Heavy 12 week Baby doesn't have a big appetite

[Corky]

My ds was born 10lb 10oz and is now 12 weeks old. He is bottle fed and sleeping through most nights now from 8pm until 6/7am. The trouble is I find unless I feed him literally every 3 hours then I struggle to get 5 bottles down him in 24hours.
He now weighs 15lb 6oz and has dropped off the centile he was born on, but is putting on weight nicely. Despite his size he doesn't exactly guzzle his milk. I find he gets through 5 x 6.5oz bottles but this is with me putting a bit of effort in to get him to drink a bit more. I find he drinks 4oz burps then he snacks on the last 2/3 oz.
To be honest I think he could probably drop another bottle now as he's often not screaming out for milk when I feed him and he could go longer than 3 hours. Often it gets a bit late (8pm) to be giving him his last feed as he has gone to bed at the same time as my dd1 around 7pm and slept through from then as well.
I think they also say that roughly for every 1lb a baby weighs they should have 2.5oz, so that means he should be having around 37oz a day which seems crazy!
Anyone got any suggestions on what to do?

Hi Corky,

My DS did this too. Like yours he was a heavy baby at birth (9.6)and initially put on weight rapidly abnd guzzled down the milk. However, I found at 11/12 weeks he suddenly lost interest - often he wouldn't have all of a bottle when I offered it (usually around three hours after the previous one) He was a poor sleeper at night and I really freaked out about him decreasing his daytime feeds as I was convinced I'd be up all night but it didn't happen. He also continued to gain weight well and with the benefit of hinddsight he obvously just did not need the extra amount.
I'd be tempted to drop a feed and see what happens with his response to this and his weight. If he's happy and the weight is okay then I'd just go with it for now. Chances are that when he next has a growth spurt he'll need the extra again and you can always increase it accordingly.
I've heard the 2.5oz for every 1lb as well. However, breastfed babies don't have their intake measured in this way and I'd guess that there are times when they need to feed less as well and times when they need to feed more, I can't see why bottlefed babies would be any different.

Mandy

Hi corky could u try feeding every four hrs? My d's did this at around this age, never cried for feed etc, started taking small amounts, so I changed teat to a faster one, and I also extended to every 4 hours, fed at 7,11,3,6.30-7 then bed straight after!! I then do a dream feed at 10-11 to see her through the night.....(usually take one up with me when i go to bed) a few days after this and my d's went from 5oz every 3 hours to around 8oz's every 4 hours in the matter matter of days. HTH

I think that he is drinking plenty - my DS who is 15 weeks does not have that much. I try to feed him 7 oz a feed but he normally takes 5. He started on the 0.02% and has gone up to the 50%. I really think it depends on the child and I think they go threough growth spurts. As long as he is gaining then I don't think you should worry.

Hi thanks all - well he only had 4 feeds today and a quick 2oz before bed as it wasn't time for his last feed, so we'll see what time he wakes tomorrow. All in all he had about 28oz today, so perhaps tomorrow I'll let him tell me when he wants food and try and stretch it 4 hourly.