New to formula feeding....set times, or not?

[Rochyella84]

Hello,

I am fairly new to formula feeding as I was able to bf my first baby and haven't been able to this time.

My baby is 15 weeks old and has 5 feeds in a 24 hour period, one night feed (usually around 4.30/5am) and then 4 feeds during the day.

At the moment I feed on demand, and he sometimes goes 3 hours between feeds, sometimes 3.5 and sometimes 4. The thing I find tricky is that he wakes at a different time each day so every day is different in terms of when he feeds, and with a toddler as well I'm constantly having to think ahead with timings so that, for example, we aren't doing a long car journey at the time when he will need to feed. It also obviously means that naps are at different times every day.

So really just looking for advice and to see what others do. Does anyone do set times for bottles? If so, how does it work for you? Do you wake baby in the morning at a set time to start the routine? What do you do if baby wakes earlier etc? Anyone tried set times and found it didn't work for them?

Thank you for any advice!

I never set times I always demand fed but to be honest he has a bottle roughly same times each day anyway, 5 bottles between 7am and 9pm roughly every 3.5 hours. He's worked that out for himself though! When i switched from breast to formula though he was going a bit longer. I think with demand bottle feeding it's a bit more predictable than demand bf. Maybe try it for a bit and see how it goes and if it works for you

I feed him at roughly the same time. To be honest he pretty much fell into a pattern himself. Usually wants food and ets fed at 7,10, 1.30, 5 and 10.?hecwakes up then about 3am. So six times.

Thanks ladies. He does seem to be roughly falling into a pattern in a way, will continue with this approach for now and see how he goes.

I think babies do usually find a routine I used to jiggle things a little, to help it along. But obv follow their lead, sometimes they can have a hungry day!