15 weeks old and drinking inconsistent amount of milk.

[arial]

Hello everyone:

I am new to the breastfeeding forum.  Let me introduce myself.  My LO is 15 weeks old and he is currently drinking breastmilk in a bottle.  He has done so since day 3 since he was unable to latch well.  I have always wondered if he is getting too much of my milk since he always seem to be heavier than most other babies that I know.  He was almost 8 lb when he was born and now he is 16.6 lb (in our home scale).  He was consistently taking 4.5 oz of milk every 3 -4 hrs (he was on the 3 1/2 EASY) until recently when I increased his feedings little by little because he would cry after finishing his bottle and also because he was having nightwakings and someone told me in the post that could be hunger related (he still gets up but he does not seem hungry, he tries to sooth himself and goes back to sleep).  Well, now he is taking 6.5 oz every 4 hours but the problem that I am having is that he is not consistently taking all his bottles.  In one meal, he really hungry and drinks it all in one sit and in the other one, we can barely get but 2 -3 oz.  He is currently getting 5 bottles a day.  4 of the bottles are 6.5 oz of breast and 1 bottle of 6z of formula (I never made enough milk so I had so supplement from the beginning).  In the past, he would drink first bottle of the day (6AM) in five minutes but this morning I can only get 2.5 oz and it has been with great struggle.  Also for information, his last meal is 10:00PM (dreamfeed) and it is 6oz of formula.


Does anyone know how much is he supposed to be drinking?  Am I giving him too much?  Why is he drinking inconsistent amounts of milk?  HELP!!!!

[Samuel's mum]

I've just mentioned this in another post so my little book is open at the right page.

The Pocket Guide to Breastfeeding and Human Lactation (Riordan and Averbach) says:

Average infant breastmilk intake:

Birth to 24 hrs: quarter oz
24hrs-2 weeks: 1 - 1.5 oz
2 weeks - 1 month: 1-3 oz
1-2 months: 2-3 oz
2-4 months: 3-4 oz
4-6 months: 4-5 (It stops there).

Because of the way breastmilk is digested more efficiently (hence breastfed babies poo less then formula babies after they're a few weeks old) the quantities of breastmilk are smaller than what you would give a formula fed baby.

However this is an average!! So there are bound to be babies who need a little more and perhaps your LO is one of them. It sounds as though he was dissatisfied by what you were giving him and you naturally responded to this and made an adjustment. I wouldn't worry about overfeeding him unless your doctor/ health visitor is concerned he is putting on too much weight. Ask your doctor for advice on this. Plenty of people have the opposite problem to you and are concerned about not enough weight gain. Try not to compare him to friend's babies - everyone is different.

I also wouldn't worry too much about him drinking inconsistent amounts as he is getting quite a bit over the whole day. Breastfed babies also vary their amounts during the day but mothers feeding with the breast just can't measure!

 

this morning I can only get 2.5 oz and it has been with great struggle.

If this is his first bottle after a long interval I can see why it might seem strange. See how the pattern goes. Did he feed OK later on in the day?

[arial]

Thanks for your help.  He did OK the day I initially wrote this note.  As a matter of fact, he less for almost all his meals that day.  I calculated that he missed 6-8 oz from his total day intake which should have been 32.5 oz of breastmilk/formula (dreamfeeding is formula and the rest is breastmilk).  The problem that I am having is that he is waking up early in the past 3 days.  I am not sure that it is a feeding problem, and initially I thought it was more a sleep problem so I decided to wait and see if it correct itself (sometime it does). This morning is his 3rd day to get up early.  He is been getting up at 4:30AM to 5 AM and usually we try to put him back to sleep for another hour before his wake up time at 6AM.  We have unsuccessfully put him to sleep, so regardless we turn on the lights at 6AM and start the day.  I feed him at 6:00AM.  The difference today is that he started wailing at 5:10AM for food and I had to feed him then.  Yesterday, he actually pretty good.  He ate almost all his meals.  He was only 2.5 oz away from his 32.5 oz.  Why is his intake so unpredictable?  What am I doing wrong?

[Samuel's mum]

I really don't think you're doing anything wrong.

Have a look at the massive spectrum of baby milk quantities being discussed on this thread from the bottlefeeding board!:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=12906.0

If most of your feeds are breastmilk: 32.5oz in a day is a LOT. 6 oz down from that - if mostly breastmilk is still fine.

Is he possibly showing signs of developing a new skill or about to do a growth spurt? You should expect him to be hungrier at certain times.

The sleep boards may be able to help with the early wakings. The wakings may or may not be related to hunger.

[arial]

Well, initially I thought it was a sleep problem and I posted it in the sleep section.  Then a moderator told me that it was most likely a hunger problem.  I upped the amount but still kept happening, then all of a sudden the wakings got better without much change to regimen. 

I thought about whether it was an issue of growth spur, but I am not sure it is because I thought he was going through a growth spur a couple of weeks ago.  Can they go through growth spurs so frequently?  I am starting to get really confused.....

Thanks for your suggestions