Switching formulas to increase LO milk intake

[RaineElliana]

Hi Im just wondering do babies have formula preferences?

Weve had weight issues with LO since birth and loads of health issues most of them common for babies. She usually doesnt finish her bottles.
LO is almost 10 weeks now and can just finish 4oz. She feeds 7 or 8 bottles a day with 2/3bottles being BM which she finishes 90% of the time. The remaining bottles are formula where she eats between 1-2oz and very rarely finishes a bottle. In total she still drinks around 22-26oz of milk a day on average since i try to feed her every 3 hours. People said its acceptable. But i want her to drink more so i can let her sleep longer stretches at night

0-6weeks we used aptamil which cause trapped wind and reflux plus slow weight gain dropped a centile

7-10 weeks Milk was out of stock on our local store so i changed to cow and gate. Problem is she only poops every 2-4days which is very runny, no changes and its week 3. With aptamil she has pasty poops. and she farts a lot with c&g too. Also dropped one centile

She would so very rarely finish 4Oz on both brands.

Thinking of changing to kendamil as people said it tastes the best and LO might like the flavor and drink more. Its just the supply issue i guess.

Otherwise she is a happy active baby. Just the weight gain and health issues.

How should i transition? Should i just change her milk right away? Is it okay to change milk every few weeks?

Is kendamil a good choice? Any good experiences with switching to kendamil?

i just feel like no matter what i do.. she will not gain weight as expected of her. I envy those moms whose babies finishes 6 to 7oz per feed and still ask for more.

im also wondering if i should just let her sleep long stretches at night and go back to feeding based on hunger cues. If it would help with her intake volume
Thanks mommies
xx
tired and sad mama

I think if you're using EBM for some if the feeds then she'll take less in quantity than a fully FF baby?

How long does she sleep at night now?

Can you check with your health visitor first? I wouldn’t keep switching her milk without speaking to someone

Hi. Yes i give her 2-3bottles of breastmilk a day depends on my supply which she finishes very well that will be in the morning between 6am-3pm. After that it will be formula at night where she finishes on average 70mls but can be anything in between 40-110mls. Since my supply isnt increasing, id probably be FF full time soon. I was thinking it was the formula’s flavor thats why I want to try kendamil since people says LOs love the taste. plus we struggle with poops on c&g with her going every 2-4days. In aptamil she goes several times daily.

tbh, since we had weight problems from the beginning, ive never let her sleep more than 4hrs at night. Its usually feeding from 12-3-6-9 am/pm round the clock.people are saying feeding on demand esp at night would be better as she can sleep better and she would probably finish her bottles too. I’ll try it tonight with her last feed being at 9pm and hopefully it works.

There an awful lot of advertising for Kendamil and there's a fair few threads on here where it doesn't suit a baby. I appreciate that most people will only come to an internet forum like this if they're having problems, it just seems that there are more threads about this formula than any other at the moment.

Like a PP said, I would talk to your HV before swapping again.

Babies aren’t supposed to finish bottles of milk. If they then you’re supposed to offer more so they’re taking the amount they need and finishing when they’ve had enough.

I’ll ring them first thing tomorrow morning and see what they say. Hopefully theyre still working before the holidays

I’d do that first thing tomorrow. I feel like ive been so obsessed with her weight gain since birth and has been missing out on enjoying the 4th trimester ;(

Hi. I think its just the weight issues and envy looking at other mommas and babies i know that takes 5-7oz without trouble. I know comparing LO is not a good thing. I just wanted her to be well fed and happy. I feel like im not doing well on that part

Kendamil is very rich (and also expensive!). I agree with pp about speaking to your HV, but if she's gassy on C&G, I wouldn't rush to switch to Kendamil.

My DD2 was drinking less than that at 10 weeks (although she was only around 4kg at that time). Are you sure she needs a lot more? Is she on a higher centile to begin with?

How much does she weigh and us she following her weight centiles?

During her 8 weekish checkup she was 4.320kg.

BW was 3.230 50th centile, went down to 2.740 in 3weeks. Went down another centile at her 4 week check then went down another at her 6 week check. So we’re now at 9 centile and one more decline will be a refereal to the gp.

shes gaining weight just very slowly. I blame it on her intake but i might need to just accept the referral and see if theres something else going on with her

I mean went down to 2.740 after 3 days and got back to BW after 2-3weeks

She is very gassy and farts a loooooot. She steains when she farts too but poos only come after 2-4 days.

she was also weighed on 14/12 and she was 4.320kg on 10/12 we were in the hospital were she was weighed 4.3 so its only 20grams of weight gain in 4 days. Thats why the gp said to be mindful.

her bw is at 50 centile but we has a 15% weight loss at birth. Went down to 25.then 9 and now she mighr go down another centile ;(

Has she been checked for tongue tie? Does she prefer it warm maybe so it's good to begin with and then she doesn't fancy it anymore? They can be fussy! Is she falling asleep on the bottle?

Ok so if she lost 15% of her birth weight was she checked properly for Tongue Tie? This could be the issue, especially if she's gassy?

Only by the midwives. They said no tongue tie. But mentioned they can refer me to a clinic before 10 weeks but looking that she will be 10weeks on wednesday that might be impossible.

she drinks warm and room temp. We have never given her cold milk yet.

she falls asleep on the bottle but even when she is fully awake, she would push the teat with her tongue when she’s done.

they are lol. She is a very good baby tho. Doesnt cry as much but maybe its because i feed her kn schedule she doesnt have the chance to show hunger cues anymore

No she wasnt. But all the midwives said she doesnt have a tongue tie and that she is latching well when they observed me breastfeeding during the early days. Should i asked to be assessed?

i heard you need to go private when you bottle feed as it doesnt match their criteria. Do you know how much it costs?

Ok so say she is 4.5 kilos now. This means that she needs roughly 675 mls or 23 floz of formula a day.

It sounds as though she's getting that?

I would read the article I posted about Tongue Tie and if you think she had any of the symptoms then contact a local Tongue Tie Practitioner.

When my DD had a little drop in centiles I offered a feed every two hours in the day for a while and she did pick up again although it was a bit intense. Maybe try that if you can?

Yes. She does consume 23oz like 5/7 days a week. There would be days when she would only do 600-650 but then have more the next day.

can you send me a link of the article please?

i can do the every 2hr thing,hopefully she drinks more.

My DD2 was seen by 6 or 7 NHS professionals and it was only a private tongue tie practitioner that spotted she had a 90% tongue tie 🫠 She was pretty horrified it had been missed. I would definitely advise getting a private specialist to check, even if its just to make sure its ruled out. We are in London and our appointment for the initial assessment was £50 I think? We then went privately for the division which was quite a lot but I wanted it sorted quickly. I probably could have found a cheaper person to divide it.

Omg thats not good.

Ive seen here that private division would be £250 as long as its done before 6 months.

did your baby’s feeding improve after that?

Yes it did improve, but it did take a long time. Apparently most tongue ties improve within a couple of weeks, but we were unlucky and ours took 6 weeks to heal. I'm glad I got it done though because she was coughing and choking on her bottles, breastfeeds were taking ages (i was combi feeding), and i could see her tongue massively improve it's range after the division. She had dropped from 25th centile at birth to the 4th centile and after we got it all sorted, she got back to the 25th.

Just popped on to say midwives and HVs generally know NOTHING about tongue ties. My DS had a complete tongue tie and all I got told by infant feeding is ‘that won’t be an issue’. Um yeah it was!

Hi the symptoms of TT are here

I'm another one who was told everything was fine by several HCPs.

Second one came out without TT and the difference was incredible.