Feeding on demand advice

[Lauren8642]

Hi all! My little girl is 12 weeks old today and since she’s been born we’ve been on a feeding schedule where I’ve had to set my alarm to feed her first of every 3 hours then once she was above birth weight we moved to every 3.5/4?(unless she tells us obviously but 99% of the time she wouldn’t) I was wondering if I should get out of this or stick to it? So atm she has a bottle at 6am, 9:30am, 1pm, 5pm, 9pm.
Only thing is I’m struggling to get even 650ml in her a day so I’m terrified if I go to feeding on demand she’s going to have less than this and loose weight again. We’ve tried changing her milk to try and get her to drink more thinking maybe she’s gone off the milk and her poo and crying in the evening has improved but the milk amount hasn’t increased. The past couple of days it’s been the 9pm one I’ve struggled getting her to drink because she has her milk at 5/5:30 then she’ll pretty much stay awake until 7:30 whilst I get my eldest ready for bed then she’ll fall into a deep sleep and I struggle to wake her up to drink more than 2-3oz. Even in the morning I have to wake her up at 6 even though she’s gone 9+ hours.

Has anyone ever gone from feeding on schedule to feeding on demand and did it improve the amount your baby fed?

I bf so it’s different, but initially fed on schedule and i found that this made me sleep deprived and a little bit loopy (as dh “kindly” put it) as l got so obsessed with the schedule rather than seeing how satisfied she looked, or to watch for hunger cues!
once we went to feed on demand, I slept better baby slept better as I wasn’t anxiously following this timetable I set up! Have you an appt to see the hv soon?

@PennyLaneisinmyheartandmysoul I’m not due to see her until the 9 month checks I think as she’s now gaining weight (gained 400g in 3 weeks I rang the HV help line and they plotted her chart for me and said she’s following her line. I’m going to get her weighed again in 3 weeks and see if she’s still gaining.
Luckily I don’t have to wake her in the night but it’s still very draining looking how much she’s drinking worrying if she’s not drinking a lot throughout the day (the HV said 5 weeks ago she should be on 725ml a day)

I BF so maybe my expectations are geared towards what would be normal for a BF baby, but at 12 weeks I would expect a baby to feed at least once if not more between 9pm and 6am. If you added in a night feed/dream feed you could increase her overall intake without pushing her to have more at a time.

You could offer more milk at 7.30pm if she is awake then anyway, then let her sleep til 11 ish and offer another feed before you go to bed.

@CapybarasAreJustGuineaBigs I offer her 5oz every feed but she probably only finishes 1-2 bottles which has normally been her first bottle of the day and her 5pm one think this is why she goes into a deep sleep. I did use to wake her up at 11pm but she would only drink like 1oz. She’s been sleeping through since she was like 6 weeks old that’s when I stoped setting my alarm at night

Which formula is she on @Lauren8642?

@SleafordSods she was on aptamil but then we changed her to Hipp because we thought she might of gone off Altima’s and also her poos we’re quite watery and she was quite unsettled in the evening struggled with wind, screamed whilst winding.
shes a lot better with her bowels and more content in the evening but still not drinking a lot she’ll have a day like yesterday where she drank 700ml but then today she’s only drank 450ml (but she did have her jabs this morning)

previous she’s only drinking max 650ml a day

I think a dip in milk intake can be normal after her jabs. Just make sure that she’s had Calpol regularly for a day or two and read up on the signs of dehydration.

Do you know how much she weighs? I think the recommended amount is 150 mls per kilo in weight per day? So if she was say 4.5 kilos she should be having 675 mls per day?

If you’re using that equation and you don’t think that she’s drinking enough, it might be worth trying Hipp Comfort to see if that will encourage her to drink more?

@SleafordSods last week she weighed 4.650 which would be 697ml a day call it 700ml and she’s having most days around 600ml

Ok so she’s having a little under the recommended amount which can happen, and she’s following her centiles which is really good.

It sounds as though she’s doing really well but if you’re struggling some things you could try are:

Swapping to Hipp Comfort as I suggest upthread. It should be a bit kinder to her tummy and it might make her drink a little more.

Trying her with some exercise to make sure she’s hungry. It’s a bit limited what you can do at that age but swimming is always good for making you hungry.

Move the last feed to a little later like 10.30?