MSE Newborn to 1 year Baby Club 1

Gillyx

In my experience there is no average for age and what the formula box says is an over estimate IMO. Most babies take less per feed and more feeds. All formulas are the same no matter how they're marketed, and as far as I'm aware Aptamil have had to remove the closest to breast milk from there advertising. Cow and gate and Aptamil are the exact same company and if you line the boxes up and check ingredients they are almost identical. So it's really which you want to chose. I have heard SMA can bung some babies up as it is quite rich but it could be ok.

I would say the comfort feeding could be a reaction to reflux, as if it's burning or uncomfortable they will suckle all night. The milk soothes the burning and pain but it also causes it so it's a vicious circle. Id be inclined to visit the GP and ask about silent reflux, as if you got it sorted she may not want to feed just as frequently, it will be worse at night as she is laying down. Xx

aventurine

moneypenny21 wrote: »

After another disasterous nights sleep (number 10 in a row now), I've decided to try small one on a night time formula bottle as her last feed and see if that helps her sleeping. She can do one three hour stint then wakes up every hour until morning for a 20-30 minute feed and doesn't always settle down in the intermitting time between the end of that feed and the start of the next - by which time we're on our knees - I thought it might have been a phase but 10 days on its getting worse not better

Any pros/cons for the brand of formula to give? Also - how much should I give her? She is rubbish at knowing when she is full on breast milk so if I let her have 10oz she would guzzle it all & then throw it back up. How much do bottle fed babies have at 7 weeks, about 6oz?

Thanks in advance you lovely people!

Hi Moneypenny21,

My baby is 7 weeks, and I make up 6oz bottles for her - sometimes she guzzles it all, others she'll only have 3 or 4oz from it. I feed her Aptamil - apparently it's what most midwives recommend as it's meant to be the closest to breastmilk.

I've just had my HV round, and she listened to LO grunting and being generally unsettled in her moses basket whilst we were talking. She then fired off loads of questions and concluded (as I pretty much suspected) that LO also has silent reflux. I have also been a bit reluctant to go to the GP to get medication, especially as I have read that infant gaviscon can cause constipation...but she assured me that everyone she's dealt with has had nothing but praise for it, and have never mentioned constipation. So I'm not a hundred percent what to do at the moment, as my baby doesn't scream or pull her legs up in pain, and stopped arching her back during feeds when I stopped breastfeeding. But she obviously is in some discomfort - grunting, wriggling, posseting small amounts after feeds, hicupping, mucousey nose, and feeding more often than she should (resulting in a 13lb baby!!). Meh, decisions, decisions...I probably will phone the GP and maybe try the gaviscon, as I don't want LO to be suffering unneccessarily, I can ask for the lowest prescription too, as she isn't an extreme case.

Sometimes it's not easy knowing what's best to do

Gillyx

It doesn't bung all babies up aventurine. Even if it does there are ways around that too constipation is easier solved if the gaviscon solves the reflux. Definitely go see the GP, you can try the gaviscon and if it makes things worse then you can stop giving it and go back to try something else.

Xx

moneypenny21

Thanks Marta that is really helpful - although she is 7 weeks she is over 12lb now. We have 2 of the ready made cow & gate bottles from the hospital left over, they have not been opened and are in the cupboard. They are 3oz each. I might just try her on one of those and see what happens - if she wants more she can have a second or part of a second. I can usually only express 2oz per side so I know the baby gets more than that so I assume its around 4oz.

Cue projectile vomit probably! I've been trying to analyse the feeding data from iBabyFeed (the scientist in me!) and there is no pattern to lengthening the time between feeds or her sleeping for longer stints at night. All I can see is that the length of time between daily feeds was getting longer then its been getting shorter in the last two weeks.

Onward we go!

Gillyx

At her age moneypenny the amount of milk in a 24 hour period will note decrease, so the less feeds during the day will mean more feeding at night. Could you offer more boob during the day or would she just refuse to take it?

I found we didn't nail our night time wakings until he started to take more milk in the day. His milk intake didn't increase just his daytime milk intake increased. X

dizziblonde

The length of time between feeds is quite likely to get longer then shorten though - you just get on an even keel and think you've started to crack it, and a growth spurt hits and suddenly you've spawned an insatiable monster who just is hanging out the "oi feeeeed me" sign every 10 seconds for a week or so before going back to a more relaxed pattern.

For what it's worth (no doubt I'll be shouted at for being wrong but it worked for us) - I deemed a bottle feed to be "done" when she went from a proper glug glug glug type suck to a fluttery not really doing it to get the milk out comfort-type suck (if I wasn't sure I'd test it with a dummy - if there was utter indignation at no milk coming out she wasn't done yet, if she just continued sucking happily she was fine... yes I was terrified of overfeeding and stomach-stretching and all the obesity bottle-feeding scaremongering) and quantity wise I'd always aim to have a little bit left in the bottle - I'd move up an oz when she was fully draining the previous amount with some degree of consistency over a few days. I kept one eye on the recommendations on the side as a rough guide - but accepted babies differ and it was just a basic guideline.

Personally I always tell people to go for whatever formula they know their shops nearby are likely to have decently stocked as a starting point - our local Tesco is effing terrible for running out of Cow and Gate in particular which is a pain in the bum sometimes! I know a friend found SMA was terrible on her child's tummy recently - but having said that, me and my brother were both fine on the stuff - different brands suit different babies!

dizziblonde

Oh and I'm 30 weeks today... 33+5 is where it all went wrong for us last time - please start crossing fingers, legs, toes and whatever else for us... I'd cry with relief if I made it past about 35 weeks this time! Can't say I'm coping well with it - had to stop the anxiety meds so the nightmares are back - spent a good 2 hours sobbing last night for fear I'll say something in this birth that'll get social services back onto us and they'd take Erin away - and I think it's going to be like this for the remainder of the pregnancy... coupled with being in pain (docs has prescribed a mountain of codeine but I'm obviously trying to cope as much as possible with just paracetamol) and very very isolated with no way of getting out and about it's going to be a very miserable existence for the remainder.

moneypenny21

Sorry I missed some posts earlier, took me that long to reply to one (baby crying!) then I went out I only just saw them.

Hmm the plot thickens here! What Aventurine describes could be my baby! She grunts, wriggles, clears her throat, always sicks up after a feed, wants to feed lots, about 5 lots of hiccups a day, mucousy nose etc. Once last night I heard her waking up with a choking cough. The increased wakings

So Gilly if she has more feeds in the day, technically she should wake up less at night? (the midwife seemed to suggest that might be the case when she came in the first few weeks - said as long as she had plenty in the day then she would need less at night and not to wake her up) - if I offered it to her she would constantly take it, I've never ever seen her refuse being fed!

Ooh I might hang fire on the bottle tonight and see if I can speak to the HV tomorrow.

Thanks for your help. I think I'd decided on the Cow and Gate ready mixed milk if we do have a night feed bottle. Does anyone use the ready mixed stuff?

missbunbury

marta - when A started leaking poo every time I moved up to the next size of nappy and that seems to have sorted it. There's a wide weight range on them but I think it was a length thing, the second size goes up further on her tummy so seems to hold it in better!

dizziblonde

I use the ready mixed stuff if I'm out and about - tend to use powder in the house because otherwise I'd have been needing to take out a second mortgage when she was on a full set of feeds a day (and on a worthless house - thanks HS2 - that would be an achievement!)