Hungry Little Monster - is this normal?

[SuperMummy]

Hi all

This is my first post on this forum - so hope you can help me

My little boy Charlie was born on Xmas day (his due date amazingly) and is 3 weeks old tomorrow. I am both breast feeding, expressing and supplementing with SMA gold formula.

He is a very hungry little boy, eating almost every 2 hours... sometimes he goes 3, mostly during the day, but at night it's virtually every 2 hours. He doesn't seem to settle very well during the night either... he hates being put down to sleep. We have to feed, burp and change him, then get him to go to sleep on us (lying on our chests) before we gently lie him down in his moses basket.

At the start, I was giving him 15min breast or 50ml expressed milk but this doesn't seem like enough, and today he easily had 100ml of expressed breast milk.

He is also having around 120ml of the SMA each time I give him formula.

So now during the day he'll have 20 minutes of breast in total - (often he falls asleep, so I burp him and then he'll want a bit more).

Or he'll have around 80ml of expressed breast milk, or around 120ml of SMA.

Does this seem too much for a child that is only 3 weeks old?

Any stories/help would be muchly appreciated. Thanks v. much

 

[mommyof3co]

We use ounces so I dont' know exactly howmuch it is but if he seems hungry, isn't spitting it up after eating that much I would say it's fine. Babies know when they are full/hungry so I always fed on demand. At that age we were only breastfeeding and he nursed for atleast 20min total on both sides, sometimes 45min even

 

[Vickie]

Sounds like you have a hungry boy there! Has he done this since birth or is it a recent development? He may have hit a growth spurt. The amount that babies will eat during growth spurts is insane! I would feed him what he wants as long as it's not upsetting his tummy and he's not spitting a lot back up.

Welcome to the forum

 

[Pyrrhic]

This is EXACTLY the same as Niamh, right down to the falling asleep on our chests!

I breast feed, and Niamh is almost permanently attached. Feeding her takes a good 45mins. I would try to cut out the formula as much as possible and try to feed for longer. I was told by my lactation midwife that formula expands their stomachs, so if you're feeding formula and breast milk then they won't be getting full up enough from just the breast milk. Niamh nurses every 2 hours too. So you guys are very similar to us.

 

[greenkat]

My Neve's fed about ever 2-3 hours since birth (she's 3 months old now, tickers a bit wrong). Except now she'll sleep between her bedtime at 8 and about 2am. I don't give her formula though - just bf.
Your LO does sound hungry though, but I would take it as a good sign rather than a worrying one - as long as your LO is gaining weight well. It is hard, like you have no time to do anything else but it does get easier.

 

[vanessa]

Hi there! May was due on xmas day too but came a wee bit early!!

I had this exact experience around the same time (last week ish)...I am pretty sure it was a growth spurt but May went from a contented little baby to a frantic feeder (esp. at night like your little one). I realised quite quickly that I wasn't producing enough milk for her as she was sucking and getting more frustrated....I supplemented for a couple of days and then gave up and moved her onto formula as of 2 days ago...she's still taking a lot but I can see how much now and OMG!!! she sleeps better, is more content and goes around 4-5 hours between feeds....feels like heaven!!

Good luck x

 

[SuperMummy]

Thanks for your replies everyone - sorry it's taken me so long to respond. Thanks for putting my mind at ease, I will continue to feed until he feels full and will go from there. We are having him weighed on Tuesday and i'm sure he's put on weight, so I think he's a pretty happy little baby! Except at night!!!

He had a formula bottle this morning and went 4 hours - at which point we woke him to have his next feed, so it's obviously working!

Cheers

 

[Blob]

Thats how my LO feeds, she now might last 3-4hours if i'm lucky I only BF so its quite alot ha ha!! At night they feed more as your milk is better during the night