this site alot suggest to wait till 6 months PLEASE help

Is he taking significantly more milk a day than the side of tin suggests?
he may be having a growth spurt and want to take extra milk for a few days.
Don't resort to baby rice - first try extra feeds.

And when you do wean, baby rice is foul and you're better off giving him mashed banana or pureed cooked apple.

totally agree with Jessajam. If he was bf, then he would probably increase his feeds himself and you'd never know. I'd add an ounce or two onto each feed and see how it goes if I were you. He won't drink it if he doesn't want/need it. A baby that old can't be greedy, so don't listen to the doom-mongerors about making him "fat". Babies are meant to be chubby, it's beautiful.

IIRC (and it was nearly 6y ago for me) 180ml 5 x day is pretty average. No reason not to try giving him a little more if you think he's hungry. TBH, if he settles after a few minutes then I'm not convinced he is hungry - a hungry baby doesn't generally settle easily. But there's no harm trying - he won't get fat from having an extra bit of milk, and if he doesn't drink it then you know he doesn't need it.

Have you tried changing the teat - maybe he needs a faster or slower one? My children liked slower teats, I suspect they enjoyed the feeding and were frustrated if it was over too soon.

Have you tried giving him a dummy? I know it's a little late (age-wise), but it's amazing what a dummy can do for an unsettled baby. Only be sure you don't allow him to sleep with it in his mouth, as that may cause you sleep problems.

If he cries for 10 mins or so and then settles, is it possible that it could be wind? If so, you could try more energetic winding techniques (lying face down across your forearms, enthusiastic bouncing on your shoulder - have a muslin handy! - etc.). I'm sorry but it's been a long time since I bottle-fed, so I can't remember exact quantities, but remember that every baby is different and you should go by what he is asking for rather than by what it says on the side of the box. If you give him more than he needs, he won't drink it (or will puke it back on you... look out ). Babies are not 'greedy' (not in the way that, say, I am, when I eat a bar of chocolate even though I've eaten lunch and am already full!) - if he's not hungry he won't drink it. Don't worry about him getting fat. Babies often do look podgy at different stages in their development, but it doesn't determine their body-shape for life. My sister was an ENORMOUS baby with huge rolls of flab on her arms and legs, who never crawled and didn't walk till she was 18 months as she was just too heavy for her own legs. She is now a leggy six-footer who has trouble finding trousers SMALL enough for her around the waist!

Too slow! I agree with everyone else!

the recommended amount is 2 - 2.7 oz per pound of the baby's weight up until they start solids and the amount of milk needed decreases.

nope!

all 3 of mine were bottle fed they are in their 30's and all slim

stop worrying

the advice i got for bottle feeding was to completely ignore the side of the pack and to make sure that the baby never drained the bottle. so yes, we do make up more than we need but it means that if dd is hungry she can keep feeding more than we would consider 'usual' and not take much if she doesn't want to. it's the closest thing to bf-ing on demand and allows dd to regulate her own appetite properly. she really surprises me, i must say, sometimes she's ravenous and takes loads (does occasionally drain a bottle but we always have more ready) and sometimes hardly anything. we also don't put the teat in he mouth but let her move towards it to indicate that she really wants it. i mix-fed for 17 weeks so it was the only way to do it, and i am happy that we did. she's now doing baby led weaning and loving it. good luck.

Hi

180mls of milk doesn't seem a lot to me. My Ds was having full 9oz bottles and every 3 hours at this age and he certainly isn't overweight!
He was a big baby at birth too at 9lb 12 oz. I think it depends on how big they are, nap times, if they sleep through the night etc.

Could it be that he is tired? When you say settle do you mean goes to sleep or just being happier?You could try giving him an extra ounce or like others have said maybe he has a little wind, espaecially if he has a fast flow teat and is guzzling milk down quickly!

Baby rice is awful stuff, I wouldn't recommend it!

thankyou for all the great advice, yes i was going off the side of the tin which was why i was so worried, plus I had my father in law in my ear saying that he was just a greedy guts which didn't help, but now I will ignore that!

i'm quite sure that you father-in-law raised his children single-handed and therefore knows exactly what he's talking about, no?

and i bet it was quite a while ago too, so I'm sure he remembers the amounts clearly...