Hungry baby formula at night?

[helsybells]

My little girl is 6 weeks old. She is growing at a rate of knots and generally drains 5-6oz bottles every 3-4 hours. (Which seems like a lot to me as DD1 was months old before she took this much!).

During the day she is usually very settled, we cluster feed 5-7 then she goes down at about 7/7.30 most nights then sleeps to about midnight. After her midnight feed she then wakes 2 hours later and fusses and feeds over hour or two between about 2/3 am and 6am. This stretch is exhausting and I’m wondering whether to try her on hungry baby formula at her midnight feed to help get her through a bit longer. Has anyone had success with this? She has been windy and a little bit reflux-y so don’t want to exacerbate this. Would it be madness to make up a bottle of 50/50 First infant and hungry baby to gradually introduce it??

Have also considered dream feed but DH and I tend to go to bed for 8/9ish to capitalise on her long stretch of sleep so DF would mean staying up late or getting up to do dream feed which seems a bit counter productive.

Can you increase the bottles?

Have tried but she’s not getting beyond 5/6oz

Also a couple of members of the parental generation have said to put a tiny bit of baby rice in her bottle. Doesn’t sit well with me at 6 weeks but has anyone done this?

Sounds uncannily like my LO!

I did switch to hungry baby milk and he was quite windy but the hungry baby milk did not exacerbate this, providing you regularly wind during the feed (which I'm sure you do).

I wouldn't mix 50/50 if I were you but I see no harm in giving her a hungry baby milk if you feel this would give her an extra hour or so. Some may feel this is selfish and ultimately you should get through it the hard way. However if the lack of sleep is causing you real trouble and you LO is simply playing with her feed taking it over a very long stretch when she wakes it sounds to me like she is also very tired too. My LO used to wake at a similar time I'd feed him but he would take up to 2 hours to finish a 5oz bottle and would fall asleep. This to me is an indication of habit rather than need for a feed. Some will undoubtedly disagree but I'm speaking form my experience and my little boy couldn't be healthier 😊 (And I a happier Mummy) Good luck to you and gonwith your gut x

No to the baby rice at 6 weeks in my opinion x

She wakes at night because she needs the milk. I would say persevere and give her it. Filling them up with hungry formula or baby rice is denying them the milk they actually need.

Thanks guys xx