Help - how much should three month old have. Really confused!

[Thingiebob]

My health visitor won't give me a straight answer, I get conflicting answers online.
Does anyone know roughly how much my three and half month old 12 pounder should be eating?

Up until now I have fed on demand but am now finding 'demand' hard to establish as she has started teething and I'm confused by the cues.
I seem to spend most of time offering her bottles that are refused or discovering that she is really hungry when I thought her teeth were playing up. I wondered if anyone knew approx how much I should be offering?

She varies greatly in how much she has at one time and there seems to be very little pattern or routine. Up until now this hasn't worried me as I was confident I was feeding her when she wanted but now not so sure. Also various talks with GP/HV and other mums have made me think it would be sensible to get some pattern to her feeding.

sounds silly, but have you tried looking at the guidlines on the side of the formula boxes/tins?

the rule of thumb is 2.5-2.7oz per lb of bodyweight so a 12lb baby may have roughly 30-32oz per 24 hours. At that age ds fed approx 3 hourly but cant remember how much he took in each bottle. If he started draining the bottles, I added an extra ounce. (p.s. the above is just a guide and some babies will take more/less than that)

How often are you feeding? If my lo was moaning before around 2.5-3 hours had passed I would try other things first to see if he settled. I would then offer a bottle if all else failed. Sometimes they can cry because they are tired rather than hungry and they may need a sleep rather than more food.

A rough rule of thumb is that, in one 24 hour period, your baby is likely to need 2.5 ounces of formula for every pound (1lb) of your baby's body weight.

So, for your 12lb baby, that would be 30oz so would equate to 5oz every 4 hours (or 6oz every 5 hours).

By way of example - my DS is 9 weeks old and is mixed fed. He weighs 13lb and when he has a bottle he will comfortably drink 5-6oz (150-180ml). Sometimes he will want more than that, sometimes less - I don't push it if he doesn't want it.

I feed on demand and during the day he feeds every 2-3 hours (much less at night now thank goodness!)

Hope that helps.

Ok
Thanks. That really helps.

My HV told me to ignore the guidelines on the side of the carton btw and I was given some conflicting advice so wanted some other opinions!

I don't know if this helps any but my DS was 10lbs 1 at birth and now he is 11 weeks old and takes 6oz at every feed, and has done for the last few weeks.
It is very very confusing since he was a larger baby and on the formulas you don't know whether to look at the age or the weight. He is currently 13lbs 10oz.
I too, am not sure of the cues anymore, but am still going on the premise that he gets hungry every 2.5 hours and this appears to be what he wants - but still trying to feed on demand on this cannot be used as a schedule, but some days he will only feed 3oz per bottle on a few feeds. Other times he will sleep for 4 hours and miss a feed. HTH
FWIW my health visitor won't commit to anything so it's a case of try what you need to and see what happens