Advice please

[Caitlin's Mum]

My little boy is 5 weeks old and has been on the bottle since birth. He was feeding every 3-4 hours for the first 1-2 weeks and from week 3 had the symptoms of reflux. We put him on the special formula and now he wants to be fed every 2 to 2 1/2 hours. This isn't much fun during the night as by the time is back settled again, I am not getting much sleep in between. He seems to think that when he is awake he needs to be fed to get back to sleep again. Anybody had the same problems?

I received advice from a child health nurse to hang him out for 3 or 4 hours. I tried this and he just screams - and I don't particularly enjoy this during the night feeds.

Thanks
Tired Mum :)

[Chickadee]

Bubs go through growth spurts and may need to feed more often for a little while. It should pass in a few weeks. If you look in the breastfeeding forums you'll see a lot of discussions over whether bub is getting enough millk or if mum's milk is drying up because bubs seem hungry all the time.

You can try offering a larger bottle if he's finishing it but tummies are only so big so really you just need to feed more often, 2-2.5 hours as you're finding. I don't see any point in making a hungry baby wait to be fed, it's just too stressful for everyone.

[Melissa1983]

Both of my children were on demand feeding until they were 4 months, they were feeding anywhere from 2 hrs to 4hrs. When 4 months came they still wanted it then, but a midwife told me to give them water in between feeds, to pull them over to 3-4. It worked on them.

Good luck

[lil monkey]

Tayla was feeding every 2-3 hours until she was about 3 months old and then at night time she started stretching to 5 hours but still 2-3 hours from the start of her last feed during the day.

It does get better believe me - she also suffered from reflux so it was recommended smaller feeds more frequently etc to help with this.

Basically the first few months of your bubs life means that your life is put on hold and you will get next to no sleep and wont always have a shower everyday!!!

[jarrahsmumma]

my advice (bub also bottle from birth) feed when ever they are hungry, i too was told to do the 3 hour thing, drove us crazy, screaming baby, tears...from me and bub

just watch you dont over feed cause then it will all come back up...ewwww

a good tip i got was, if they are sucking the bottle dry, they are probably still hungry try another 50ml. my son was always drinking more than the tin advised, if that is any help, feel free to private message me anytime for questions.

peace
natalie

[melfunction]

my little champ is 10 weeks and has been bottle fed since birth. He is on SMA formula for hungry babies and still feeds every two hours! GP told me I was over- feeding him and to try and stretch it out a bit. I also couldn't listen to his crying and hand stuffing in the mouth, I thought bugger them and now feed him every two hours. He won't even sleep past the two hour mark. This has been going on for 5 weeks now and he now wakes once at night. I think that starving him until 3-4 hours between feeds is a form of child abuse. Maybe your bub is like mine, very hungry!
I tried getting him to drink water between feeds and that didn't work either. I have resigned to the fact that the sooner he can take solids the better!
It can take time to work out what is best for your baby and as you know him better than anyone, it doesn't hurt to trust your instincts.

I forgot to mention he wanting feeding every hour for first 5 weeks. Thank goodness I couldn't breast feed!

Mel