Formula fed baby dropping in weight and not finishing the feed

[Lavalamp646]

Hi all

Was told at the 6 week check that baby has dropped in weight and that we must wake him every 3 hours and feed at least 5 ounces, no less. The problem is though he will only have 4. We are trying but he will not have the full 5 so not sure how he will gain enough weight by the next appointment

We take breaks but then by that time it's an hour after i've made the feed, and then he's just about had 4 by that point

Any advice please?

When you say he's dropping weight, has he actually lost weight or just not gained enough so is dropping weight centiles?

I had a bottle permanently on the go, just kept making fresh small ones throughout the day so really he was just constantly grazing. he naturally got back into a more spaced out routine when he was having larger feeds.

So they said he dropped centiles. He's now on the 9th centile iirc. I'll probably do the same and make smaller feeds rather than 1 big feed! He's just about had 4 now, so maybe the next time he cries i'll make another 2. Thanks!

If he's on the 9th centile for weight now, which centile was he born on @Lavalamp646?

And I think that if he won't take the 5floz every 3 hours then smaller feeds more often does sound like a good idea.

Just wondering if he's having difficulties with anything else, does he have reflux or is he overly sleepy?

@PinkMimosa I can't remember exactly but he weighed 6 lbs 9 when he was born. He's wide awake during feeds but now that you mention reflux, he does bring up milk - not all the time but sometimes it's a lot, sometimes it's just a little. Wondering if changing his milk to comfort would stop that or whether it's normal for them to bring up some milk here and there

If he's bringing up feeds, which like you say can be normal, but also dripping centiles I don't think that trying a comfort milk will hurt.

Thank you @PinkMimosa we will go and grab some comfort milk today. HV came today to weigh him again, he was 4.28 last week and 4.44 today so he's slowly gaining but they'd still like to see him gain more so will keep trying

Funny because the GP said "I wouldn't wake him at night. Just up his feeds during the day" and HV said to wake him every 2-3 at night! Lol

I'd definitely wake him at night if he's a slow gainer, not ever 2 hours though, that's ridiculous when he's actually gaining weight, albeit slowly. How often would he feed at night if you left him?

@PinkMimosa so he would go around 4 hours at night if we didn't wake him, at times he has also gone 5! I was also thinking 2 hours is a bit too much for night!

Could you try 4 hours at night and 3 in the day?

So if you feed him at 7 pm, one of you does a dream feed at 11 pm, the other one of you feeds him at 3am and then you get him up for the day and feed him at 7am?

Obviously feed him sooner if he's asking for it

How have you both got on today@Lavalamp646?

Thank you @PinkMimosa I have been meaning to reply back! We did as you suggested, the dream feed at 11, he then woke himself at around 3 so did that feed and then he was up at 7.30 so we fed him then too. The dream feed is a great idea thank you so much! He just went straight back down after that, no fussing at all!

He's also bringing up less milk now that we stop to wind him more frequent and keep him upright for awhile so still on the same milk for now

I’d follow the GPs advice. Unless he’s waking up naturally, I wouldn’t be waking every 2 hours, that’s unsustainable!!
mine was similar to this. I drove myself crazy trying to get him to drink big amounts because that’s what I was told he should be drinking. He’s now nearly 2 years old and thinking back I wish I’d ignored a lot of the advice. He was always alert and having plenty of wet and dirty nappies despite only drinking 3-4 ounces at a time even up to weaning age. He just couldn’t handle and didn’t want larger volumes but I kept insisting and nearly gave him a bottle aversion thinking he needed to be drinking such huge amounts when I should have focused on whether he was happy/content etc instead of ounces drank in a day.
He is on the smaller side weight wise but that’s mostly because he is literally non stop when not sleeping and he eats a lot of food so I know he’s healthy.

Thanks @Pizzaandsushi yes that's the same as my 4 year old, she's always been on the smaller side. We had another appt at the clinic and it was a different HV this time. She was surprised at what the other HV said regarding waking him so often. This HV said he's alert/happy so she's not worried. She said to just monitor how much he has in 24 hours next time and bring it with me but other than that she's not stressed as long as he isn't losing weight!