advice for the inlaws?

[x_WelshGirl_x]

Hey, our nephew will be 3 weeks old on wednesday and is on 4oz every 3 hours (although when I fed him twice on monday night he wouldnt take any more than 2oz, the MIL tries always to get him to take all his bottle as she thinks if he feeds more in the day he will sleep longer at night which tbh pisses me off, hes 3 wks old, if hes hungry hes going to wake!) well she asked my OH whether they should put him on hungry baby milk already. I didnt really know what to say as my son was only on 3oz if that at 3wks old, and I was more than happy to wake up in the night to feed him. (the mil is taking over their baby, the mum has a disability, but she WONT even try to feed him and the bil has gone back to work today. Apparently they asked the HV today but she didnt answer the question?
Thanks in advance x

 

[skunkpixie]

Your nephew definatley does not need hungry baby milk! 3 hourly feeds at 3 weeks old sounds great. My DD2 would only go 2-2.5 hours between feeds at that age.
Hungry baby milk is for older babies closer to weaning age who are drinking huge amounts of formula to try and satisfy their big appetite. So unless a baby was taking 8-9oz every 2 hours etc or drinking so much milk they throw it all up then want feeding again straight after then I would not advise hungry baby milk. It can be dangerous to give hungry baby milk too young as it doesnt contain anymore fat or calories than first milk, and can result in them not getting enough nutrients. xxx

 

[aimee-lou]

Agreed with above.

No need for Hungry baby milk - just a reality check needed that he's 3 weeks old.

 

[x_WelshGirl_x]

Thank you! I will certainly tell them. If they dont listen thats up to them then atleast I will have advised. Then again my OH told them he was wrapped up too much and apparently mil moaned about us telling them! Some people!

 

[Vickie]

Mine is 3.5 months old and still only takes 3 ounces some feeds, some he takes 5-6 ounces. And he still wakes at least once a night for a feed. My husband's family is pushing for us to try to force him to sleep through but I absolutely refuse to do it at this age--not sure why it's their concern anyways!

We don't have the hungry milk here but from what I've heard of it it's not recommended until 6+ months anyways?

 

[CandyDay]

AT 3 weeks old LO shouldn't be sleeping all night. I would think something was wrong with LO if slept all night. I don't understand why ppl think infants should sleep thru the night or sleep for long periods of time.
My 9 month old wakes for feeds during the night and to me that is normal.

https://kellymom.com/nutrition/starting-solids/solids-sleep/

Recent research suggests that longer stretches of deep sleep are associated with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and babies who sleep longer/deeper may be more vulnerable to SIDS

The idea that solids will help your baby sleep is an old wives’ tale that has been disproven by medical studies. Feeding your baby solids or formula in an attempt to make baby sleep longer is not a good idea for several reasons


Because a baby’s stomach is very small, it can only hold small amounts of breast milk or formula. This is why baby wakes frequently to eat. Once she gets a little older and her stomach can hold a little more, she will be able to nurse or bottle-feed less frequently, and wake less often because of hunger. Most pediatricians, however, don’t recommend letting your newborn sleep for more than four hours without feeding
https://www.justmommies.com/articles/sleeping-through-the-night.shtml

https://kellymom.com/parenting/nighttime/sleep/

 

[sg2011]

Well, lots of babies naturally sleep through the night on their own without any encouragement from their parents. My daughter started gradually sleeping longer stretches at night at 4 weeks. She is now 4 months old and does not wake for a night feed and sleeps about 9 hours so I don't think it is unnatural or unhealthy when babies start sleeping through nor do I think we need to be alarmist about SIDS either (since no one really has a clue what really causes it anyway)....otherwise we would be told to wake our babies at night and no doctor I have seen has recommended routinely waking a baby at night once baby was out of the initial newborn period. All babies are different.

 

[skunkpixie]

I agree with above post. Aslong as you havnt been medically advised to wake your baby to feed I would only wake baby for a feed in the first couple of weeks if they had gone longer than 4 hours without a feed. After that they will begin increasing the amounts they drink and naturally sleep for longer stretches at night.
I must admit it was alarming when my DD2 started sleeping for 4-5 hours stretches at night right from the first week or so. But she did feed every 2-2.5 hours during the day so still got enough milk overall. xxx

 

[Fliss]

My mother keeps suggesting Hungry Baby for Nate and I keep shooting her down - my doctor told me that he's looked at the ingredients on the types of formula and that there is NO discernible difference nutritionally - HB formula is simply designed not to be broken down as well as formula (which is in itself harder to digest than BM) so it is designed to constipate them.

3oz is fine for a 5 week old - my 12 week old is having between 6/7 oz a feed - however as its your nephew I can see its harder to advise

In my experience HV will NOT help you with formula questions because they must not be seen to promote FF over BF.

Which pisses me off as I COULD NOT BF my son - I tried EVERYTHING and did not have enough for even half of each feed... but that's a whole other rant!

 

[x_WelshGirl_x]

Thank you all for your advice we will certainly pass it on. When Alex was 8wks old she said to me "oh a couple more weeks he can have some baby rice so he will sleep longer" I didnt need him to sleep longer but we were lucky as by 10wks he was sleeping through anyway.
Its hard giving them advice as they dont seem to listen. But we can only give advice whether they take that on board or not I doubt it x