Stopping BF - how much formula do I give, will I overfeed ?

[minimenace]

I have decided to start replacing feeds with formula - just had problems lately (another story) and had enough of the bf now and I am ready to stop. DS is just 5 months old this week I have already replaced early evening feed and as if by magic DS is sleeping through the night. Yay !

He has had no problem taking to the bottle or the formula and screams like mad when it comes to the end. I'm not sure if I am giving him enough or if I will overfeed him. to start with I only had a 4oz bottle so I gave him that but he would scream when it was finished and then just replaced the bottle with the dummy while I winded him which he was content with. (I used to have to do this after finishing bf or he would comfort suck for hours)

Then a HV advised me I should just feed him until he decided he was finished so I bought a larger bottle and prepared a larger feed and he just carried on drinking and carried on drinking and finished the entire bottle and then again screamed at the end when I took it away like he wanted more.(Oh and he hangs onto the bottle with both hands and won't let go) I then sat him up and he promptly threw up a large amount (had never ever thrown up before ever) - I guessed he had obviously just drank way too much.

He currently has a healthy weight gain but I am worried it will either go up too fast or not enough while I am changing over to the formula and not sure how much I should be providing as replacement feeds?

Birthweight was 7lb 5oz he now weighs 14lb. I am now giving him 6oz formula in the evening and it seems to satisfy and not make him hurl but he still screams for more at the end until I replace the bottle with a dummy.

Should I use the same amount for all feeds as I felt that when I was breastfeeding that the feeds varied.

any thoughts or advice gratefully received.

I too am about to wean BF DD (5.5 months) onto formula and wondered the same thing!

If you look on the back of the formula package it states what your baby should be drinking i.e a 6 month old should be having 4 feed per 24 hour period of 8.5 ozs.

Good luck!

I guess once he is fully formula fed I can follow the packet but while he is still having another 6 BF's of I'm not sure how much and I am slowly replacing each feed it seems more complicated.

Which brings another question - he is so used to having more feeds, how will I reduce it down to just 4 per day as per the packet ?

at 5 months my ds had 5 feeds of approx 7 oz (1 feed in the night) - he didnt go to 4 feeds till 8 months when he gave up his night feed.

Did you try burping your lo part way through the feed? If they drink too fast they take in air and it can get trapped, hence the throwing up after the feed (i.e. it may not have been too much feed but taking it too quickly that was the problem).

I made up 7oz feeds except for the bedtime feed which was 8oz and let ds take as much or as little as he wanted. If I found he took consistently less of a particular bottle then I cut it down by an ounce (although that usually meant he would start wanting more again!!)

p.s. The packet is just a guide and you are best replacing the existing feeds and just seeing how much your lo wants to take at that particular time - there is no need to cut to 4 feeds just because that is what the packet says - go with what your lo wants.

forgot to ask - what flow rate are you using? I would start with one of the slower rates as it is easier to get milk out of a bottle than the breast so your lo may not be getting the same amount of sucking time if the milk is coming out too fast. A slower rate may also cut down on the throwing up as your lo wouldnt be gulping so much.

There is such a fight to try and take the bottle half way through - he hangs on and when I do get it away he will scream until I give it back. He wouldn't burp halfway through Bfeeding either and used to throw his head back down while screaming until he latched back on.

He does make me feel like I am starving him with all the screaming at the end of the bottle but is content and sleeps well in between.

I was advised to keep him on size 1 or 2 teats while combining with BF to keep him working on the teat. He already seems lazy on the breast now and impatient for my letdown. Now I am moving to fully formula fed I was thinking of increasing the teat size but perhaps I'll leave him on the size 2

Hi i have done exactly as you are doing with my 5 mth old although have just stopped bf fully...i was giving an 8oz feed and now ive stopped fully he has 4 8oz feeds per day which fits in wioth packet guidelines.

Whilst still bf he would sometimes have more but i figured that he was being demand fed breast milk so no harm to demand feed formula for a short period.

I would agree with checking the teat size...shold defo be only size 1 whilst bf...does sound like he was taking it a bit quick if he was sick afterwards.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions,

Well stopping happened faster than I thought it would I have pretty much replaced all the feeds now except the very first one in the morning. I am thinking I will keep that one for the time being if it lasts as it makes things easier.

Have now replaced all the other 5 feeds with 7oz of formula as per the guidelines.
He has never stopped before the end of a bottle and still wants more.
He is not spitting up now so maybe has adjusted.

I filled the bottle with 9oz last night which is surely too much and he drank the lot and was not sick either.
So I'm going to go and have him weighed tomorrow and see how he is doing.

Anyway today I wanted to ask if I should be giving him any water in between and when can I introduce other liquids and what is recommended ?

Oh and can anyone recommend a formula that doesn't have a main ingredient of Lactose.

mini, good news that it has gone smoothly.

Lactose is in every type of milk - it's a milk sugar and Mother Nature can't make milk without it

The only easily-obtained formula without lactose would be soya formula (which comes from a plant, and not a mammal, and so is not really a 'milk') which is not considered advisable unless a baby has a proven inability to tolerate lactose. There are a few other speciality formulas without lactose, but you would need to see a dietitian to talk about these.

Why do you want to avoid lactose?

I had been told that I should avoid high lactose or added sugar and it shouldn't be a higher content than the milk on the listed ingredients.
I'm probably just being paranoid after the switch from breastmilk but I've found now that the Hipp organic formula may be what I am looking for (milk and whey are of higher content than the lactose) and am going to try that.

Who told you that, minimenace, and why??

It sounds a bit odd to me - I have never heard of 'high lactose' or 'low lactose' formula apart from the speciality formulas which are prescribed for babies with intolerances or allergies.

Why could whoever gave you this advice not guide you with a brand name? Having said that, the lactose proportion of standard whey-dominant infant formulas is the same across all brands (more or less) - I have just checked on a table, though the table is quite old (about 7.3 g per 100 ml. Extra lactose is added at manufacturing to bring it up to what the govt. standards are). There is always going to be a lot more lactose in a standard infant formula than protein (where the whey is) - I am a bit puzzled about this!

Anyway - hope your baby is happy on what you choose!

Thanks for your advice Tiktok - it has put my mind at rest.
I didn't really choose a formula but just bought the first one that came to hand on the shelf. Then I thought perhaps I should do more research about choosing a one and I'd been asking around at my baby group.
Maybe I misunderstood the advice I was given.

DS is happy on the SMA gold (except for always wanting more ) so I guess I should stop worrying and stick with it.

mini, glad to help. It's hard when you're doing something new, I know. Your HV should be able to help, and will make sure you don't misunderstand.