Formula feeding per day

[TheAmusedCyanAnt]

Just after some advice. LO is 6 weeks and 4 days, LO is formula fed and is correctly having 4 oz every 2 hours in the days and 3 to 4 hours at night. I am trying to increase his feeds up 5oz and trying to extend the time between feeds in the day. LO feeds are averaging between 35 to 36 oz on a daily basis. As I understand, it should be 32 oz. Is this normal for LO to be having this much? And are there any tips on extending the time between feeds in the day? Health visitor informed us that LO is on track and that it is all normal due LO feeding on demand.

The guidelines are literally just that, guides. Every baby will take in different amounts, and if you're feeding on demand then the totals don't really matter.

You should be led by baby when thinking about extending times between feeds. Look for signs like not taking as much during the feeds or spitting more up than usual.

If you think baby is ready just extend the time by 15 or 20 minutes, obviously if baby starts to show signs of hunger don't wait for a specific time.

It's so easy when FF to overthink it, but honestly try not to. Baby will change the schedule when necessary.

Take their body weight in pounds, multiply by that by 2.5 and you’ll get the amount in average they should be taking in a 24 hour period. Is this how you’ve arrived at 32 ounces or are you basing that off the age based guidelines on the box? The box I’d pretty much ignore as weight is more relevant than age, it’s only really useful as a starting point if you’re switching from breastfeeding. But even if you have done that calculation 35 is close enough to 32 that I’d consider it fine. Baby is probably having a growth spurt. I’d only worry if you were significantly under or over.

As for getting baby to take bigger feeds and space them out- what teat size are you currently on and could it to be time to move up? The newborn teats are very slow because that’s what they need but once they can handle a faster flow they’ll feed more efficiently and likely take bigger feeds too.

We have an app where we log all our feeds and the amount of that feed and that is where we are seeing the daily ounces.

in terms if teats, we are already moved up to the size 1 teat.

we are worried about over feeding as LO is 12lb at 6 weeks which doesn’t seem right to me, which is why we are worried about upping any feed to 5oz

12lbs at almost 7 weeks doesn’t sound overly unusual? Have you calculated the percentile? And HV says he’s on track so personally I wouldn’t be concerned.

It’s not totally impossible but it is hard to overfeed a FF fed baby. They usually won’t do it themselves unless there’s reflux (because the swallowing provides relief) and you’d know if you were trying to push them to take more after they’d naturally stopped feeding. Based on what you’ve said above I really wouldn’t worry about it. Generally once baby is draining the bottle you add an extra ounce going forwards so if he’ll take 5oz I’d let him because taking bigger feeds is key to getting longer stretches and babies are very good at self regulating. Oh and on the bottle teats, size 2 are usually 8 weeks+ so he’s probably not far off, especially if he’s big for his age, and that will likely help as he’ll be able to feed more efficiently.