4 month old ff advice - over feeding

[Laylor]

Hello

Just out of interest how much and how often do you feed your baby?

My son is 4 months old. Born 5 days late weighing 6lbs 14oz and 51cm. He has always had above average milk and ive been told previously by a paediatrician when he was about 8 weeks that we are over feeding him and to drop an oz which was a nightmare and my God did he notice the missing oz. I mentioned this to the health visitor and ste disagreed saying to feed baby what he wants. Sometimes he drains the bottle and other time he will leave an oz

Currently in hospital with baby and again I'm being told hes having too much. Hes never sick either.

The hospital weighed him 2 weeks ago and he weighed 7.2kg. I weighed him last night and he was 7.6kg. Hes currently having 7oz every 4 hours mostly and sometimes even 3 hours. I never follow guidelines and just follow babies lead.

The nhs website says he should be on 150ml to 200ml per kg of weight divide between how many bottles a day he has which ranges between 5 and 6 and all falls around the 7oz mark.

If my baby is hungry I will feed him.

Thoughts please. X

Hi,

That's not far off what my 3 month old has - he has around 4-5 oz every 3 hours. I expect by 4 months he will be wanting more. He has never not finished a bottle and drains it every time so I really feel he is hungry. I try to pop a dummy in after bottle to satisfy him but I really think he would be happy to drink much more! I thought babies just had what they needed so am also a bit confused as to how much I should be giving him as am aware of not making him overweight. I'm combi feeding expresses breast milk and formula and occasionally popping him on the breast too.

I guess I think if he was breastfed I wouldn't know how many oz he was eating so I try not to worry about it. Is your little one following their centile?

He has been on the 50th centile all along up until 2 weeks when he went up to 75th.

Sorry if I've confused you but it really bugs me when they tell me I'm over feeding. I know I may be partial to an extra piece of cake when I'm already stuffed but I doubt he thinks the same 🤣. If hes hungry hes hungry in my opinion. My god son was born nearly 11lb and he was on 7oz from day one almost. My nephew has just turned 8 weeks and he Is also on 7oz x

Hi, my son is 4 months and 16 days old and he has 5-6oz 5 times a day every 3 to 3.5 hours and also has x1 6oz night feed, sounds about right to me what your little one is having :) xx

Are you pace feeding?

Why is your baby in hospital? It could be related to why he is hungrier or this maybe just him.

Ive been wondering the same. My son is 3 months old and very roughly he'll take 4/5oz every 3hrs in the daytime. Before bed and his nightime feeds he'll take more, maybe 6/7oz. Its so difficult to know isnt it? Especially with all the HV drop in weight clinics shut.

Why was your baby being seen by a pediatrician at 8 weeks old and why is he in hospital now? Is there an underlying health issue that means he has to monitor what he eats?

I had the opposite issue. My two never had as much milk as they were supposed to. Both were weaned earlier under medical advice because of it.

What centile was he born on and what is he now? That will give you a better idea.

If it is annoying you, next time someone asks you just say you are feeding on demand.

My dd has been having 7oz bottles every 3 hours since 8 weeks. I dont think you can over feed a baby. She is a big girl but shes healthy.

My DS is 11 months old so it’s hard to remember exactly what he was having at 4 months but that doesn’t sound like too much to me. I’m pretty sure at around that age DS went up to 8oz bottles, and was feeding frequently. Some babies just want/need a lot of milk. The most important thing is that they aren’t fluctuating to wildly on the growth charts, which it doesn’t sound like your DC is.

My daughter is 4 and a half months and I sometimes worry she has too much as well. In the last 2 weeks she seems to have grown so much and she feels so heavy now.

She had a 7oz bottle when she wakes up after sleeping through the night. Then every 2 and a half maybe 3 hours she's ready for a bottle. I give her 6oz bottles during the day, except her night time bottle and morning bottle, which is 7oz. She has about 4-5 bottles in 24 hours, depending on when she wakes up and goes to sleep at night.

Tried upping them all to 7oz a few days ago hoping that she'd go longer before wanting another feed but it didn't work out. She kicks off with me if I try and stretch it out more than 3 hours.

She was born weighing 9lbs 9oz
She hasn't been weighed since she was 6 weeks, if I recall she was about 12lb then.
Had no health visitor see her and no doctors have mentioned her weight so I'm pretty much winging it 🤷‍♀️ I really should buy some scales or something and attempt to weigh her myself.

I just feed on demand. My twins are 20 weeks and take 8oz first thing in morning and last feed as they sleep 12hrs at night. In the day I make up a 7oz feed but sometimes they may leave 1/2oz. They feed every 3-4hrs in the day.
Twin 1 was 5lb 5oz and on 25th percentile at birth and Twin 2 was 6lb 3oz and on 50th. They were weighed 2 weeks ago and both have gone up to 79th percentile. I was worried but my HV said this is absolutely fine and she was happy with this.
I was told when they start moving (crawling/walking) their weights may plateau for a bit as they will burn more energy.

Aslong as your little one doesn't have any medical issues that would mean you shouldn't, i would carry on feeding on demand.

I agree with you I’d feed until he’s no longer hungry...poor babies won’t understand why their mum has taken the milk away if they’re still hungry! Back in the day there was no measurements or guidelines, baby just took what baby wanted

My baby is 7 months now so not comparable because weaning but I know what she would eat before, formula fed.

She was 6lb 5 at birth so similar to yours, she's never had more than 5oz in one feed ever. At that age she would have 5 feeds, 4-5oz a time. She's on the 50th centile now.

So 25oz would be the max in a day at any point for her, reality was it was more like 20.

feed baby until they don’t want anymore... stuff to what anyone says or thinks... bless there little cotton socks x