Combi feeders - advice needed

[onesteptotheleftofme]

My boy is 24 weeks and was bf,more or less exclusively until 2 weeks ago when we started in earnest giving him a bottle for the 7pm feed. We chose to do this because I need a break in the evening.

He appears to be a very hungry boy as he will take between 6 and 8 ozs at this feed. Even if he last fed at 4, or 5, or 6. We give him formula most nights but will give ebm when i have built up enough ( about every 4 days as I can only express 1-2 ozs at a time).

6-8 ozs seems a lot for a bf baby. However he isn't throwing up any feed, he stops when he's had enough and sometimes comes to me for a feed at 8/8.30 as well . Before giving the bottle he would just cluster feed on me all evening.

Am I giving him too much in the bottle? Am i damaging him by giving him so much? What were your babies taking at 5.5 months?
How would I know if I was overfeeding him? He's on the 3rd or 4th centile so could quite happily go up a few centiles.

I'm just worried that im doing this wrong, but honestly I'm so much happier having a couple of hours to myself in the evening, he us happy taking the bottle and so far bf hasn't been affected. Am I worrying over nothing?

That sounds very similar to what my little boy did at the same age. I started giving him an evening bottle and he would normally drink a whole 7oz bottle, then want me to feed him to sleep straight after! I really wouldn't worry about it, 6-8oz is a normal amount for that age and if he's stopping when he's full and seems settled then that sounds fine

Thank you. It feels right to me but other ppl have implied I'll ruin him by giving him so much.

Sounds fine to me. My lo was bf with the exception of his last feed which was formula or expressed from very early on and 6-8 oz sounds about right. If he's stopping when full and not throwing up that's a good sign.
Fwiw, I gave up expressing at about 4 months because it was so faffy and took away some of the benefit of not having to bf that feed. We used the ready made bottles so it was dead simple and definitely the right choice for me. It didn't seem to have any impact on my supply either - on the odd occasion that we were out in the evening and I didn't have a bottle - it's pretty resilient at this stage.

Sounds fine to me. My lo was bf with the exception of his last feed which was or expressed from very early on and 6-8 oz sounds about right. If he's stopping when full and not throwing up that's a good sign.
Fwiw, I gave up expressing at about 4 months because it was so faffy and took away some of the benefit of not having to bf that feed. We used the ready made bottles so it was dead simple and definitely the right choice for me. It didn't seem to have any impact on my supply either - on the odd occasion that we were out in the evening and I didn't have a bottle - it's pretty resilient at this stage.

I'm only expressing at this 7pm feed - hence why I can only get 1-2 ozs! People tell me I should express in the morning, but stuff that. I don't need to add anything else to my day!

Yup my mix-fed DS could easily guzzle back 7-8oz a fed at that age!

Thank you for the reassurance!

Same. Dd is 24 weeks and mix fed- she'll have 8oz for her bedtime f feed.