How much is enough? Formula feeding advice needed!

[ChrissasMissis]

I wonder if anyone who has/is FF their LO could advise me here?

My DS is 11 weeks old and is falling into a good sleep routine, where I can put him down in his cot around 8pm and he will sleep through until 6/7am. Up until this point, he has taken feeds of 150-180ml at 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm and 11pm. However, he is now proving nigh on impossible to wake for his 11pm dream feed. He's just not interested at all.

What I am interested to find out is whether this usual? I have heard about feeds being "dropped", but wondered if this was only to do with BF?

Also, how do I know that am feeding him enough? He was on the smallish side at birth and is a long, skinny baby on the 9th centile for weight. I have been given lots of confusing information, but wondered whether someone might be able to tell me about their experiences and what advice you were given that proved useful?

That was my experience. My DS as a baby had his last feed about 7pm/8pm, then 11pm, 3am and then up in the moring at 7am. The 11pm/midnight feed was the first to go and then the 2am/3am feed gradually went backwards... 4am, 5am... until he finally slept through to about 6am. As for giving them enough. I think if you offer a full bottle to start with they just stop when they've had enough, the eyes droop and they're nearly asleep as you're winding them. If you're worried about weight-gain, you probably need to ask your HV for advice.

My DD conformed exactly to the amounts on the side of the Aptimel box and when she started dropping feeds we simply increased the amounts in the other feeds so the total for the day was still the same. Perhaps you could increase the 7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm feeds to compensate for the 11pm feed and see how it goes.

Cogito - thanks for that. I worry that I'm subconsciously letting him sleep through because I need the sleep, but am compromising on his feeding. He is gaining weight, just not VAST amounts. That said, his father is a tall, thin chap!

Bssh - I was never sure about the amounts on the side of the box. We're walloped over the head so much with the "evils" of FF that I assumed it MUST be a conspiracy on the part of the nasty, greedy, corporate formula manufacturers. Of course, I realise now that this is probably to the case...I have upped his quantities a little, but he has silent reflux too, so am cautious about over-filling him.

I'm thinking that I might have to try five smaller feeds at three, rather than four-hourly intervals.

Thanks for your advice!

I didn't pay attention to the side of the box either until my DD wouldn't stop crying and I called my mother and she called her paediatric colleague and he said DD may still be hungry. He asked me her weight and told me the exact amount to feed her which exactly conformed to the Aptimel recommendations. We'd been underfeeding her!

DD had silent reflux too. The GP prescribed infant Gaviscon which helped her keep her milk down and feeding well.