7 Weeks - Almost 8oz, where to go next?

[flamingpanda]

She was a big baby to start with but she seems to be taking more and more formula and I'm not sure where we go once she gets to a full bottle and wants more.

Most of the time she will take 5-6oz but every now and then she will take 7-8oz. Is this normal for 7 weeks? If she keeps going at this rate she'll be emptying the bottle by 2.5 months. I have an appointment at the docs tomorrow and I will mention it then but I wondered if perhaps she should be on the hungry baby milk? Or if I should be giving her something more. It just seems like a lot of volume for what must be quite a small tummy.

Anyone have similar experiences?

 

[skunkpixie]

I was beginning to wonder the same thing! DD3 started taking upto 6oz per feed at 4 weeks, and sometimes wanted a top-up 1-1.5 hours later! I think she has calmed down a bit now and takes 4-6oz every 2.5-3 hours.
Once baby is taking 8-9oz per feed and lasting less than 2 hours between feeds, then hungry baby milk could be the way to go, but I wouldnt swtich until then. Keep her on first milk for as long as possible as its more "breast milk like" and Hungry baby milk is more like cows milk and is harder to digest (hence tricking them into feeling fuller for longer whilst still taking the same calories and nutrients etc). xxx

 

[flamingpanda]

Ah, thank you. I didn't know that about the hungry milk. I guess we'll see how long we can last then.

 

[shx]

Our lo was the same but we found we never had to up her milk to more than 8oz and she still went 4 hrs in between, shes always been a very big baby too! Id try and stay away from hungry milk as it can make them constipated x

 

[CoffeePuffin]

I'm not keen on hungry milk but if she's feeding a vast amount very frequently then it may be the way to go.

My LO only takes just over 4oz a feed and she's almost 4 months!

 

[flamingpanda]

Yeah she's emptying 7oz more often than not now.

She's also started sucking on her hands the last two days. From what I've read this can be a sign of hunger, but surely not? I'm tempted to give my HV a call tomorrow and see if she has any advice. I don't want her to be hungry but at the same time I'm not sure she is hungry on 5-7oz every 4 hours...

 

[MrsEngland]

If you possibly can its better not to give hungry baby milk but I have no idea where I would go if my LO was like that. She's 7 weeks and takes 4oz every 3-4 hours.

 

[rory83coyotes]

Are you sure she isn't one that needs sucking for comfort. I don't know what your opinions are on them but you might try a pacifier to see if she just needs more sucking.

 

[christina1612]

Out of interest how often does she poop? My 8 week old would drink nearly 7 oz every 3-4 hrs n almost very nappy was dirty. Turned out he was allergic to the formula hence why he was having so much because it wasn't giving him enough substance. He is now on nutramigen and take4-5 oz every 3-4 hrs and ony 2 dirty nappies a day.

Or you could try offering feeds every 3 hours, they tend to take less then n usually they can only stay full for three hours according to my health visitor.

Hope this helps

 

[flamingpanda]

We gave her a dummy when we suspected she wanted that comfort. She does like it and it can often settle her after a feed if she's still unhappy. I personally find it a bit of a pain because the moment it falls out she snaps awake. I much prefer it if she manages to settle herself, which she's entirely capable of. That said when she's screaming it's sometimes just easier to give it to her.

She will poop anything up to twice a day, but some days it's just once. Some days she skips a day. So the answer is it varies but mostly her nappies are just wet. We actually had her at the doctors early on because she went 5 days without a poo when we switched to formula but she's a lot more regular now. What I would say is she has really stinky wind, not sure how normal that is? It really seems to upset her too.

I might give every 3 hours a go. Thanks for the advice everyone. I appreciate the ideas, I never had any idea feeding would be so complicated!

 

[Lola90]

Just thought I'd give my experience of a veeery hungry baby.
By 9 weeks we'd got to 9oz bottles and I was seriously considering hungry baby formula but this week Ethan has suddenly gone down with his feeds to about 7oz. I think he must have been needing the extra milk for a big growth spurt and now he's stopped. The peak of his feeds also coincided with him STTN. You could always try hungry baby formula but if you want you could leave it a few more weeks and see