8week old only eating 2oz bottles

[Laurenhuh]

Hi, I had my daughter 8, nearly 9 weeks ago by section. LO was said to be 8lb+ in weight but was only 5lb 13oz.
For the last 2 months LO has only been taking 2oz feeds, sometimes 3oz and very rarely 4oz. She is gaining weight, wet nappies all the time but dirty nappies are every 1-2 days.
I can't seem to get LO to take bigger feeds. She wakes for feeds, but falls asleep during. She has no problem with winding either
I have spoke to my HV and GP but no one is giving me a straight answer.
LO has also been on carobel to thicken the feeds but we have now decided to stop that as we don't feel she needs it.

Any advice on how to get LO to eat more would be great!

TIA x

Are you using a fast enough teat?
The carobel would have made the milk thicker and harder to get out the teat which can make your baby get tired sucking

Yes what size teats are you using? My eldest on regular milk was on 2s at that age but with her brother I think we had to go up to size 3 if not 4 with the carobel, sorry can’t remember exactly but it was really thick so had to change the teats.

Also how often is she feeding? As a rough guide you want about 2.5oz of formula per pound of body weight in a 24 hour period. So a 10lb baby would need about 25 ounces. But some take big feeds every 4 hours during the day, and may go 8 hours at night whilst others may prefer little and often so there can be a lot of variation in how much they take at once. Following her curve and plenty of nappy output is a very good sign, dirty every 1-2 days being quite normal for formula fed.

Our little one was 6lbs when born, 5 weeks premature and really struggled to feed. Initially tried to BF but he wouldn't latch because my nipples were HUGE and his little mouth was just too small so we moved to bottle feeding and he was only taking about 2oz at a time before falling asleep. He started losing weight (which your LO isn't which is great!) and we ended up in hospital due to jaundice. The difference in advice between the HV and doctor's was vast, perhaps due to the escalating situation, but the doctor's insisted that we do not let him go to sleep while feeding, so we started tickling him, gently jiggling his arms/legs, softly blowing on his face to keep him awake while eating and his milk intake more than doubled. We were out of hospital the next day when they initially anticipated us being there a few days. He's now a chunky 9 month old, we took him to Spain over the New Year and had groups of older Spanish ladies stopping us to coo over the 'Niño gordo' 😂.

If you're worried, perhaps try to gently keep them awake and see if they keep feeding.

Thanks everyone for your replies.

We tried size 2 teats and different bottle makes (tommee tippee, mam, NUK). Today is day 1 of using NUK bottles and teats first size without carobel. So far so good 🤞
She even stayed awake for 2 feeds (eating every 3 hours) and is super contented, even when I was feeding her in Home Bargins next to the garden furniture lol. She's currently smiling at herself in the mirror lol

@InTheRainOnATrain thank you for your explanation on weight, that's really really helpful! My LO is only 8lb 13 (probably just hit over 9lb this week). I was obsessing over her age and what she should be having rather than her weight.

@CuriousMoe lol I'm really happy to hear your little one is doing great now and has all the Spanish grannies besotted lol