Following formula instructions?

[Sweetpea1989]

For quantity? She’s 4 months, it says 6oz 5x a day which is 4 day feeds and a night feed, so every for hours in the day, by hour 3 she is getting hungry but if I fed her every three hours she would get an extra feed every day which I don’t want her getting over weight. She’s small ish 25th percentile, although hasn’t been weighed since 12 weeks, I asked HV for advice but they haven’t called back yet.
Thanks

How much does she weigh?

Maybe try offering 5oz every 3 hours but don't encourage her to finish the bottle if she doesn't want it. The formula box is just an average. My babies never went 4 hours between feeds.

Thanks Stella I was thinking about that option I’ll try that, hopefully will make for a less cranky baby.

I think she’s about 12lbs but she’s barely been weighed with covid 😬 I asked on her last injections but the nurse refused!

@Sweetpea1989 my health visitor has advised self weighing baby regularly by using adult scales... weighing yourself then weighing yourself whilst holding naked baby and subtracting. Hope that makes sense!

If she's hungry feed her, the volumes on the side of the tin are guidelines not strict amounts that must be adhered to. Watch carefully for signs she is full as you might find she takes exactly the same daily volume if split over 3 hourly day time feeds if you follow her cues as she does with the four hourly.

Feed on demand. The tin amounts are just a starting point. If she wants more or less that's fine. Don't try to encourage her to take extra milk, don't try to stretch her out between feeds. And you'll be fine :)

I'd use the guide on the box as a rough idea. Some babies will want more, some will want less. If she's hungry, feed her. Maybe make a slightly smaller bottle if it's an in between feed. Dd often did this for a couple of weeks then stopped wanting the extra. I really wouldn't worry, especially if she was only on the 25th percentile to start with.

No.

You'd never measure how much a breastfeed baby has had, so why measure formula?

For reference, DS was well over 3 x the amount from day one. Is has always stayed perfectly on the 50th centile.

Just feed baby when baby is hungry

Agree with the above. Just feed her when she is hungry. I drove myself mad with this with dd and it was a miserable few weeks.
At one point she regularly went to bed at 8 and then woke for a feed at 11 and then another at 1:30. The health visitor advised me to just go with it as it was quite obviously what she needed at that time.

I agree - just feed her. DS never managed to go three hours between bottles and was constantly on a larger size than the guide on the side of the box. The best piece of advice I read was that there should always be some milk left in the bottle - so if they're draining it, it's time to go up an oz. Babies instinctively know how to regulate their feeding. Trust them and it will be fine.

The box is a just guide. All babies are different. My eldest was a nightmare as she hated her bottles. My other two guzzled them

Thanks everyone, I didn’t realise the box was just a guide, I feel a bit more reassured we don’t have to be strict about it. I’ve fed her a bit more as and when today so far and she’s been much happier. Phew!

Feed to appetite and not strictly by the box amounts. If they are hungry at 3 hours then give a feed.