What is hungry baby milk for?

[2point4kids]

I was under the impression that hungry baby milk is for when your baby is chugging back big bottles of first stage milk at frequent intervals and still seeming hungry, so you move on to hungry baby milk to hold off weaning them a bit longer?
Thats how I used it when DS1 was little as he was a hungry bugger.

DS2 (17 weeks) is only having reasonable small quamtities of milk per bottle and only feeding every 3 or 4 hours, but he does still have a night feed.
MIL reckons hungry baby milk is for babies like him that still wake up in the night as he should be sleeping through by now or starting to wean. He's nowhere near ready to wean and is bang on his centile for weight gain so surely if I put him on hungry milk then he will have less in the day as well and then wont he be having too little?

Put simply, you're right and your mil is wrong. Hungry baby milk will make a baby that young really ill! It's too hard to digest. Of course he's still having a night feed, it's normal.
Keep going as you are...

it is normal for your lo to wake for a feed at this age. My dd slept through at 5 1/2 months and ds took till 8 months. From what I have read they can still need a feed in the night up to at least 6 months so I was ok with feeding in the night till then and then I started to discourage it. With ds I just offered gradually less milk at the night feed and he gave up the feed of his own accord.

I believe hungry milk is used to hold off weaning until your lo is old enough for weaning and that is what I used it for with ds - I started on it at about 14 weeks although I'm not sure it made much difference - it certainly didnt make him sleep through the night. Hungry milk has the same calories as the first milk but is casein dominant - this is harder to digest and may make your lo feel fuller for longer (or it may not!!)

Can't really help on the hungry baby milk, but did want to say that your MIL's advice is - er - "outdated", shall we say? It's normal for babies this age to wake to feed in the night. If he's only waking once and is generally content, I'd be very wary of messing with that!

p.s. hungry milk did not make my ds ill and is sold as suitable from birth - he was on it from 14 weeks

your right MIL isnt.

it wont nesscessary make him ill at this young age. d2 was feeding every 2 hours. i used it to try and keep her a bit fuller for longer and she did increase to 3hours between feeds.

I put DS1 on it earlier than 17 weeks (and he wasnt ill, it did help) as he was very hungry. I gave him it to stretch out his feeds in the day though as he slept through from 9 weeks so the night feeds at 17 weeks are all new to me!!

I did think I was right in what it was for, but wasnt 100% sure, so thanks for confirming!

At 17 weeks, it is unreasonable to expect him to sleep through.
Your Mil did her parenting at a different time, when rusks were mashed into bottles. She is also looking back through rose tinted glasses. My mil is the same. She used to bang on about her boys sleeping all night from 7 weeks, the nshe would unconciously contradict her stories with others of sleepless nights!
I don't really think a baby is capable of sleeping through until 6 mths at least. Even then, that is good going.

Btw, we gave ds hungry milk - made no difference whatsoever.

sorry, x-posts!
Yes, you are obviously right in this situation.

9 weeks eh? Lucky you!

Hungry babies??