Is this good advise or old fashioned advise??

[loving_life]

My baby is 9 weeks old today and was exclusively breast fed up until 2 weeks ago when my milk supply sort of just stopped
So now she has is combi fed.
She had a hospital appointment today to see a specialist as her weight gain is very slow.
The Doc basically told me she is fine and healthy but my milk supply is too low to feed her properly and as I know nothing about FF, he gave me some tips.
I obviously demand fed with the breast and she used to feed every hour or two.
Now she can go longer and feeds from a bottle almost every 2 - 3 hours.

The Doc told me NOT to feed on demand any more and give her 130ml bottles every 3 - 4 hours and every week up it by 5ml (is that correct??) And basically try and make her wait the full 4 hours for her next feed. I don't like the thought of making her wait as she screams when she is hungry, and I mean SCREAMS! Lol.
He said the golden rule is to never wake a sleeping baby for a feed after 6pm, but if in the day she sleeps more than 4 hours (I wish ) to wake her but if she sleeps right through from 6pm to 3am, don't wake her.
Right now she sleeps from about 9/10pm till anytime between 3 and 5am for her next feed and then sleeps through till about 8 or 9am.

Night times are fine but do I really have to make her wait 4 hours for a bottle? He also told me to only offer her the breast for her 1st feed in the morning.
I'm not sure if this advise is good or outdated. Why can't I just feed her when she wants?
I'm so confused as I know nothing about FF. Any advise is VERY much appreciated

 

[lozzy21]

No thats terrible advice, most FF babys will go longer inbetween feeds but your still supposed to feed on demand. You up the bottle when LO finishes it all.

I would speak to a lactation consultant first, the more formula you give the less your LO will want to BF and may end up rejecting the breast all together. Is it actually slow weight gain or just not as fast as they want weight gain?

 

[bubbles123]

No hun, you should not make her wait 4 hours for a bottle if she is hungry. You should feed her. Some babies (my son for example) are simply not able to go 4 hours. He always needed to be fed every 3. You will probably find that baby will fall into their own schedule once on formula, probably every 3-4 hours ish but if they don't or seem hungry before then feed them when they want. I find it best to think of formula volume in terms of 24 hours. So at the moment my daughter's pattern is 5x6oz feeds which is roughly 30ozs; but she could have this as 6x5oz feeds or even 7 or 8 4oz feeds. It's the same at the end of the day. Demand feeding is still very much the recommendation as far as I'm aware. I'm sure you're doctor has his reasons for suggesting what he has; maybe he is worried she is snacking and not consuming enough and wants to see if she will take more on a schedule. Either way, if your baby is hungry you should feed her.

 

[Rachel_C]

That's TERRIBLE advice! I would seriously look into complaining.

For a start, breastmilk has just as many calories as formula, as the table here shows - https://kellymom.com/nutrition/milk/milkcalories/ Obviously that's all average and different formulas may vary slightly, but formula companies try to match the nutrients in breastmilk so formula isn't going to ever have much more than that. So for him to say breastmilk isn't enough is rubbish. I'm not sure about your supply issues so assuming that you do have issues (have you talked about it in the BF section? Lots of tips for boosting supply around!), as long as you offer formula after a BF if LO wants it, whether you have one ounce or 20 ounces of breastmilk doesn't matter, LO will just take any extra she needs from the bottle after.

Current advice is to demand feed whether baby is FF or BF, because babies do know what they need. His advice about waiting 4 hours is ridiculous, especially for a baby who is gaining weight slowly. If she's hungry before that, that means she hasn't got enough milk/calories left in her system. You want her to feed more often not less often.

With increasing feeds, I would still offer the breast first if you want to do that. Then offer top-ups, but be led by her. If she drains the bottle, make an ounce more and keep doing that until she leaves a bit in the bottle. Don't try to encourage her to finish though, just let her push it away when she's done. Then next time, offer an ounce more than you did last time. If she is leaving more than an ounce, reduce the next feed by an ounce. You do waste a bit of milk that way but I'd much rather waste a bit of milk than have a hungry baby or one who is overfed.

My first one was FF, my second BF. Honestly, in terms of when they were/are fed, they are pretty much the same. Baby led is the best way for baby. Don't worry too much about not knowing about formula feeding. As long as you know how to prepare and store it safely, just feed along the same lines as you would BF. And tell that doctor to get some training!

 

[loving_life]

I have seen a LC and a BF'ing nurse & it is my supply. I noticed that I felt the let down about 5 to 10 mins into a feed, she "gulped" milk (where I heard her swallowing) less and less and gradually I stopped even feeling a let down. I don't know why that happened, I did everything right but my milk still stopped.
She now really uses my breast as a dummy, I feel the let down like once a day, if that
So she is pretty much mostly FF now.
Her weight gain is pretty slow. Born 1 week late weighing 6lb 3oz, in the first week she went down to 5lb 14oz and then back up to 6lb 3.5oz at around 2 weeks old.
At 6 weeks 5 days she weighed 7lb 4oz. At 8 weeks she was 8lb 5oz and today at 9 weeks she is 8lb 9oz.

So I should demand feed then as I suspected? I knew he was wrong, he was very old fashioned, I could tell! Is 120ml ok to offer her? Is that too much or too little? How many bottles in 12 hours? Sorry for all the q's

Add: I will still offer the breast throughout the day but she rarely gets anything from me & just falls asleep

 

[bubbles123]

Have a look on the side of the formula box, there is a feeding guide there. This gives you A VERY ROUGH guide as to what to offer your baby and how much you would expect a baby to need in 24 hours. However, your baby may need more or less so don't worry if this is the case. Generally, a baby who is fully formula fed would be having 5 150ml (5oz) or 6oz bottles by 2 months. However, as you baby was breast fed I would guess they probably were having smaller volumes of milk more often and this maybe a bit much to offer her straight away. I would start off offering her 4oz feeds (120ml) when she seems hungry. Don't make her finish the bottle. If she is regularly finishing this and still seems hungry then add an extra oz and so on. There is no rule about how many bottles, it's how ever many your LO wants. As I say, the table on the box gives you a rough idea but is only a guide. Your LO will guide you as to how much she wants. Good luck!

 

[Saphira]

Oh wow. My daughter's 8 months old and still very rarely goes 3hrs+ inbetween feeds. In a sitting she'll drink anywhere from 70-170ml and the recommended amount for her age is to give 200ml but we'd be wasting a whole lot of milk if we made that much every time. That's probably why she's hungry so often during the day though, since she eats less than the average per bottle. At least she sleeps through the night.
When she was your little one's age she wanted a bottle on average every 2hrs. on the dot. We always fed on demand or else she would scream the place down desperate. So, that's all we've ever known, but every baby's different of course. Your daughter will let you know when she's hungry loud and clear I'm sure!

 

[Vickie]

We feed on demand as well. He's in a rough routine but that's of his own making.

A general rule of thumb when deciding how much to give if they drain the bottle up it an ounce, if there is more than an ounce leftover lessen the amount by an ounce. There should always be some left in the bottle

(my kids have NEVER gone by the guidelines, they've always taken in way less than what the "recommendations" say)

 

[Bats11]

I feed my little girl every 3hrs, as far as I know Im sure its every 3-4hrs with formula, I also stopped BF 2wks ago, and yes she would feed on demand when I was breastfeeding.

You can offer your breast to her when ever you like, inbetween her formula feeds, if she takes your boob then all good, if she doesnt then its ok cause that just means she's full from her previous feed.

 

[baby_mama87]

Definitely not good advice! Honestly I don't know where some docs get their info! I would definitely feed on demand hun, my DS is 15 weeks and still eats Every two hours daily then sttn from 9pm to 7am. I couldn't bare to make him wait his crys are piercing when he is hungry!

Xxx