what's the advice about when to drop a milk feed?

[HooperMummy]

My DS is 11 weeks old and has recently begun sleeping through the night (8pm-7am). We were previously waking him at 11pm to feed but he became very hard to wake up and would then drinking a little bit before falling back to sleep. As soon as we let him sleep for as long as he wanted, he started sleeping through till 4-5am which he gradually stretched to 7am. Plus, he is actually drinking so much more at his remaining feeds that he is drinking more in a day than before!

My query now is whether it is harmful to a baby to let them go too long between feeds at this age? DS is starting to show signs that he may want to move down to 3 bottles a day in the near future but I'm not sure whether it is safe to go that long between feeds when he is still so young, even if he wants to?

(I don't know whether it is relevant but he was 9lb 2oz when born and whilst he has steadily gained weight since, he has dropped from the 75th percentile to just below the 50th percentile for weight. He has always drunk less that the amount recommended for his weight so the increase in the overall amount taken in a day is a really good thing.)

Any thoughts/advice would be gratefully received!

Sorry - forgot to mention that he is formula fed!

How would he drop to 3 bottles a day at 11 weeks? I would say that 4 bottles is the minimum you'd be able to give him at this point, first thing in the morning ie 7am, mid morning 11am, mid afternoon 3pm and then bedtime 7pm.

I am BF but FF #1 and #2 went onto formula at 12 weeks.

This would be fine if he's content and gaining weight but I certainly wouldn't drop below that until he's fully weaned onto protein and carbs. In my experience they tend to hold onto the 4 bottles before dropping the mid morning one when they have a substantial lunch and then drop the mid afternoon one anytime from 9-10 months but many babies hold onto this one way into the 2nd year as mine did.

Thanks for the advice. I am feeding him every four hours during the day anyway but, as another poster suggested (I posted this elsewhere by mistake!), he may just be going through a fussy stage as he doesn't seem particularly interested in his 11am feed.

I'm going to keep doing as I'm doing and talk to the HV about it next week.