Big baby - huge bottles

[lunalovegood84]

DS is 14 weeks, formula fed and a very big baby - currently 18 lbs 11 ozs. He was born at 11 lbs 9 ozs and has charted perfectly between the 98th and 99.6th centile lines for weight since birth. He is slightly above the 99.6th centile for length, so in proportion. He goes 4 hours between feeds during the day and sleeps 11-12 hours at night with a dream feed so he's got a pretty good routine going.

However, he takes seriously big bottles. At the moment he usually drains 260ml/ 9 oz bottles 4 times a day with his dream feed slightly smaller, about 180 ml / 6 oz on average. I get the feeling that if I offered him more during the daytime feeds he might take it. Trouble is his bottles only hold 9oz!

I'd just like to hear if anyone else has experience of a baby with such a huge appetite. He is on way more than the sometimes quoted 32 oz maximum although going by the weight x 2.5 rule he is on track. He is only 3 months so I dread to think the volume he'll be consuming by 6 months - can you buy bigger bottles (I've seen ones that go to 10oz but that's not even much of a difference)? Will he level off in his consumption? Has anyone ever had to make up 2 bottles for each feed?

I should say that he's on the normal stage 1 cow & gate milk, not hungry baby - I'm not keen on the sound of that being harder to digest. Also don't want to wean til hopefully 5.5 months (he was 2 weeks late) if he shows signs of readiness.

I've never bottle fed but did have a dd who was slightly off the charts for the first year of her life (length and weight). She's 7yo now and still 91st centile for both but instead of a podgy little baby, she's a whippet thin, willowy young girl.

Obviously, I've never had to worry about amounts but I just fed dd as much as she wanted and as long as she was in proportion, I didn't worry about it.

She was 23lbs at 23 weeks and stayed on milk alone until 27 weeks when she was showing the signs of readiness for solids. I wouldn't plan to wean at 5.5 months (seems arbitrary). I'd wean when he's ready.

I figure your options are to offer smaller feeds more often if you want to change things or just stick with the 9oz (he doesn't sound bothered, you don't say he's crying for more, he's lasting overnight and for 4hrs between feeds, he's in proportion). You probably only need to consider more than 9oz if it really became an issue later on. But it probably won't. And in that case, you don't need bigger bottles, just more than one I suppose.

And you're right about hungry baby milk being unnecessary in your situation. It'd just make him struggle to digest the milk he's taking.

Oh and they do stop growing so rapidly so you don't need to panic that he'll just take more and more and more and more until he pops. It levels off. My top of the charts baby didn't put on much weight at all between 12 months and 24 months. Couple of pounds if that. She reduced her own milk feeds as she got older.

www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-AVENT-Natural-Feeding-Bottle/dp/B00DS7KOSU/ref=sr_1_6?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1412684391&sr=1-6&keywords=large+baby+bottles

I think this is 12oz, 330ml. Avent.

www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-SCF696-27-Feeding-Bottles/dp/B00BCC8A7K/ref=sr_1_3?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1412684517&sr=1-3&keywords=philips+avent+330ml
sorry!!

Would he take fewer ounces, more often? 6 ounces every 2 hours?

I'd offer 7oz feeds every 3 hours.

Im another one who did 3hourly feeds. Stick to 8/9oz while he adjusts to the frequency, then reduce if he seems to ve leaving the odd ounce.

I never followed the guide - I fed dd rigidly every three hours 7am-7pm and upped the volume when it seemed she wasnt able to wait the full three hours.

A bit different as my DS was older but he'd been breastfed till 10/11 months ish then when I switched to formula i was shocked to find how much he drank! Bear in mind he was weaned too so was having three meals a day, but for his bedtime bottle yes, I had to make up two bottles and he'd drink between 13-15oz in one go. Then overnight he'd have another 2 x full 9 oz bottles and another one when he woke up. He had more than his daily 'allowance' just overnight. He was a big baby as well, born average sized but within a couple of weeks was up to 91st centile.
He's now 7 and as skinny as a rake even though he still eats loads!

I just used a second (and third) bottle or. and I know its naughty, I'd top up his finished bottle.
He was born small but had shot of the charts for height and weight by 6 months so was hungry all the time. His max in one feeding was 500ml at 3 month's things did start to settle a bit after that.

Thanks for the replies.

Hopefully he won't increase his feeds by much. I suppose the fact that he is going 4 hours routinely and sleeping overnight shows that he is very satisfied for now. If he starts getting hungry sooner, I'll offer him milk more frequently. A lot of the time he has a short nap on or after the 3 hour mark between bottles, so i wouldnt want to disturb that (he's a great overnight sleeper but not brilliant with daytime naps). Selfishly I have been really enjoying this 4 hour routine he's put himself into, but of course he's the boss!

Kitty, thanks for giving me the link to those bottles, we currently use Advent so its good to know those are available if we need them.

Purple and Lizzy, wow those are huge feeds! Makes me feel better about my guzzler!

Showy, good to hear he might not always be enormous. He's solid but not very chubby looking. Regarding weaning, I'd obviously wait for his signs but what I meant was if he seems ready at 5.5 months I wouldn't be bothered about starting then as his corrected age would be 6 months.

Corrected ages only apply to premature babies ie those born before 37 weeks. At 5.5 months your baby will be 5.5 months. Wean when he shows the signs which will be around 26 weeks. Maybe before but you won't know till you get there.

Ds1 was 11lb 2 at birth, it was a long time ago but I remember him guzzling full bottles from the start, some times he needed a few ozs out of a second bottle too. He feed around every 4 hours. I wouldn't and didnt bother messing with his routine as it was clearly what he wanted to do.

He was a very tall skinny toddler and has grown into a 6 foot 4 broad, very big 19 year old.