Formula feeding

[Tayx]

Formula fed babies ... how much was your baby drinking at 3 weeks and how often?

My boy is 3 weeks old and having 4oz Cow and Gate roughly every 3 hours but sometimes he is still hungry straight after or an hour/2hours later.

On the back of the carton it says 5oz would be for an 8 week baby which seems like such a huge gap as he's only 3 weeks old. Did anyone actually follow these guidelines or just so by instincts?

Also I know that there is hungry baby milk however the health visitor advised not to use this at all?

Thank you x

Hello

Congratulations.

I combination fed, but was advised 150 to 200 ml per kilo of weight per day.

I used that rather than age as obviously all babies different. So work out baby weight and go from there. Saying that he may need more and some days Dd did take more, other days less.

Don’t worry about the amount. Feed your baby when ever they are hungry and never let them drain the bottle, if they do drain the bottle then you need to offer more milk. Look I to paced feeding.

My baby is breastfed but sometimes she has 18 feeds a day and sometimes 8. No reason for bottle fed babies to be any different in terms of having differing appetites. As long as you follow baby's hunger cues, you'll be doing great

Agree with @moobar DS is a big baby so the age guide never worked for him. It's 150-200ml of milk per kg of weight per day. Then decide that down into how many bottles they normally have if you want to have a check that they're having enough.

However if they're gaining weight and have plenty of wet and dirty nappies just be guided by your baby. If they're finishing their bottles then offer more. If they don't then don't.

DS is now a giant 5 month old and drinking more than the upper suggestion on the tin!

I never followed the amount of the back. I let my dc guide me, so when they started to finish a full bottle I would add another oz to their feeds. You might find he goes a little longer between feeds if he takes more milk or he may be having a growth spurt and take a big more for a few days and then go back to 4oz again.

My DD had what I can only assume was a growth spurt at around 3 weeks. She suddenly started taking 5 or even 6oz per feed, and was feeding non-stop during the evenings. I wondered where on earth she put it all!

As PP have said, ignore what it says on the tin and be guided by your baby.