Ages and Amounts of Formula

[Jyates]

my dd is now 15 weeks she used to take 6 oz every 4 hours but about 4 weeks ago started takin 6-7oz every 3 hrs so i started her on baby rice as she started getting me up at night for her feeds ( and she used to sleep through from 9 weeks) her last feed is normally 8.30-.9.30pm. ahe now struggles to take 6 oz but still wants it every 3hrs

[LŠuren]

you probably need to cut back on solids, 15 weeks is really early to start

[Cecilia~Olivia's mom]

Hi everyone.  wow, it's been 2 years almost since I've posted on this forum

I do recall Olivia's pead saying 1 once for every hour = 24 ounces is healthy, broken up between feeds. (He also said babies need 16oz a day to survive & be in half decent health )

From birth to about 10 weeks she did 2 - 2.5 oz every 1.75 - 2.25hrs & at 3 mos she did 3 oz every 2.5-3.25hrs.  Towards 5 mos she was doing 16oz a day, big drop in ounces & huge change in baby - Lactose intolerant.  Switched formula to Lactose free, by day 3 she was doing 27 - 33 oz at 5 months, every 3.5 - 4hrs.

So, guess what I'm trying to say, it's hard to go by the book, I know i eat when I'm hungry, no matter what time of day & it varies everyday for me depending on my activities, so our lo's would not any different. 
Anyhow, HTH & you all will get through this challenging time..i did - thanks to BW!!.

[gabriels mum]

Hi Cecilia

Thanks for your message - ours continues to be a constant struggle (DS is 7.5months old, takes approx 11ounces/day, and has not gained any weight for 6 weeks!).  Why did you change to lactose free??  Did your DD show any signs of intolerance? Still wondering if this is our problem???

Gabriels Mom

[Cecilia~Olivia's mom]

Hi Gabriel's mom.  sorry things are not so great for you lately.
We switched to LF milk per pead's recommendation.  He was a god send.  Our family doctor dismissed this as just a phase related to solids, other doctors called it late onset colic & other doctors said to get her stomach xrayed...yes 8 doctors later!   I knew in my heart something was not right & no doctor was to make me feel like I was just being a paranoid new first time mom.  I finally went back to our family doctor & told him that since he does not seem to think that Olivia has problems even though she is no longer feeding well for a long period of time, night screaming every 40-1.75hrs for 40 nights (kept a journal since she was born), now overlapping & causing miserable days, overtiredness (for the entire household), constant foul smelling poops that were very watery & difficult for her to pass, knees to the chest, inconsolable fits, goes on & on.[/color] BUT, I in fact did think there was a problem & I as her mom was acting as my daughters advocate for heath.  I DEMANDED a specialist (I think everyone in the office heard me, maybe even in the next building ).  so that's when we were FINALLY referred to the chief of paediatrics for our local hospital, thank god.  He took one look at her bummy, seen little red fissures (almost like tiny red varicose veins) & said she's lactose intolerant & asked why after 2 months of this pain for lo & anxiety for me, no one had come to this conclusion?  I then repeated the same question to him & he could not give me an answer either So I switched her milk that afternoon, 3 days later my happy Olivia appeared again .  Mind you we spent the next 2.5 months sleep training with Naps, PU/PD, EASY etc to get her back on track since she could not remember to fall asleep on her own because of the long period of pain she was having , not to mention the developmental & teething issues thrown into the mixing pot .  we got through it, she's all great now, hubby is enjoying being a dad & I'm not so bad with dealing with anxiety issues because of the lack of faith & trust I have in our so called "wonderful" medical system.  Also, did I mention that my entire family is Lactose intolerant, the previous doctor seems to have not really given a poop about that either.
Sorry for such a long post & vent, I'm still really sore about the whole thing & always will be I think.

I should have switched her myself to LF formula, but didn't want to inadvertently make a bad situation worse, KWIM, that's why we have doctors, right.  This was very obvious to me once I stopped BF & switched to formula, it only became a real nightmare about 5-7 weeks after formula introduction.

Olivia now drinks 2% LF because homo is not avail in LF & the drops to turn the milk into lactose free are very expensive.  A 2L carton of HOMO to the drops would total about $15 CND a carton.  So now she has  2 - 6oz cups of 2% LF during the day & 6 oz of formula, till she's 2 & it's jam packed with nutrients alot of toddlers really don't get once off the formula/breast milk) with her before bed snack.  I just offer her alot of full fat healthy foods, calcium rich foods, limited amounts of mild cheddar cheese.  we use the 2% LF milk at home for drinking & cooking, there is no difference in taste, just about .50 cents more than the reg 2%.  We also do not offer vitamins, Olivia has an EXCELLENT diet & eats very well. 

Oh, careful with soy milk, I've heard it's nut based & may cause babies to have reactions/allergies to other foods down the road, not sure how much truth is in this.  Good for babies with severe allergies?

I truly want others to learn from my experience, that we should all be the advocates for our children's health & safety, do not accept what you feel is not correct be it from other experienced parents or now it all doctors.   HTH
Cecilia

[liannewilley]

Reading everyone elses replies has helped me loads!

Was worrying about my ds feeding pattern, as at the moment he is only on 4 oz and he is 8 weeks old. Sometimes he will drain the bottle and other times he will only have half, this too worried me. But he seems healthy enough and putting on the weight slowly.

Thanks for the advice from peeps

Lianne - mummy to Harrison

[Haydensmom]

Thank you Cecilia for your post.  I've been fighting with my LO to take bottles since he stopped bfing about a month ago.  He's only been taking about 12oz a day.  When I talked to my doctor about it, he said it was just solids and he would do better once he got used to them or some such nonsense.  Well when I read your post its like a light bulb went off in my brain.  I'm lactose intolorent and so is most of my family.  My son may not show signs of horrible pain, but he is super gassy and has what I feel is way too many bm's daily (yesterdays count was 5)  So maybe this is my problem.  I'm going to try lactose free formula and see if that helps.  Who knows, my lo could just be a stinker, but maybe his problem is really an upset tummy!

[Cecilia~Olivia's mom]

Hey Kailey
Glad you are willing to seek other alternatives, especially when your gut tell you it's something "other" than what other say.  Pls do take you ds to see a doctor, different one maybe & start a journal.  When you walk into a docs office with a journal, they know you mean business!
Hope everything works out for you & Hayden

[Grace's Mom]

Our DD is 11 weeks old and still only drinks 4oz every 3 hours (5 times a day) and then drinks 2-4oz once at around 4 am.  A total of about 22-24 oz.  She has had the same amount for over a month now but keep gaining weight like crazy so we know that she is eating enough.  We did switch to a thicker formula about a week ago so I think that if we were on the same formula she would be taking in a few more ounces.  For now, we will keep doing what we are doing until she asks for more.

Melissa

[AJs Mom]

My DS bf's during the day at 7:00, 11:00, 2:30, 6:15,   (So I don't know how much he takes)

He does an 8oz feed of prepared formula at 10:00pm.

[Grace's Mom]

Grace is now 5 months old as of 9-2-2006 and she drinks 4 bottles during the day 5-6oz each, has one tbs. of solids at 5:30 and then wakes once at night to eat 4oz.  28oz total

-Mel

[MomofRocco]

Hello, I have a question about my 3.5 month old son.  He is drinking the same amount of formula now, as he was when he was a month old.... about 3-5 oz every 3 hours.  He has reflux, but I don't feel that this is a reflux issue.  He is fussy during feeds, and pulls off of the nipple alot.  I was wondering if maybe the flow is too slow for him, and he has to suck too hard and gets bored after a while.  Has anyone ever experienced that?  He is still waking every 2.5-3 hours during the night, and is VERY gassy.  Could the gas be from a too slow nipple also???  Just a thought, hopefully someone can suggest.  I use the Playtex Ventair, and the slow nipples are too slow, but the fast are too fast....  I am not sure how to tell if it is too slow for him... it takes him anywhere from 20-45 minutes to eat 4 oz.  Is that normal?  Hope to hear soon.

Thankfully,
Brenda

[Grace's Mom]

Brenda,

My dd drank the same amount from 1 month - 4 months (3-4oz per bottle) every  3 hours.  She didn't switch amounts until she was 4 months old and then in one day switched herself to a 4 hour EASY and I snuck in 2 extra ounces each feed to compensate for one less bottle.  There was a time period where it took her 45 minutes to drink her bottle and then one day she started drinking fast again (5-10 minutes).  We did change the nipple flow at one point and that helped because we use special formula for reflux.   I don't know about gas being caused by too slow nipple...hopefully someone else will be able to answer that.

-On my last post I messed up my info....she drinks 3 bottle of about 5-6 oz and then her last bottle before bed is 8oz. and we now give her 1-2 tbs of solids at 4pm.  She wakes at 5am ish to eat 4oz. 

[Cecilia~Olivia's mom]

I heard or read somewhere that at that age they should have have their bottles drank within the first 5 min.  I used the Avent bottle when not breast feeding & at 2.5 months I had th switch her to a #2 nipple.  It took about 2 bottle feeds & she became used to the flow.  I also put a drp of Oval in at least 3 of her bottles to help with the gas issue, but not the one before bed to avoid a poop explosion   HTH

[legend_018]

My LO eats 5 ounzes every bottle. She was consistently drinking 4 oz bottles, than 5 oz bottles. Than she went back down to 4 ounze bottles. Heck I was lucky if she drank 3 ounzes. She seems to be out of that little stage.
Sometimes maybe close to 6 ounces but that's only maybe 1ce a day if that.

With LO being our first child, she was very gassy and we had a hard time figuring out what formula was best for her so we also had to deal with problems she had swithing around with so many formulas. She did what was called SELF SOOTHING where she would eat to self sooth herself and than she would be worse. I didn't know what to do. I was feeding her all the time and she would take forever to eat. I wish I knew about this site than "lol". AT night I remember once she would wake up and eat for a full hour, sleep for an hour, wake up and eat/sip for an hour ect. It finally got to the point where the doctor said try to get her to eat within 1/2 or so, than count 2 hours after the END time of her feeding. It was SO HARD to get her to stick to that schedule and I had to allow her to do 45 minute eating times. Sooner or later and many stressful days/nights though she caught on. now I'm working on counting 3 hours from end time of eating which is about 3 1/2 hours from beginning time if she eats within a half hour.

Today she had 5 ounze bottle at 6:30am
than again at 10:30am
than again at 1:45pm
due at 5pm
will eat again probably 7:30/8:00ish. Depends. Although I tried to space out her feedings during the day -well I had day care do it...at night I let her eat more often and as much as she wanted before bed time. She usually drinks right before going to la la land for the night.

Getting up in the middle of the night to eat is sporadic too. I've tried to see if it was related to not enough naps or eating less or eating more but sometimes there isn't much ryme or reason too it. this morning she woke up at 4:15am for a 3 oz feeding but on average she has been sleeping from 9pm to 6/6:30am straight. originally started off sleeping 9:30/10:00 to 5/5:30am. She's kind of sporadic with stuff. I'm working on some consistency since I signed up for this website. She did recently go back to waking up in the middle of the night "like 2/3am" for MANY weeks straight but for the last week and 1/2 is back to sleeping though the night for the most part. I'm sure it's not over yet.