5 month old only wants 3 bottles a day?

[A2304]

Hi my 5 month old ds has recently stopped wanting as much milk as usual. He used to take 8oz every 4 hours now he only has 3 bottles a day? He has one as his night feed usually round 4am then one round 11am then he doesn't cry for one until he is going asleep round 6-7pm. He's always been a bigger baby he was 9 pound 5 when he was born and never lost any birth weight he's always been a great eater from 1 month old having 7oz bottles every 3 hours but 3 bottles a day seems very little to me and im not sure if this is normal? Other than not wanting his usual feeds he's happy very playful and is acting his normal self. I haven't started weaning yet also but I was thinking if he's not wanting his milk as much any more should I start earlier than I planned?

Could he be teething?

@itshappened

Could he be teething?

Yes I think he is teething he is constantly dribbling and his hands are never out of his mouth, I didn't know when they are teething they don't drink as much?

Do you offer him a bottle or just wait for him to cry? That's a ridiculously long time to go without milk!

Have you tried going up a size on the teats

@HalloHello

Do you offer him a bottle or just wait for him to cry? That's a ridiculously long time to go without milk!

I've always waited for him to cry as he usually cry's exactly every 3 hours. My health visitor told me I was feeding him way to much when he was wanting 7oz every 3 hours and told me to up it to 8oz to see if he goes longer than 3 hours but now it seems like he is going way to long

I think you should try offering him milk in the afternoon. That's a long time without anything

Why don’t you offer a smaller bottle at 3pm? It might bridge that gap. 8 hours in the day is far too long,

Have you tried offering him a bottle instead of waiting for him to cry? I’d offer one in the afternoon around 3ish and see if he takes it.

I used to always have them ready for him every 3 hours because that's when he would start to cry for it but since my health visitor told me to up the oz to try to fill him for longer to try and get him to take less milk ive just wait till he starts showing signs he's hungry then I will make it for when he cry's , this has just been the past few days because yesterday he took 4 bottles and today he took 3 but from tomorrow I will be offering him his bottle round lunch time. I will give the health visitor a call too. Thanks for the advice

I have a 5 months old have seen this on numerous threads whicg makes me believe it's developmental / normal however:

When he cries, that's a late hunger sign aka all the other signs prior were missed. Try to offer after 4h, some babies don't show great hunger cues anyway so not sure what your health visitor is saying is correct or I personally disagree with your health visitor.

Two big FF babies here and they've both had more than the recommended amount according to the HV, whom I've ignored both times. I checked on the tub and for 5mo Cow & Gate say 5 X 7 Oz feeds over a 24 hour period.

I'd just keep doing what you were doing originally - even when you're weaning you still feed them every few hours, it's just a mix of milk feeds and food.

@Wagglerock

Two big FF babies here and they've both had more than the recommended amount according to the HV, whom I've ignored both times. I checked on the tub and for 5mo Cow & Gate say 5 X 7 Oz feeds over a 24 hour period.

I'd just keep doing what you were doing originally - even when you're weaning you still feed them every few hours, it's just a mix of milk feeds and food.

Thanks for your reply , I think I will go back to 7oz and hopefully he will then go back to what he was originally taking. The health visitor told me a baby at his age should be taking max 37-39 oz a day and when I added his up it was 49oz so I was scared I had been over feeding him, I've just woke him to give him another feed because I'm scared he hasn't had enough today and from his next feed I'll do what I use to do

Pfffttt to the HV. My LO always drank more then recommended when she was a newborn up to about 3 months and then struggled to get feeds into her. I still offered at maximum 4 hourly, even if she only took half a bottle. That's long time without milk, a baby should have as much as they want to be honest x

How did today go OP? Xx

@gemloving

How did today go OP? Xx

Today went great, I changed back to giving 7oz and every 4 hours fed him he drank every one of them so I'm just going to stick with this as it's what I was originally doing to begin with, I should never have bothered trying to change his feeds as he's been a perfect eater up until now but I was just going with advise Because I was told he was eating to much but I'd prefer that than not having enough

@A2304 your approach is the right approach. Funny though because I don't trust what mine says. Mine wasn't feeding properly and there was an actual issue and she just said as long as he was having wet nappies it's fine although he's only had 13-14oz a day at 3 months old even though he dropped from the 50th to the 0.4th percentile. It wasn't fine, but it's all good now. He's now on the 7th going up slowly but surely.

Trust your gut, often we as mothers know what's best xxx

I agree with the others on here. I do not believe you can overfeed a baby milk. I always had big babies, and although the one I FF gained weight quicker initially by 8 months they weighted within 3lbs of my BF one.
By 7 months I had to offer two bottles at a sitting, they would regularly drink 15oz, and the HV was horrified. They are now a willowy teenager.