Formula - by weight or age?

[Sunflower654]

Baby is 1 week old, was breastfed until 5 days old before moving to formula. They gained an ounce between birth and day 5 from breastfeeding. Now they are on formula, they more often than not will only settle after 4oz - which is the size stated on the back of the formula for babies of 2-4 weeks, or for a baby of approx 8lbs 5oz which was his birthweight. The midwife told me that 4oz is too much but he eats it! He has only had one day where we was sick (the day he began formula) and has multiple dirty and wet nappies throughout the day. The dirty nappies are pretty much after every feed but he was like this when breastfed. He gets winded throughout the feed too.

Weight is more relevant than age and I’d only consider the box guides a starting point if you’re new to formula. For the most part babies are very good at regulating and the best thing to do is feed on demand and if bottles are being drained then add an extra ounce going forward. So if he wants 4oz then I would let him have it. The caveat being if there are reflux symptoms, including silent reflux, because reflux babies potentially need medication and are prone to overfeeding so if that applies then it’s wise see a GP before automatically increasing bottles. But that doesn’t sound like it applies to you. Also in case it’s helpful as a rough guide it’s 2.5 ounce of formula per pound of body weight in a 24 hour period. So an 8 and a half pound baby would need around 21.25 ounces a day which works out to 6 3.5 ounce feeds per day. So since you can’t really make a half ounce bottle from powder rounding up 4 ounces seems sensible.

I'm 30 years out of date but I was told to offer the amount for the weight that they should have been if they hadn't lost loads of weight in the 1st week.

I was really confused about this when I started formula feeding, I found midwives unhelpful with this stuff. If baby seems happy and satisfied on 4oz stick with that, when they start draining it and indicating they want more (fussy after feed, continuing to suck after finishing) add the extra oz.
I was so stressed about overfeeding but you will know if this is happening as they will unsettled and being sick.

This is helpful, thanks. Last night baby had a couple of 2oz feeds spaced apart (his choice) and today, we’ve had a couple of 3.5oz feeds so it isn’t always 4oz. I just have to make that much up just in case.

He doesn’t seem unsettled, he is able to bring wind up. We did have 6 dirty nappies in 24 hours yesterday.

Sounds bang on for his weight then!

Midwives are brilliant at so much but formula feeding particularly beyond the immediate post natal stay in hospital isn’t one of them. Trust your instincts and if you think he’s hungry and isn’t showing signs of overfeeding then you’re almost certainly correct.

He’d have me believe he’s forever hungry with his hands in his mouth all the time but he came out of the womb that way and was the same on all of his scans so I think it’s very much a comfort thing!

I was a children's nurse.
There are formula's to calculate expected weight, for calories required and volume required. This was for us to know how much to make per day as a baseline. We still fed on demand unless there was a medical issue that meant we couldn't.

But ultimately your baby will tell you. If they appear hungry,feed them.if you feed too much they will throw it back up. Too little and they will be unsettled.

As long as they are growing along their centile line, it's fine.

Also we wouldn't usually expect weight gain in the first few weeks. Just that they have regained birth weight at about the 2 week mark.
Some babies feed little and often, some could drain a swamp.

If your baby is happy, growing,pooping and peeing and gaining weight approximately along their centile line then you are doing great.

I didn't notice the date, it showed up on active topics for some reason, my mistake. Nowhere did I mention any formula brand, I'm not sure what you are talking about.

The post before yours, which was the one I was responding to, was a very obvious blatant sales pitch about some formula brand ive never heard of. I reported it to MN so hopefully the reason it has gone is because they've deleted it.