Snacker after transition to formula?

[epmoreno]

I just started transition our 3 month old son from breast to formula. He was used to drinking my milk occasionally from a bottle and was doing regular feeds every 3 hours.

He seems to be taking the formula well but barely drinks 4 oz. when looks like he should be drinking around 7 every feed. Now he also starts crying around 2 hours after the feed and I think he is hungry....

Is he becoming a snacker? how can I get him to drink more during the feed? he goes well through the night but i am not sure i should be going back to 2 hour routine during the day,....

Appreciate the advice !!!

[Lolly]

What flow teat do you have him on? Changing to a faster teat often sorts out issues like this, they get bored or tired if the flow is too slow so just take enough to take the edge of their hunger but not a full feed.

Another thing to consider is he may be ready to go a bit longer between feeds now so you could try a 3.5 hour EASY, that's quite common with formula fed babies as it takes longer to digest than breast milk so he may not be as hungry at 3 hours.

Laura

[epmoreno]

Hi Lolly,

I just upgraded his teat to a number 2 so we should be good in that front. I would really love to have him in a  3.5 hour routine but somehow he eats little and gets really hungry by 2 hours. Maybe I should just be more patient as I have really transitioning only for 2 days but I am really worried about him becoming a snacker.

[Lolly]

What you can do is use distraction or whatever you can to delay his bottle to get him to 3 hours. You may need to stretch him slowly at first, but if you can get a 3 hour gap between his first and second bottle that should mean he takes more and can then last longer until his third bottle. If he was going 3 hours between feeds when you were breastfeeding then he should be going at least 3 hours on formula.

You may find that the next size teat is better for him, he had to work harder at the breast to get his milk so he may well need a faster flow teat on a bottle, or a variflow teat he can control himself if your bottle type does them. It's worth a try!

Laura

[epmoreno]

Thanks a lot Laura for the advice.... actually, we did that this afternoon and.... it is starting to work !!! We took him for a stroll when he was getting unease on the second hour so he was asleep quickly and lasted one more hour. Still did not eat much more but at least we kept him there without too much stress.

Let's see hoe it goes tomorrow :-)