Help - Hourly Feeds!

[MrsA23]

So I feel like I’m going crazy!

DS is 9 weeks old. He has been FF for most of that, and was taking 2-2.5oz for a while. He has slowly built up to 3-3.5oz. He has fed every 2-3 hours (closer to 2, it took a lot of cuddles and pacing the room to get him to 3) both day and night.

Through all of this he has had really bad wind and ‘colic’ and occasional silent reflux. We tried infacol, colief, gripe water and comfort milk, but none have worked. Instead, each has made him worse and we’ve always reverted back to regular milk with no other intervention. I say this because I hope it helps explain my feelings of helplessness.

DS has now started feeding every 1-1.5hrs. He’s still taking the same amount of formula each feed. He won’t take more in a feed - 9/10 he will purse his lips and refuse a bottle if he’s had enough. The handful of times we’ve been able to get him to take more he has thrown up….a lot.

I can’t handle hourly feeds after 8 weeks of being up every 2 hours through the night.

Is this likely to be a phase or is this formula just not enough and needs to change?? Because of the issues we’ve had with him when we changed formula to comfort milk, I’m reluctant to change him again on a whim. Those screams from tummy pain will haunt me for a long time to come.

Help! What do I try?? TIA xx

I’ve never formula fed only bf with top ups but my first was an hourly or less feeder. Turns out he had cmpa and soya allergy. The dairy in my diet gave him awful stomach ache so he woke up to bf for comfort which gave him awful stomach ache about an hour later so he woke up to bf for comfort and on it went until I realised what was causing it. He also had reflux type sickness and colic, although both stopped when I went dairy free.
There are different types of dairy free formula, the more broken down the proteins are the worse they taste.
Does your baby have eczema or funny poo?

And you have my sympathy. Hourly feeds are a killer. I couldn’t count to 10 and had to stop driving for a bit as I was barely functioning

Have you tried giving a dummy instead of a bottle every wake up in the night?

My first was like this. A dummy helped.

Just feed on demand.... its normal for newborn babies to feed frequently.

Silent reflux seems a possibility. It could be hurting him, sucking helps, drinking the milk helps, so he’ll want to do it as much as possible. I’d definitely give a dummy and I’d see the GP to discuss silent reflux as they are prescription medications that can help.

How long has it been going on for? If just a couple of days then could be a growth spurt.

Have you tried a dummy? My LO just wanted to suck on and when I gave him that he went back to 2-3 hours between feeds. It was a good 12/14 weeks before he was always going 3 hrs between though.

Thanks everyone :)

He has only recently started to take a dummy regularly. He didn't like them for a long time, or would only take one for 10 mins or so before he spat it out. Maybe this last week or so he's actually started to keep it in and take comfort from it. I'll definitely try it more at night to see if it helps settle him better - I think I do have a tendency to jump to feeding at night a little too quickly because I don't want him waking DH and my 2 girls.

Tbf it only started last night and continued through the day. But we moved him to size 2 teats (Mam) yday and I guess I expected/hoped that he was only taking 3oz because he was getting tired on the size 1, and that he'd take a little more and settle a little longer (or at least no less! ) now feeding was a little easier/quicker.

I also expected/hoped that being my third baby I'd be Mary Poppins-ing the hell out of motherhood! But he's like the most difficult parts of my previous 2 combined!

@mayblossominapril

And you have my sympathy. Hourly feeds are a killer. I couldn’t count to 10 and had to stop driving for a bit as I was barely functioning

I'm definitely getting to that stage! He takes a long time to settle after a feed, so going 2 hours still only meant I'd get 45 mins to an hour sleep between (on a good day).

I've been slurring and forgetting my words, and feeling quite dizzy/spaced at times. I'm glad it's not just me who thinks driving is a risk though - DH thinks I'm being a bit dramatic I think