Hello! I'm new to these boards. I have read a lot online about the Baby Whisperer and I've ordered two books (solves all your problems, and secrets of) although I have not received them yet. My friend turned me to the BW, saying she had had good luck using it with her two children.
I recently adopted a newborn boy and he is exclusively formula fed. He is 5 weeks old, 10 lbs. 6 oz., and gets a special formula for reflux that has rice starch in it. He also has/had reflux and gets a medicine for it that seems to do the trick.
However, he eats far more than any child his age should. He has a 6 oz. bottle every 3 hours, so a total of almost 48 oz. This includes every 3 hours throughout the night.
My doctor suggested seeing if there was just a need for sucking and to give him a bottle with a little water or a pacifier, but no, LO screams bloody murder if he doesn't get a large amount of formula, and he does not spit up a lot of formula after his meals, so he is actually eating it all. If he gets less formula, he screams the whole day.
He cannot go more than 3.5 hours ever without a meal, and as I adopted him as a single mother, this has been very hard on me at night.
I tried cluster feeding last night, but was not sure how much each bottle should contain. Should each bottle be a full feeding, or should it be a smaller amount each time (say 4 oz. each)? Either way, he sucked down a full bottle (6 oz) at 6, 8, and 10 pm, and still woke up at 1:30 am for a feeding.
My doctor's advice was, "Well, if he's keeping it down and he wants it, keep shoveling it in." So I do, but it would be nice to go a bit longer than 3 hours between feedings.
Any thoughts or advice? Thank you.