How often/much bottle should a 3month old have?

[anghou]

Hi

This is my first time posting anything so here it goes...

My son is 12wks but is a large baby - in 91st percentile (according to Health Visitors charts) for both weight (16lbs) and length (over 2 foot) so he tends to have large bottles (7oz) every 5-6 hours.

My questions are:
Should I put him on a 4 hour EASY routine even though I know he can go longer?  I presume if I do he will just reduce the amount of milk he takes if i am feeding him more regularly.

OR do I stick to a 5/6 hour schedule?  And how would this look with EASY?

Do I feed him before he cries to communicate that he is hungry?  If I do this will it stop his communicative intent as I am predicting/ pre-empting his needs before he has to 'speak' and tell me? 

Thanks for any help anyone can give

Only discovered the site yesterday (read book while pregnant) and i'm addicted already!!!!

Angela

[Lolly]

Hello and welcome to the site! Doesn't take long to get addicted does it!

At 12 weeks, most babies are on a 3 hour EASY, but if your LO can go longer then it will be ok to do a 4 hour EASY. The concept of EASY isn't just about feed timing, it's also about giving baby an appropriate amount of activity time and sleep time for their age and development so they will not get over tired and so sleep better at night too.

How long is your LO awake in the day now - is he having regular naps? How long is he napping for and how is his night sleep? Is he waking for a feed in the night? What times does he feed now?

If you put him on a 4 hour EASY, you probably will be feeding him when he is hungry. When you start you may find he takes a smaller feed but he will be eating more frequently so after one smaller feed he should be hungry enough for a normalish size feed at the next 4 hour point. Does that make sense?

Sorry for all the questions but it will help us make suggestions for you!

Laura

[anghou]

Hiya

He typically will wake at 7am and go down for a nap at 7:30 - 8am as can only usually tolerate 1 hours activity when first gets up.

Up until now I have been waiting for signs of tiredness rather than scheduling naps and so this can vary from day to day depending what we have been doing (as I'm writing this I can see this is somethg I need to change!).  Sometimes he goes down with no probs, other times he gets v.upset and can't soothe himself. He naps for 45mins and then wakes up.  I have just started today to try and settle him (sshh/pat) when he wakes as from reading the site he is probably waking btwn stages of sleep but I've been picking him out of his cot - Doh!!

He is usually overtired and cranky in early evening and you can see the relief on his face when he hears the taps running for his bath at night - bless him!!!! 

He sleep brilliantly at night from 7:30pm til 7am.  I've been 'tanking him up' with a feed at 5:30pm and then another feed as part of bedtime routine at 7ish.  He takes about 7oz at each of these feeds.  He will then sleep til 4am when he wakes for another 7oz.  He has no probs soothing himself to sleep at night but does struggle in the day, even though we have the room blacked out.  However thinking about it my bedtime routine is definately more predictable and is always exactly the same where as my daytime routine is a bit less definate.

Hope this is helpful and thanks for the quick response

Regards
Angela

[anghou]

Hi Laura

Just been thinking about putting him on a 4 hour EASY.  I think the problem I will have is that he won't be able to cope with 2hours of A.  I think the main issue we are having (as I listen to him screaming upstairs with my husband as he's overtired again!) is the fact that he can go longer btwn feeds than he can cope with, interms of activity inbetween (if you get what i mean!?)  So what should I do? Go on to a 3 hour EASY and feed him every 3 hrs?  Do you think this will mess up his night feeding as going for 8 hours at night without a feed at the moment?

Thanks again

Angela

[Lolly]

What you can do is a modified EASY for a while until his A time catches up. We did this with my two as they had reflux and wouldn't feed sooner than 4 hours so we did - EASAE etc and watched for tired cues. Your LO should be doing at least 1.5 hours A time (it's eyes open to eyes shut time, not activity after the feed time) so he should catch up to the 2 hours in the next few weeks.

Here are some routine examples which should help. They are mostly 3hrs up to 3 months but it will give you ideas of how long the A time is for each month.

He is doing well overnight! If he can self sooth at night he should be able to do it in the day when you catch him at the right time. They do go through a stage of 45 min naps, so shh/pat is a good tool to help extend the nap.

How have feeds gone today? Has he eaten as well at the 4 hour intervals?

Laura

[prana]

This is inetresting about EASAE for my baby as she suffers from enormous amount of wind as I had mentioned in my other post....

 Maybe I need to extend her feed times to 4 hr giving her time to digest her feeds. Sometimes I do feel she is not that hungry for a feed after 3 hrs and could possibly go 4 hrs. bUt my problem was always about naps and A time. DOn't want to extend her A time too much to set in OT and was struggling with long naps due to wind. . Sorry for butting into your converstaion!! But my LO is 3 months old as well and I have been wondering about no of feeds a day myself.

[anghou]

Hi Laura

You asked me to keep you updated re: 4 hour feeds, well today has been a disaster!!!  Here is my 'EASY' routine for today although we had totally gone off the schedule by the afternoon:

He woke at 7 but I put him back for another 1.5 hours (Lazy Mummy!)

Got up at 8:30am

E 8:30 (7oz) Oh by the way it only takes him about 10 mins to feed- He a very hungry little chap!
A 8:30 - 10 (inc feeding and wind down)
S 10 - 11:30am which was really great.  I woke him after 1.5 hrs and he woke up smiling BUT once downstairs he seemed tired again and this is where it all started to go wrong!
A 11:30 - 12:30pm - Had to do another A as not time for feed yet with 4 hour EASY

E 12:30pm (7oz)
A 12:30 - 1pm Only lasted 35mins and yawning/rubbing eyes/upset so...
S 1 - 2pm Woke up himself
A 2 - 3pm

S 3 - 4pm Woke up crying.  Wouldn't re-settle
A 4 - 4:45pm (inc feeding)

E 4:30pm (7oz)
A 4:45 - 5:30pm (inc 30mins of trying to wind down as upset/yawning after only 15mins of A)
S 5:30 - 6pm Woke up crying but wouldn't re-settle
A 6 - 7:30pm (Quiet A downstairs and then massage/bath/feeding)

E 7:15pm (8oz)
A few calming songs before bed
S 7:45pm -went down no probs

Feel totally disheartened at mo BUT I know tomorrow is another day! So just want to be things sussed out so we can start afresh tomorrow.

Think the main prob is that although he can go 4 hour btwn feeds, he's just not old enough yet to stay awake long enough in btwn. 

Have looked at 3.5 EASY AND have posted another question in response to someone elses post as it was suggested, I think by you,that another parent try something like EASA ES but what comes next after the last S?? 

Do you think it would work for my little man or should I go back to a 3 hour EASY because of his A times, which is a same cos I know he can go longer btwn his feeds?

Sorry for all the questions AND the mega long posting

With a million thank you's for any advice anyone can give

Angela

[Lolly]

I think your day started well, but maybe at that 1-2pm sleep I would have tried to resettle to get a longer nap rather than get him up. That's probably where he started to get a bit over tired as he hadn't had a full nap.

How long is he able to stay awake for? It looks like around 1.5 hours - is that right? You will need to try and keep the 1.5 hour A time unless he has had a short nap and then he will need to do a bit less A time. The example I suggested - after the last S is probably A time again, depending on the time of the last feed. You will need to play around a bit - your day won't fit a tidy pattern until he can do the 2 hours A time, and if he short naps then it will change anyway. The important thing is to follow your baby's cues - watch the time to a certain extent but keep in mind the principle of not feeding to sleep.

Don't feel disheartened - you are doing well - it's that you are at an awkward stage right now so maybe think of the next few weeks as a practice time while your baby catches up with the 4 hour EASY A times. There are not many babies who will do a perfect EASY every day - it's the sequence of events that is important not the exact times that they are done in. While you are getting to grips with it all it may work to try the 3 hour EASY and see how your LO does on it. You would both get into the rhythm of it on a feeding time that also suits his A/S times - just a thought!

Laura

[anghou]

Thank you Laura for your quick reply - You're a star!!

Think I will try the 3 hour EASY until I get my head around things. I have also just been reading another post in the Naps forum which sugests going in at 30 mins and helping your LO through the 'jolt' to the next stage of sleep at 45 mins by applying light pressure to their arms/tummy and offering dummy if 'requested' so going to try this tomorrow too.

Thanks again for your support.  Feel more than ready to tackle tomorrow now.  Will get there in the end!!

Best regards

Angela

[Lolly]

Let us know how tomorrow goes! You will get there! My son was a tricky one for many reasons, but we did our best and got lots of practice which came in handy for DD who was much better at EASY

Laura

[anghou]

Hi Laura

Today was a good day!  Didn't still strictly to the 3 hr EASY as went to a baby class this afternoon and after about 45mins of activities/songs etc he was so exhausted that he feel asleep during the session!! But apart from that I found the 3hour EASY actually was easy to follow!!! He slept well this morning and even had a catnap around 5:30pm which meant that the period before bed was far calmer and he was less cranky.

Hooray!! And thanks a million, billion, zillion!!!

I am obviously not naive enough to think that a good day today means I cracked it BUT its a start.  As they say in AA (or so I believe) "Take one day at a time" so that's what I'm going to do

With thanks

Angela

[Lolly]

Well done! Excellent start!

I think most of us take it one day at a time to be honest - these babies like to surprise us!

Laura