Forum : Mums

that does seem like very big gaps for such a young baby. ideally he'd be feeding every 3-4 hours consistently, but it is more about the total quantity of milk intake over a 24 hour period rather than how often. if he would consistently 8oz in each bottle it would be fine, but if he is only taking 5oz, then i dont think that is really enough. his weight gain will slow down the older he gets, but as long as he is still gaining all should be well. what has your health visitor said about this?

oh, he should be having 2 1/2 oz of milk per lb of his body weight.

The health visitor just by-passed what I said when I told her it worried me. She doesn't seem to like her job. He weighs 15lb so it doesn't seem like he takes enough. He was born at 6lb 13oz and has always eaten well, hence the great weight gain since birth, but the past 3 weeks he doesn't seem interested. He isn't poorly and the slow weight gain is already showing up

yes, going on his weight and his milk intake, it doesnt seem like enough, but all babies are different so it is a difficult situation. at that age my daughter was feeding every 3 1/2 hours - dont remember the exact amount (it was nearly 4 years ago!) she was taking but it was probably about 6oz. she was 6lb 1oz when she was born. i'd try speaking to another health visitor for suggestions. as i say, a slow in weight gain is normal as they get older, but you need to be careful about it as obviously a slow can quickly become weight loss which is obviously not what you want to happen.

No its not. I had a look in my older son's red book and at this age he was takin 7oz every 4 hours but slept 8 hours between at night which was fine. I cant force a bottle on my youngest as his stuborness is already showing in his personality. I live in a tiny village and she is the only health visitor to come to the gp surgery. I read somewhere their weight gain should start slowing down at 4-6 months and should only drop to 4 feeds at 7months when weaning has been established. My friends keep telling me it is fine and enjoy the sleep (as 2 of them have new babies too) but I'm not sleeping through worry.

it's hard and no you cant force milk on him. all you can do is offer and hope he'll take it! perhaps you should speak to a GP.
what you have read about only dropping down to 4 bottles at 7 months is based on a baby weaning at 6 months and of course not all of them get to 6 months before needing to be weaned (although none of this explains why your baby isnt taking much milk given he isnt near weaning age!). my daughter dropped all her night feeds and was sleeping through from 8.30pm until 6.30am from 6 weeks old, but she was feeding consistently every 3 hours during the day at that age, and then as she got older it spaced out. by the time she was 4 months old she was having 4 bottles a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner and one before bed) but they were full bottles and she was weaning (there was no way she was going to wait until 6 months old!). she was then down to 3 bottles a day from 7mths and 2 bottles from 8mths.

is he on a normal stage 1 milk?

Hi Clair, I had problems with my son taking milk when I stopped breastfeeding at 4 months and from 7 months he would only take the bottle asleep. If he has a nap mid morning try giving him a bottle when he's dropping off to sleep - I used to whip the dummy out and put the bottle in, took a few repeats of that before he started sucking but it worked for us so might be worth a try. If he's got used to having a smaller amount then he won't get as hungry as he should but if the milk starts to increase a little bit then his appetite should too.
Have you taken him to see the gp just to rule out ear infection or anything that might be affecting his appetite? Sometimes they don't always show the normal signs of being ill. Also some babies can teeth early, I know the average is 6 months for a tooth to come through but some babies get them earlier and they can grumble for weeks or months with them before one actually appears.
My only other thought is to check his whole routine and make sure he's not overtired, if he's not getting enough daytime sleep or too much then that could affect his appetite. It would be more normal perhaps for him to sleep a bit more in the day and wake in the early hours for a feed, to get an extra bottle in.
Its so difficult isn't it! I used to be worried sick about my son and had to count every single ml that he had.
I hope that he starts to take a bit more soon so you can stop worrying! xxx

He is on stage 2 milk but has been since 7 weeks on dr's suggestion. He went through a faze of screamin non stop 2 week ago and the dr sent him hospital to be checked over and he is fine. I have tried every way possible to get him on another feed but he spits it out and he refuses to let me put the bottle back in his mouth. He seems to sleep fine and is a very happy baby but I just feel stuck, I have even debated trying him on babyrice to see if that will get more food in him. The dr suggests I dont move him back to stage one as it could upset his stomach. He has been dribbling a lot so maybe he might have a tooth on its way. Just wish I had someone here with me as my husband is away so feel really lost with what to do and no-one to talk to about it. Thank you buffy13, I hope so too x

Isn't stage 2 the hungry baby milk? If so then it is designed to fill them up for longer so he will go longer between feeds on that milk but it doesn't contain any more calories than stage 1 so he'll be having less in 24 hours. So I personally would switch back to stage 1 and see how you go. I don't think it would upset his tummy too much other than he wouldn't be as full so might be a bit fussy until he got used to taking feeds more often again, as long as you were using the same brand.
He's too young for baby rice yet and you'd normally only wean from 17 weeks if you were sure they were hungry - I really would try changing the milk back to stage 1 if its the hungry milk that you're on now.
Must be hard with hubby away, mine works shifts so I feel like a single parent a lot of the time lol but at least he's there sometimes. We are all here to talk about anything if you are needing a chat! xxx

i completely agree with everything buffy has said. him being on stage 2 milk will more than likely be the reason he isnt taking anymore milk - like she said, it is designed to fill them up but it doesnt provide any more nutrition - therefore he is effectively having less than he should be simply by being on stage 2 milk. i totally agree - put him back on stage 1 and demand feed him. if you stick to the same brand of milk, then i see no reason at all why it would upset his stomach.
i also agree - dont give him baby rice. baby rice doesnt really contain anything so it wont get more nutrition in him - if anything it would have the opposite effect as it may make him take less milk. besides he's too young to be on any solid food, like buffy says - the minimum is 17 weeks. what you will need to bear in mind though is that when you do wean him, you need to make sure he has a high enough milk intake to be able to take solid food as otherwise when he weans his milk intake will just drop further anyway.
definitely put him back on stage 1 and demand feed him.