Not Eating Enough

[lins]

My lo is 4 months old.  I started solids two weeks ago on the advice of my health visitor - I also thought it was time because he was waking every three hours through the night again and had stopped gaining weight which I was told were signs.

Anyway he took to it really well not refusing anything and for a few days I had him on three meals because he was screaming for food and eating a huge bowl at one sitting - I thought it would be better for his system to spread it out.  But now I can't get him to take milk.  I have also been weaning him off my breast so he has 3-4 bottles a day and 2-3 breast feeds.  I don't know how much he takes from the breast but he usually only feeds for a couple of mins.

I have stopped giving him breakfast and have cut down his lunch and tea to a few spoons.  BUt that hasn't improved how much he takes.  Yesterday it was 1.5 - 2 oz at each feed 8am, 11.00am, 3.00pm then I breast fed him at 7pm and gave him a bottle at 11pm where he took 4 ozs - mostly cause I was worried and thought I would try and cram a few more calories in when he wasn't looking.  He woke up at 4 and breast fed but so sleepily I'm not sure how much he got.

I can't understand why he isn't starving.  His nappies are still wet and he is still passing solids - although not at every feed like he did when he was just on milk - 2-3 times a day.

I'm probablly just a paranoid mam cause he looks fine but I am so worried about him.  It says on the carton of formula powder I bought that he should be having 6-7 ozs 5 times a day.  Oh I forgot to say - he is 16lbs - not huge but not small either.  He was born 9lbs 4oz which was the 91st percentile but has slid down the scale since then to about 65.

Can you tell he is my first?!  Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Katet]

My thought is he actually went through a growth spurt  when he started night waking & at the time you introduced solids & he wasn't really all that ready for them in that he just needed more calories for the growth spurt. If you are still bf 2x day you would be amazed at how much he could be getting from those 2 feeds.
As long as he is giving you wet nappies & reasonably regular bm & gains weight & is happy I wouldn't worry.
Make sure you offer the milk before the solids as that is the most important part of his diet until about 9mo & offer the solids about 1/2 hour after a milk feed, so it is just topping up the milk.

[thitz]

Hello, my lo never drank as much as their 'supposed' to drink.  And she's happily at the 80th percentile in weight.  She typically drank about 25 oz at 4 months old, some days less and some days more.  She didn't get dehydrated or constipated. 

Maybe he's teething.  Mine got her first eye tooth at 4 months.

Also, what flow nipple are your using?  When I switched to a fast flow nipple, it was like a miracle.  She stopped squirming around all the over the place and took a good 5 ounces at once.

Good luck, Tarri