16 week old not drinking enough?? - please advise

[Embovstar]

Hi Ladies,

Isaac is 16 weeks tomorrow and up until recently was drinking 5 x 5oz bottles a day. (25oz per day). His weight then dropped to 50th so was advised by the HV to increase bottles to 6oz when he empties them...

So, since then we have just been offering him 6oz per feed, but the problems are a) he is not emptying a single feed and b) he's only drinking approx 23oz a day, so less than before!

We are gving him Aptamil 1st milk and we use the med. flow teats.

What do you think to this? Should he be drinking more than this, or is this ok?

To add, when we got him weighed on Mon, his weight was picking up towards the 75th again. He stops drinking by pushing the teat out or just moving it around his mouth with his tongue, little monkey!

Please advise especially if you've been in the same situation.

Thank you
Nicola xx

 

[Lou+Bubs]

Hi Embovstar, Sorry to here you are having troubles with feeding. My Little girl has never really been a big drinker she was up untill 8 weeks, she was a big baby when she was born and was on the 98th percentile i kind of expected her to stay up near that line she dind not. She was on 5 oz bottle and never seemed to up to 6oz. I went through weeks of worrying about her as she dropped below the 75th percentile. Now at 5 half months you can see she has her own line just below the 75th. She takes about 24oz on average a day. I would say try not to worry too much as it can drive you mad. I can try help you with a few thing i have tried and what made it easier! What bottles is Issac on? And what teat size? How many hours does he go between feeds?

 

[Embovstar]

hi Lou,

Thank you for your reply...well, we are using tommee tippee bottles, and med flow teats size 2. He was falling asleep when we used the size 1

He tends to go anywhere from 3-5 hours between feeds.

We feed him at 11.30pm and he usually drinks 5oz, and then it goes like this:

07.30 (or as late as 8.30am when he wakes up) = 4oz sometimes 5oz
11.30 (or as late as 12.40 like today!) = 4oz
16.00 (today) = 4oz
19.30 = 4oz or 5 if we're lucky
23.30 = 5oz

I'm going to take him to see the HV again on Monday...and I know that I can't physically force him to drink the milk, but I'm just worried that he's not getting enough....my nephew was apparently drinking 9oz feeds when he was this age!!!!!

Isaac was 8lb at birth and was 15.4 at 15+3

Thanks again Lou

Nicola xx

 

[blahblahblah]

Dylan used to go through phases like this. One day he'd polish off all his bottles, and the next he'd leave half of them. We always found he picked them back up by himself sooner or later. The only thing we did that sometimes encouraged him to drink more, particularly if he'd been ill, was making it a bit warmer.

Try not to worry, he'll start taking more when he's ready.

 

[Embovstar]

making it a bit warmer.

Actually, I have found this does help, so I'll be sure to continue this.

Thank you

Nicola xx

 

[Lou+Bubs]

I went to get Lucie weighed yesterday and there was a little girl who was 15 weeks and drinking 7 oz Lucie only just started drinking 7 oz. Is Issac a windy baby? Just asking as Lucie has struggled with wind and was on TT bottles last month she was really bad i could her the wind in her belly. One of my mum friends gave her 2 brand new Dr brown bottles, so i tried her with these she has been so much better since then. And started drinking 7 oz without a fight.xx

 

[Lara310809]

My LO drinks an average of 18oz per day (30 is the recommendation), but that's normal for her, and she's more or less in the 50th centile. Remember that the guidelines on the pack of formula are just a guide, and your LO will show you how much they want. My LO "should" be taking 6oz bottles, but she will hardly ever finish them if we make them, so we offer a standard of 5oz, and half the time she doesn't even finish that. She eats more frequently, but still only has 4 or 5 feeds, because she sleeps through the night for 13 hours, so for that time she gets nothing.

I would say that if your LO is happy eating what he's eating, and he seems well, don't worry about it. Obviously if you or your HV are worried though, then you should discuss it.

 

[ellie27]

Hiya - I am surprised your HV was concerned.

Anna has never EVER taken more than 28oz a day and she is now 7 months- she was always on 5 x 5oz just like your Isaac.

I asked a few times 'should she be taking more milk' and HV she said as long as she is happy, peeing etc then its all good - I was worried as I was hearing others' LOs taking 40oz a day.

Anna was born around the 25th centile but went down to 9th for a while. At around 5 months and taking 25oz max a day she was above the 50th so obviously that was enough for her! Some babies need more but 25oz is more than enough for my Anna

 

[vicki morris]

my little boy is 11 weeks n 2 and has been put on peptie junior milk just b4 that he was on sma gold n drinking 6 and a half, then started playing with feeds n only takin 5, now he on the new milk im lucky to get 5 out of him, it smells funny and tastes funny but hoping he gets used to it and pics up with food. do those doctor brown bottles work? im begining to worry now as he is windy and on tommee tippiee bottles for wind but still seems to be windy wondering if that not helping with his feeding?? xxx