12 week old time between bottles

[slightlyconfused85]

My DS is a few days off 3 months old. He has 6oz formula in a bottle and only just goes 3 hours- sometimes a bit less during the day. I'm told by a HV that he should be going 4 hours soon...is this right?! Why?
DD never went that long until she was eating solids but no one ever told me she had to.
He has 5 bottles in the day roughly 6.30 9.30 12.30 3.30. 6.30 then one at night at around 3.30/4am but doesn't often finish this.
What's the purpose of a 4 hour schedule and why do I need one?

There is no purpose to a four hour schedule, and your baby does not need one :)

Adults don't eat and drink like that - why should babies?

Perhaps your HV is just saying what might happen, not what should happen.

Thanks tiktok! She definitely said that I should be trying to make him wait 4 hours. There's no way I'm leaving my baby to cry for milk for an hour so it'll have to be ignored for now...

My HV said to feed on demand, I asked if I should do the same when we start weaning at sixmonths and she said "Definitely".

Ha! I don't know a single baby that routinely goes 4 hours between feeds at 3 months- my dd is 3 months and will sometimes go 2.5 hours and sometimes all of 10 minutes! I never go four hours without a drink or something to eat. The whole four hours between feeds thinking seems a bit old fashioned IMHO. My MIL is always going on about how her babies were going 4 hours between feeds at 4 weeks.

Such old fashioned advice! My DD is 17 weeks now and still feeds every 2 hours during the day. DD1 was exactly the same

Feeding on demand is recommended now so that HV is giving you out of date advice.

Old fashioned advice!

I hate how a prerequisite of allowing babies to get discharged from the neonatal unit is for them to go 4 hours between feeds. I don't get it!