Changing baby to hungry baby formula

[shinyshoes]

My new baby daughter will be 4 weeks this monday.

She was born at 9.3 lbs,. She is feeding every 3 hours during the day and over the past couple of days has gone from 3oz feeds of formula milk to 4oz feeds.

During the night she was going down to sleep at 9.00pm then having a feed around 3.00-4.00am , then again at 7.00am. So it was only 1 feed during the night.

However, last night she went to bed at 8.30ish, woke at 12.15am, then at 4.00am then at 7.00am. There was an extra feed there.

I am going to keep an eye on this over the next couple of days to see if she wakes for the extra feed, If she does would it be wise to put her on the hungry baby formula or do I need to do it under the Health Visitors say so.

Was I lucky that she was only waking once a night and now shes having a growth spurt this is normal?

I always felt she wasnt taking as much as a 9.3lb baby should, but she would only feed 3oz and seemed happy with that.

What would you do?

Is there a certain age that you have to wait, am I overreacting in assuming shes hungry?

Thanks

Once a night is exceptionally lucky in a lo, 6-7 horus is a long time, maybe too long even. You could up the evening feed if she'll take it but may simply need hte more frequent feeds for now. Would n't change formula yet , she sounds pretty normal and it may upset her digestion.

I wouldnt change to hungry milk until your lo was taking full feeds (8/9oz) every couple of hours and was still looking for more. It is supposed to help hold off weaning when your lo is too young for it and helps them be satisfied with milk until they are old enough for solids. If you start on it too soon then you would have no options left if your lo gets hungrier as she get older. TBH it sounds like a growth spurt and the feeding should calm down again once it is over.

Agree with Seona, they normally don't advise Hungry formula until lo is taking 8oz in one go! Unless you're dead lucky, your night feeds prob won't be in any set pattern for months yet, I wouldn't worry about it yet. Just go with baby for now.

Why not offer her more per feed? That way she can take more if she wants it? My HV advised me to start using hungry baby formula but that was when they were about 4 months I think.

I was told that hungry baby formula can cause trapped wind in babies, I know of a few people that said that this was the case too.

Thanks everyone for your advice.

I will not be starting her on hungry baby formula now a couple of you have said she needs to be taking 8/9oz, that obviously makes sense.

Thank you again

My son was 10.5 llbs when he was born and was breast feed for the first six weeks (topped up with formula) but that didn't work out due to mastitis problems. So he is now formula feed.

He's now nearly 3 months and weighs 16.5 llbs, my HV said that he was growing really fast and he was off the growth charts for weight and length and always hungry. I tried introducing extra water but he was still hungry. A week ago i moved to hungry baby formula and it seems to be working well for him and he's more settled. I resisted putting him on hungry baby food too early, they had encouraged my from about 8 weeks, but I waited until 11 weeks so his system is a bit more developed.

Hi I have just changed DS to hungry baby after debating for few weeks. He is 15wks. I would say it depends on their weight gain - you dont want them going longer between feeds & not gaining weight as well as they were on first milk. I would say 4 weeks is a bit early - maybe she is just having a growth spurt? I cant say its made much difference to my DS though tbh, his feeding routine is about the same!