8week old ds - slow bottle feeder

[Corky]

My ds was 10lb 10 at birth and was on bottles from birth - despite him being so big he doesn't exactly knock back his milk. On average he takes about 4.5 ounces at 5 or 6 feeds a day but each feed can take up to an hour. He's on a size 2 teat so don't think a bigger one would make any difference - do you think some babies just take their time and don't necessarily need a lot of milk if they are big? He's now 13lb 10oz so has been putting on weight.
Another thing playing at the back of my mind is that with my first dd she was the complete opposite of my ds and she was a nightmare feeder and was diagnosed with a UTI at 8 weeks which when investigated showed that she had reflux in her left kidney. I guess I keep thinking that even though he seems to feed ok they told us that there was still a 20% risk that he could have the same problem.

My dd also takes an hour to feed sometimes. But she tends to get progressively slower as she has been on a teat size for a while but is now also on size 2. When she was about 4 weeks old she was taking ages and ages and I think that was to do with the type of teats she was using as we had 2 Avent and 4 boots ones which were harder and it seemed to be these that took longer so maybe try a different brand ? Its annoying that its so time consuming but I guess at the end of day if he is putting on weight ok it must be ok !! Good luck !

Some babies just do feed slowly. Ds used to take about 45m to finish a bottle, whereas dd would either knock it back before I had even got myself comfortable in the chair (well, almost) or fall asleep within a few sucks. Even now ds, 4.5y, has a small appetite and is a slow eater, whereas dd, 2.3y, wolfs everything down and asks for more.

I have heard a theory that babies who are born large have much larger reserves and may not need as much food. Not convinced though, becase dd was heavier than ds!

Is he doing all the right things? Pooing, peeing, alert, contented, sleeping plenty, hitting developmental milestones etc? If so, then no need to worry - he's just being himself.

Corky, my DS was bottle fed from 10 weeks and he was taking about the same amount as your little boy and he is absolutely fine so please don't worry. Even now he is fussy with his feeds and usually takes at least half an hour to finish his bottle.

One suggestion, if you afford it try out a B-Free bottle. They're quite expensive (about £5 each) but very good - the teats are very soft and my DS prefers these to the Avent ones which we were using before.

my DS was an absolute nightmarishly slow feeder for the first four months (could be up to 1.5 hours per bottle) and quite sicky with it too. It does get better as their tummy muscles get stronger. My DS is fine healthwise too.

you never know, might be worth changing the bottle just in case - e.g. see if he finds it better with a latex teat than a silicon teat.

oh and get some good DVDs to keep you saying during these lengthy feeds