How much formula to feed a baby?

lilian1977

Hi

I've been getting so much conflicting advice and I thought I may as well as here as well! I've read through this thread which has given me some good advice but still nothing concrete (I know you can't have anything set in stone with a baby but it's good to have guidelines!)

My baby is 3 weeks old tomorrow and I have no idea how much formula I'm supposed to be feeding him. I was going off the measurements on the SMA tub and using the Gina Ford routine and he seemed happy with this amount of food, but then recently started vomiting up his 10pm feed quite forcefully, meaning he was then waking earlier in the night as he was hungry. We rang NHS Direct after a few nights of this who advised taking him to A&E which we did, and the paedeatrician said that we were overfeeding him massively so he had no room left at 10pm.

She gave us a calculation which is 120ml per kilo of body weight, he weighs 8lb 2oz so that's roughly 450ml per day - which is nowhere near what he was drinking. However she also said that babies had no hungry/full concept reference so he would just keep drinking if he wasn't hungry - something I don't agree with because he used to drain some 120ml bottles and then leave half of some 60ml ones refusing to continue feeding.

His sleeping patterns were brilliant, it was just this 10pm feed that he was vomiting, however since we've changed to the smaller feeds he's waking a lot more often and almost constantly crying when he's awake. We;ve tried a dummy but he can't keep it in his mouth.

The Gina Ford book advises 70ml per lb of body weight, which would be 560ml a day, and babycentre.co.uk advises 150ml-200ml per kilo which is 600ml-800ml a day. So I have no idea who to listen to!

So, to cut a long story short - do you have a calculation you use, and if so would you share it? Thanks!

emsywoo123

*Prepares herself to be condemned as a bad mother*

DS is 11 weeks old, FF baby from birth..........and I don't use a calculation :eek: :eek:

I feed him what he wants, now I feel I should be calculating and have to pootle off to look at his cartons!

He feeds every 3 hours (roughly)during the day, of about 140mls, so at about 9, 12, 3, 6 and then at 9pm and 4am (again, very roughly!!) takes about 200mls. So that is 960 mls approx per day. He weighs 14lbs.

So um no advice but just thought I would share :0)

ETA so that is about 150ml/kg for him, but I don't panic if he does not drain a bottle.....he's putting on weight ok :0)

Ettenna

Surely at that age they have no real concept of time and amount of feed. They are hungry or not hungry. Each baby is different. Feed him when he seems hungry.

My little grandson is 4 1/2 months and he sometimes finishes his bottle, sometimes doesn't.

manda1205

I went by my baby, with a little guidance from what was on the tin.
My DD was born at 8lb11oz, so big anyway, in her little red book I saw the HV when she was 5 weeks and she was taking 5oz feeds 4hrly, but I know she used to sleep through from about midnight till 7 or 8pm (Yes that early). I also know when she was changing how many oz's she needed she used to get grumpy and it used to mess up her bottles, then over a few days it would slip back right and she'd be taking an oz more. Sorry I used to use oz's (was 6 years ago) so dont know how that compares to mls. But IMO I would honestly go by your baby and what he wants to take, and as for sicking his 10pm feed, when was his last feed before that? Could you not hold him off for a bit longer and see if that changed it?m Or just give him a slightly smaller 10pm feed?
Im sure it'll right itself soon though, it takes time to get used to knowing your baby and vice versa. But ultimately follow your own instinct.

nic2075

Sorry Lilian, I'm trying to remember when I fed DS. I work in ounces so not sure what it is in mls.
I BF for the first couple of weeks with DS the changes to Formula. I remember starting with 2oz then when he started draining nearly everybottle I upped to 3oz then 4 and so on. That was my HV advice.
I do remember that what I was feeding him was close to Gina Fords recommendation.

Have you spoken to your HV? She has seen you and DS the most and should be the best person to advise you.
Sorry that wasn't much use, I feel for you. It's so hard when everyone is telling you different things.
Now that you've cut it back dramatically and he's crying a lot, maybe you could try him with the odd oz when you think it's a hunger cry. Don't give him a full bottle,but that little bit might be all he needs.

ETA I agree about pushing his 10pm feed back by even half an hour and giving slightly less the feed before.

lilian1977

I've just rang my HV, she's actually only seen him once but I got a really good feeling from her. She's advised to go back to what we were doing originally but reduce his 10pm feed to try and stop the vomiting. So we're going to do that today, and call her back first thing tomorrow to let her know what happened.

Thank you very much all for the advice - it's so hard to know what to do especially when no one actually told me what he 'should' be having! The Midwife that's been coming out to see us has known what we're feeding and seen his weight gain (1oz a day since he came home from hospital after he lost his birth weight) and never said it could be a problem.

I'll keep you posted!

jillie1974

everything is guidelines as no 2 babies are the same. I used to make up what the box said and see how K got on. If he was leaving an oz or 2 over several bottles, i dropped it down. If he was then draining the bottles over a few days i'd increase the amount.

If he is bringing milk up, he maybe taking in too much air when he's sucking. This can cos a bubble which when it bursts will bring the milk up. Try stopping the bottle half way through and winding him then give him the rest of the bottle.

he may not be hungry at 10pm as well. maybe try waiting till he's crying for the botltle (not sure if you go off 'times' or feed on demand) we did 'feed on demand' and found we had hardly any problems

lilian1977

It's not always 10pm, it's when he starts fussing, so can be up to 11.30pm. We already stop his bottle a few times to wind him because he does get it quite badly. We also realised we were using a couple of 1m+ bottles so have gone back to the 0m+ ones in case he's taking the milk too quickly.

emsywoo123

lilian1977 wrote: »

It's not always 10pm, it's when he starts fussing, so can be up to 11.30pm. We already stop his bottle a few times to wind him because he does get it quite badly. We also realised we were using a couple of 1m+ bottles so have gone back to the 0m+ ones in case he's taking the milk too quickly.

We are going up a teat size thingy today........DS is getting a bit tired towards the end of the feed, and falls asleep, but then wakes half an hour later to finish it, so I am wondering if he is just finding it too hard through the size 1 teats.

At the end of the day, it's all trial and error really isn't it? They are safe, fed, clean warm and loved, the rest of it is jsut about seeing what works for you Well that's what I think anyway, but I am knackered :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

MERFE

emsywoo123 wrote: »

We are going up a teat size thingy today........DS is getting a bit tired towards the end of the feed, and falls asleep, but then wakes half an hour later to finish it, so I am wondering if he is just finding it too hard through the size 1 teats.

At the end of the day, it's all trial and error really isn't it? They are safe, fed, clean warm and loved, the rest of it is jsut about seeing what works for you Well that's what I think anyway, but I am knackered :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Completely agree with this, we all just make it up as we go along and hope for the best. So long as they are putting on weight it really doesn't matter I think. We changed bobs teats at 10 weeks to size two because like emsy he was getting tired before finishing the bottles he would have been draining before. Regards how much to feed them, I've never calculated for any of my 3 and just seen what they would take. My 2nd one was lovely and went a good 4 hours between feeds from birth it was great but Bob wouldn't for a long time and went through a stage of not even lasting 3 hours between them, all babies are different. The baby is growing well, you are doing a great job xx

jcr16

i used to make up 4 oz bottles , sometimes baby drained the bottle and wanted more, other times would only have half.