Advice On Finishing Bottles - New Mum

[tb2962]

I have a 6 week old baby and would like some advice on the amount she is having during her feeds. I am feeding on demand, she is only drinking small amounts at a time during the day, rather than the full bottle (or just leaving a small amount). At the moment she will only drink around 2 oz at a time (60ml) but then want some more fairly soon as she is hungry again. In the night time she will finish a full bottle of 4 oz, so I know she can drink that amount (she is satisfied when she does and always sleeps for at least 4 hours). I would love some advice on ways I can get her to drink more in one go, so I can get her into some sort of routine. At the moment its pretty random during the day - I can never tell when she will want to be fed next and seem to be feeding constantly. I usually make a bottle between 3-4 oz.

 

[smam]

Hiya,

My little man is 6 weeks old too, he's on atleast 5oz (I make 6 ozers but throw atleast half an ounce away), he normally goes four hours during the night and between three and four during the day. Does your LO have a dummy? I found sometimes D just wants to suck, rather than be actually hungry so was told to use that to stretch him to 4 hours rather than feed him (by the HV). He was only taking a couple of ounces then want more within an hour or two but now he's much more settled. HTH x

 

[AlwaysPraying]

You could try to put her off for a bit during the day. Distract her, play with her, bathe her to buy some time. She should be a little more hungry after that and will eat more. Aim for three hours so if she's fussing to eat at two hours see if shell wait a little bit. You may just be feeding her a tiny bit too soon during the day.

As for night feeds I think most kids do eat more in the night and eat it more easily so don't fret that too much. My boy has always fed much different at night than during the day.

 

[Mrs Doddy]

personally I would let her feed as she wants, she knows how much she wants xxx

 

[tb2962]

thanks everyone for your advice

 

[Tiny]

You could try and give a dummy next time your LO cries two hours after a feed, as it could be that she just wants to comfort suck. If she does, this might be a way to extend the times between feeds and probably the amount she takes.

If she doesn't want the dummy and does want her feed then of course give her, her bottle.

 

[ke29]

My lo does that, I keep feeding on demand as I work on the assumption he's snacking like we would.

 

[tb2962]

unfortunately she won't take a dummy - I've tried many, many times

 

[Tommymummy]

Hi, I have almost exactly the same here with my 6 week old! Little lad went down at 9pm and slept til 1, had a bottle and has since been up at 3 and now 5 grazing on his milk!! I make 5oz bottles but at these feeds he will prob only have 2-3oz. Then drops off. I try to stretch out his feeds but wil only take his dummy occasionally. Also he seems to almost constant windy between bottles and I find it hard to tell if he's hungry or windy!!

He has now fallen asleep on his bottle after 2 1/2 ozs so I guess he'll be back up in 2 hours!!

 

[Tommymummy]

.......oh few more sucks, now a grunt. He's wide awake!

 

[ke29]

I know how you feel, my Lo had around 3oz at 4, then woke again at 5.30 and had 0.5oz then again at 7.30 3.5oz. Hoping he'll sleep noe for a few hours at least im shattered!

 

[Tommymummy]

We're back on the bottle again at 8.50 so managed a couple of hours this time . So in 12 hours we've had 5 feeding sessions, that seems like quite a lot to me ? How about you? I know he's only taking a few ounces with some of these feeds tho.

Think I'm going to try to keep him awake longer whilst he's feeding to see if he can eat anymore....it's very tiring!!

 

[ke29]

up again at 9.30! boo hoo.

 

[smam]

My little man did that last week, had 5 bottles between 9pm and 1am then slept for 7 hours! He seems to want to cluster feed as a bf baby would some times gearing up for a long sleep! I remember saying to him "your a baby not a bloody camel!" lol! thankfully he hasn't done it since.

 

[Tommymummy]

T feeds slightly better during the day but has such bad gas, he feeds, sleeps, farts, feeds, sleeps, poos !!!!!
Am going to make more time winding at night to see if that's waking him.

 

[tb2962]

I sometimes manage to stretch it out to about 3 hours but then towards the end of the day she seems to start to feed more frequently. Oh well, if shes hungry shes hungry

 

[ShanandBoc]

I would not be trying to get a baby to finish a bottle. Let them eat how much they want, when they want. As they get older they will take more in one go and go longer between feeds generally.

They are only doing what comes naturally to them!

 

[ShanandBoc]

We're back on the bottle again at 8.50 so managed a couple of hours this time . So in 12 hours we've had 5 feeding sessions, that seems like quite a lot to me ? How about you? I know he's only taking a few ounces with some of these feeds tho.

Think I'm going to try to keep him awake longer whilst he's feeding to see if he can eat anymore....it's very tiring!!

Normal