Baby not hungry in the morning

[Mate86]

Hi all, my LO is 4 months old and formula feeding, but doesn’t seem too interested in eating lately. They usually have about 130-150ml of formula every 3 hours, 5 times a day. If I don't encourage it, they tend to stop at 100ml. I also give a dream feed between 90-120ml at 11pm while they’re sleeping. In total, they get around 750-780ml of milk in a day.

They sleep from around 8-8:30pm to 7-7:30am without waking up, and I feed them for the last time during the dream feed at 11pm. However, in the morning at 8-8:30am, they don’t seem hungry at all and will only take about 70ml. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions on how to improve their morning feed? Should I wait even longer after they wake up before offering the bottle? Would love to hear any advice!

Can I hazard a guess that this is your first baby? If your baby is steadily growing and gaining weight, chill. Babies will drink when they’re hungry

How much does your little one weigh? If they are having 150ml for every kg of weight I wouldn't worry at all about what they have at what time. This formula really helped me when I was constantly worried about if my little girl was getting enough milk. She's perfectly healthy but always been on the 2nd centile for weight so I was quite anxious.

Hi Evengreen90. Yes, this is my first baby 😅 I don't want to compare my baby to other babies who eat much more and are bigger than my LO. But sometimes when other mums say what their babies eat, I am a bit worried that there is something wrong with my LO 🫣

Hi TryingNotToPanic89. Thank you for the formula. My LO is 6.5 kg, this means they should have 975ml and is much more than what they have - never had more than 800-820ml in a day 🙄

Are they gaining weight ok? Have they stayed on the same percentile or have they dropped? Some babies are just less hungry. Some really develop an appetite when they move to solids. I know it's hard not to worry though. I'd definitely mention it to your health visitor but if they were concerned I'm sure they would have mentioned it to you already.

My baby is a bit older than yours and we have the exact same issue. The morning feed is always a struggle and probably the one they take the least from. We also struggle with some other feeds during the day and I’d say they are happy to take 90- 120ml most feeds but that’s with encouragement and often taking our time. I’ve felt quite stressed at times over it as I can’t see a day where baby will take a bigger bottle but less often (currently feeds every 2.5 - 3 hours) but for now that’s what we’ll go with. Baby is definitely gaining weight and plenty of wet nappies so I guess that’s the main thing. I know it is a worry though.

I was sent to a paediatrician at the hospital with DD2's feeding and she told me that although the guide is 150ml per kg per day, some babies can do as little as 120ml and some need 200ml. 6.5kg x 120ml is 780ml total so sounds like she's over that. Is she maintaining centiles / gaining weight etc? I've had one baby below the 0.4th centile and another who has just gone from around the 2nd centile up to around the 12th, and it's always caused me lots of stress so I do sympathise!

The other thing to consider is whether you need to go up a teat size. At 4months, some babies can cope with a faster flow, which can help them drink more effectively as well.