Is this a formula issue?

[bleachblondemom]

First 3 days of newborn DC have been great. No issues sleeping on his back day or night, up every 1-2 hours in the night either for milk or just a quick cuddle, then back in cot. We have been using up all the ready-made formula we bought for the hospital as it was easier.
Yesterday evening was his first drink of powdered formula and then last night he was super fussy. Waking every 30-40 mins, taking a while to settle, could sometimes get him back to sleep for a bit with dummy, but mostly he needed getting up and soothing again by us. Seems like a bit of a coincidence with the change in formula, so I just wondered if it’s worth carrying on with the new formula if he’s likely to get used to it? Or get the same brand as the ready-made but in powder form? Or will the constant swapping be worse for him? He was bringing up burps fine but I could hear his tummy gurgling and I don’t want him to keep having a tummy ache if it’s something to do with the new formula.

You definitely want the same brand as the ready made as a minimum.

Slowly introduce it by adding an oz at a time of powdered formula to a readymade bottle.

It was cow & gate ready made, so I could use cow & gate powder and it would be a bit gentler on him than the new formula? Even though it’s still powder? I can’t afford to keep him on ready made as much as I’d love to spend all the money in the world to keep him happy!
Probably won’t have time to get it until after his next feed, I don’t want to mess his tummy up even more by switching back after 12 hours on the other brand… don’t know whether to just stick it out or not.

You should definitely use the same brand powdered as ready made. Doing that I never personally had an issue switching between powder and ready made and mine would have a mix of both- mostly ready made out of the house and powder at home. It may be a coincidence though- babies often come out very sleepy then appear to ‘wake up’ around day 3. If you were breastfeeding this would also coincide with your milk coming in so I think there’s an instinct in them to want to suck more to stimulate milk production. It should hopefully settle down in a few days. Dummy is a good shout too, I’d keep offering that to help settle.

Yes we found our baby digested the ready made more easily than the powder form in the early days (now that’s she’s older she’s fine on powder). We tried a few formulas and found that the HIPP organic was the best for her (and nice that it’s organic so better standards for the cows, independently owned as well). Another thing that helped was we added probiotics to the formula. We use a brand called Proven, probiotics for formula fed babies.

@Bitzeethat does all make sense, my milk is definitely trying to make an appearance so you’re right, he would be ‘cluster feeding’ if he was BF.
Looks like we need a quick trip to Tesco pronto!

@Bloodyscarymary I did wonder if it was to do with the consistency/texture of the ready made vs powder that was tricker for him to handle. I think it’s a good shout to go back to the original brand and then see how he gets on with it being in powder form.

When I had dc 2 years ago, hospital midwives said that if using formula to only use ready made for the first 4 weeks. Not sure why as I didn't ask. We combo fed so used the ready made anyway as we were using small amounts.

Definitely stick to the same brand. Also make sure ypu are following directions 100% when making up the bottles. Babies tummies are so sensitive. Also as pp said - he may be cluster feeding. Not sure if formula fed babies do this as well. Definitely worth having g a Google

The ready made and powder are different, because the ready made needs to stay shelf stable. Also realistically, the powder will be more bubbly because you have to shake it to mix, so more bubbles in the tummy to cause discomfort.

Unfortunately, a bit of what you are likely seeing is him becoming more of a normal baby rather than a baby just transitioning from the womb. They do sleep a lot the first couple days. Then it transitions to needing to pretty much be held all the time. Dh and I just traded off holding them, I did all day, then he took them when he got home, then he did the first half of the night until about 12/1am, I did the second half. It got much easier after 4-6 weeks, but the first few weeks they are quite unsettled. Not like sleepy newborn babies.

You don't shake it before use

She made that up.

Kendamil organic was the best formula for my little one. Not ready mixed

You could buy the larger bottles of readymade while he is still taking small feeds. They are not as expensive as the hospital bottles and keep for 24fr in the fridge between feeds.