Hungry Baby Milk

[Bellabelloo]

A friend advised me to try hungry baby milk with my 4 week old for his goodnight feed as she said it may help him sleep a bit longer (and allow me to get some sleep!) and also because if he drinks less volume that he will be less windy and more comfortable. However, I just googled and there seem to be lots of complaints about the hungry formula. Does anyone have experience? Good or bad? Thank you. X

It's not really meant for tiny babies, it's aimed at older babies who are near to weaning age to try and hold off early weaning. It's harder to digest and takes longer to digest too. Longer between feeds and taking less volume means fewer calories and fewer nutrients for your baby.

How long is he sleeping for and how often/how much is he feeding?

Thank you. He takes 130-180ml at a time and sometimes only an hour before demanding more. I try and delay with a dummy and wind him lots to make sure it's not wind, but there is no consoling him until he gets his next bottle.

Have you looked at the symptoms of silent reflux? The frequent feeding and being inconsolable is a possible sign.

Don't do it. It's too thick for little ones and often ends up with them being constipated.. at 4 weeks you should be feeding on demand ideally, and at 4 weeks babies don't sleep for very long anyway.

Going an hour between feeds sometimes is very normal for a 4 week old - it's hard at this age but anything you try to make him go longer is unlikely to work. Sounds like you're doing well so hang in there!

My (now 4month old) DS also went through a phase when he was feeding hourly. It's a bugger but it does pass quite quickly. If it doesn't, do as a pp said and get him checked for silent reflux.

I gave DS a bottle of hungry milk once (picked it up by accident and didn't have anything else on me). It wasn't disastrous but it didn't really agree with him. I'd just stick with the normal stuff for now.

Also, I don't quite know what you mean by 'goodnight feed' - there is no day and night with a newborn! Just an endless cycle of feed, wind, change, sleep, feed, wind, change... Great fun

I don't know if I'd have the staying power not to just give him another feed if he was fussing. I just fed on demand because what's the point of getting no sleep AND having to listen to them cry all the time? I couldn't be arsed with that!

Feed on demand. Your baby is still a newborn, this is how they are supposed to feed. Yes, it's tiring and a pain in the bum but it does pass.