5MO eating 4OZ per sitting

[MummyofJosh]

Hi

Wonder if anyone can give some advice. My LO is now 5 months old and was exclusively breastfed. He has started going from one wake in the night to two, does not settle for bed very well (before he would go down awake, no tears and fall asleep himself). He naps during the day without any problems.

He has been having baby rice in the morning and a veg puree at 5pm. I was exclusively breastfeeding and have decided now is a good time to move to the bottle. We have persevered with bottles and teats and found he likes Dr Browns bottles. The problem I have now is he only seems to take 4 oz in a sitting. Today for example he had breast upon waking (7.15), then baby rice at 8am. Bottle at 11am and took 4 oz, then made hungry sounds again at 12pm and took 4 oz of a fresh bottle.

I wonder if there is any advice on how I can get him to drink the full 7/8oz that a baby of his age is supposed to be drinking according to the guidelines on the formula and then go a longer stretch between feeds? I am concerned if I move to bottle during the day that he will not get the calories that he needs to sustain him during the night and will dehydrate. It is all extremely confusing ! 

[*Nicola*]

Hiya,

couple of thoughts .. how long have you been doing bottles for?  When we moved from breast to bottle with both girls it took a while for them to start taking the rec oz at each sitting.  Callie ended up having about 7/8 feeds a day of smaller feeds but she gradually consolidated them into 4/5 feeds bottles.

Also, what size teat are you using?  I know that the recommendation is to start BF babies with slower teats but you may find he needs to move up a teat size to keep him interested in the bottle.

Finally .. could he be holding out and filling up on solids?  How much is he having?

HTH x

[Maeve]

I would be interested to knoe the answer, my LO was bf until just over 2 months ago (8.5 months old), and she still does that. She gets 3 6 oz bottles and I don't think she has ever drunk the full 18 oz. It's usually 3 or 4. In the morning I put the remainder on her weetabix, but DS2 drinks the remains of the other 2 bottles.

[MummyofJosh]

Hi, after an awful night thought now is a good opportunity to reply.

He is using the size 2 teats, we tried him on size 1 and he got too frustrated with them, he is happy with the flow from size 2.

In terms of solids I don't think he waits to fill himself up on them, I only give him 'tastes' of whatever it is so he has max of 5/6 teaspoons of the food.

Yesterday I gave him breast first thing, then bottle at 10.45, bottle at 12 as was hungry (and took 4 oz at both), then bottle at 3.30 and took 5oz, breast at 6.30 (after the bath for the bedtime routine) and he snubbed the breast, I gave him a bottle instead and he took 7oz!. Then the fun started..... he went to bed OK, woke up after 45minutes and went and comforted him, he wouldn't stop crying so resorted to giving him some breast. Then slept until 9.45 (when he usually wakes for a feed), breast feed at that feed and went back to sleep until 1am. He then woke at 1am, 3am 4am 5am, each time was not settling back so popped him on the breast and he calmed enough to go back to bed. Come 5am he had a dirty nappy so changed him, fed (not that he took much at any of those times), would not go back to sleep so ended up in bed with my hubby and I where he slept until 6am.

It is my anniversary today and my hubby had planned to do me breakfast in bed and go in to work late, instead as we were up so early he decided to jump in the car and start his 1 1/2 hour commute to work in the hope of missing the traffic and finishing early :0(

I guess I am wondering whether I should have not given him the breast at all as he seemed happy with the bottle, and just expressed and ditched so I don't get engorged, or whether I should have introduced the bottles more slowly, eg one a day and build it up?
Now a very exhausted mummy :0(

[*Nicola*]

It sounds to me like he is using the breast for comfort during the night.   Is he able to settle to sleep independently?

((Hugs)) to you x

[MummyofJosh]

Hi

Yes he settles independantly no problem, goes to sleep away (and naps) and then 'talks' to his teddy until he goes to sleep.

We have never used a dummy/comforter, do you think this could be the problem?

Any advise on how I can get him out of this habit then? Should I just go to exclusively bottle feeding ??
x

[MummyofJosh]

Hey all, just to say last night was a bit better, he went from 7-10pm, then bottle at 10pm, 10-2.30am then breast, then 2.30-5.30 then breast. I think the night before was down to his teething pain. I can handle two wakings a night.

He seems to really like the bottles now (gets excited when he sees them) and will take up to 7oz so think we have cracked it. Hoping to feed him myself first thing in the morning and during the night when needed so feeling a bit sore today!!

[Hev1179]

Are you using formula in the bottles?? my daughter was great on breast milk but when formula was introduced she fed little and often, after about 2 weeks this turned in to full blown Dairy intolerance, it turned out that the formula was giving her trapped wind and bloating hence the small amount she could take at 1 time,

[*Nicola*]

((Hugs))

glad to hear things have settled down a bit

Often bf babies increase night feeds when they begin to move to bottles.  Give him lots of skin to skin contact during the day so he doesn't miss out

x

[kaynay]

I thought 7 to 8 oz bottle are only for Formula at that age - 5 mom? 5 oz or 6 should be legitimate for your 5 mo old if the content is breastmilk...I have a 5 mo old when I have to pump when I am at work for instance I get 4 or so oz if he was feeding he woudl probably get about an oz more (so Tracy says in her book they usually get about an oz more when actually feeding vs. pump) I think 4 oz could be ok if he is having solids too? My 5 mo I just started giving him 6 oz in 2 bottles a day of breastmilk since I am back at work and he is going between 4 and 5 feedings a day.

[shark]

As a full time pumper, I can tell you that DS takes 4OZ EBM per feed so if your lo was EBF prior to starting bottles, it may just take some time for his little tummy to stretch and accept larger volumes of food (breastmilk volumes are notoriously lower than formula volumes).