how much should I be feeding? please help!

[TheHermitCrab]

My 3 week old daughter is very random with her feeding times and amounts. She has been vomitting full feeds and is on infacol and started baby gviscon yesterday.

MW mentioned over feeding, then when I mentioned to doctor how much and when I was feeding her he was surprised at the small amounts.

She is formula fed and the tub says at 2 weeks she should be taking 4 oz feeds, but they put that of an average weight of 8.8lbs.

My baby is only 7lbs (or she was when she was weighed on wedneaday ) so if I use the 2.5 x weight calculation she should be having about 18,oz.

So far today her feeds have been

6am 3oz
11am 2oz
1pm,3oz
4pm 4oz
6pm1oz
7pm 1,oz.

I don't push her to finish feeds because of the reflux and vomiting. So today she has had 14oz which leaves about 4oz (give or take due to bringing food up) between now and 6am. Now if I was feeding her 2/3 hours as advised she'd be way over the calculated amount.

I know its not exact science but its bloody confusing!!

Just feed her what she wants and when she wants it, babies are very good at regulating their intake and don't tend to eat for the sake of it especially not at 3 weeks old. DS is 6 weeks old now and was 8lb15 born and now 11lb6 (!) and he is still only managing between 4-5oz each feed and will even sometimes only manage 2oz like he just has for his last feed. He always pukes up a bit after each feed too.

Let her guide you, as long as she is gaining weight and has plenty of wet and dirty nappies then it'll soon become a bit more predictable

Thanks :) I guess if I was breast feeding it would be no where near this precise.

She isn't possetting or puking up a bit, she's vomitting full feeds, hopefully the gaviscon will kick in soon.

Nappies are always wet before every feed, never a dry one. Poop was once a day, now more like two days but still runny/toothpaste consistency.

She weighed 6lb 11 at birth 10th jan, then last weds 7lbs, she's not due another weigh until 11th feb x

Agree what poster above has written.
Google 'responsive bottle feeding'.
Don't forget to still have skin to skin time!
Congratulations.

Just read up on "responsive bottle feeding" Seems I was doing it all without reading it :)

The only time I woke her and "made" her feed was 11am. Oh how I would have loved to keep sleeping as she was, but I thought 5 hours was pushing it a bit for a 3 week old! Other than that she feeds until she is done, hence the random amounts she takes, I will put the bottle to her a few more times and if she turns her head away that's that.

We also started her on a dummy today, she fusses a lot shortly after a feed once you've settled/burped her and sat for half an hour, once she is asleep and you put her down she's crying all over again, so tried the dummy and that settles her straight off to sleep without any frustration.

She's still had more than her "recommended" amount based on calculation, but hopefully nothing that would be considered overfeeding.

Definitely still doing skin to skin, formula feeding was never my plan so I'm ensuring the bond is still strong at feeding times x

Strange that the HV mentioned over feeding and my doc was concerned about the small 1oz feeds... so conflicting!

You can easy feed on demand when bottle feeding. My DS never took 4oz feeds until he was 4 months, but sometimes he drinks more of less. You get some wastage but intend to make a bottle 1oz more than his biggest feed, so usually 7oz. When he's clearly stopped sucking (or these days, violently shoved it out his mouth!) I stop, offer again in 5 mins but I don't have a set amount I want to get down him. He generally has most of a 7oz bottle about 6 times in 24 hours, but can have a random 4oz feed sometimes. It really varies. If he fed less for a few days in a row it might be a problem, but one day wouldn't be. In my experience with him I couldn't have over fed him as he wont take milk when he's not hungry, but when he was very little he sometimes would very quickly chug down a lot, like he had forgotten what he could take, or was thirsty maybe, and then he'd throw up. But a usual feed he would make it very clear when he was done and refuse the rest.

He's nearly 6 months btw.