Am I giving him too much?

[AGILL]

Hi everyone,

DS will be 7wo in a few days and for the past two weeks I've been bottle feeding him about 90% of the time because of latch on problems that crept up on us. I find it just too time consuming to express my milk after every single bottle feed and take care of all the rest of the things that I need to do. So I've taken a conscious decision to partially wean to formula and express 2 - 3 times a day (which I'm working towards at the moment). So far, so good - I think...

But after reading the amounts that formula fed babies should be taking, I'm a bit worried that I'm giving him too much. He is basically taking 150ml (5oz) 7 times a day, and draining the bottle each time. I don't think I should be giving him more, because he is also having reflux problems and can spit up several times after a feed (although we're treating that with Gaviscon, which seems to be helping).

Also, at the moment, I'm mixing things up about 50/50 with breast milk and formula. I think that by the time we've completed the weaning period, it'll probably be more like 30% breast milk and 70% formula.

Can someone give me a bit of guidance/reassurance regarding the amount? He weighed 4.4kg (9lbs) early last week, so is probably a little bigger than that now. Thanks a lot in advance.

[*Kara*]

It might seem like a lot but if he is drinking it, he needs it   Babies are excellent self-regulators... they know what they need and when... if he drains the bottle, add another ounce..

[AGILL]

That was what I thought, but I just read that I shouldn't "overfeed" him because he's got pretty bad reflux and regurgitates quite a lot (we're new to this reflux thing). So I'm a bit confused as to what to do. Maybe I should post on the reflux board?...

Thanks, Alison

[Lolly]

It could be that he is drinking to sooth his throat, how is his behaviour when he feeds? Gaviscon (assuming it's the infant powder) is really only a milk thickener and doesn't do anything to reduce or neutralise the acid. If he is hungry for more milk but can't cope with a bigger volume you can feed smaller amounts more frequently. Are you keeping him upright after feeds and elevating his cot?

Laura

[ENMS]

Hi Alison! Just to add to what Laura said, when DD was small, she had reflux.  She was breastfed so not exactly your situation, but she would drink a lot until we started treating her with Zantac for her reflux.  She was born 50th percentile and went up to 80th by 8 weeks because of it.  Once she started on the Zantac, she drank less and went back to her 50th percentile.

FWIW, DS is 3 weeks old and is on mixed breast and bottle feeding. He drinks about 5-6 oz in total I think about 8-9 times a day and weighs 10 pounds.

HTH. Good luck!

[Lolly]

Alison! I just realised who you are - we were on the Dec 06 birth club together! Long time no see, hope you are all doing ok!

Laura

[AGILL]

Hi Laura,

Yes it's me! Great to see you're still around! As you can see, I'm back with DS2 - finally after a few years trying. Hope you and your LOs are doing well.

The paediatrician also said that he might be drinking a lot to sooth his throat. In France the Gaviscon for infants is actually the wallpaper paste type stuff that is sold for adults (anti-acid / anti-reflux) and seems to be helping. I actually just worked out a good way to give it to him after his feed, which is to put it into the end of the bottle teat and have him suck on it. Before he'd just gag on the stuff because it was too thick and he couldn't swallow it. So that's a bit of a step in the right direction.

This afternoon we tried a bottle of anti-regurgitation formula (the kind that's supposed to thicken up once it hits the stomach) and he threw that up just like regular milk. But I think that's because he gulped it down (yes, my bad - I should be controlling his intake better). You asked about his behaviour when feeding. I really do try my hardest to stop after every ounce to have a burp, but until we get at least 2/3 of the bottle down he just screams and wriggles about to have more while I'm trying to burp him. If he wriggles around too much it provokes more regurgitating, so it ends up being a bit of a vicious circle.

I'm a total novice in both the bottle feeding and reflux departments. How naive of me to think that DS2 would be just like his big brother! For the moment, I'm dropping back his bottles to 130ml instead of 150ml just to see how he gets on. For the moment there are no issues with him losing weight, so I'll see if the lesser amount affects his ability to sleep. Also, since he was growth spurting over the past couple days, I think he might be calming back down and I'll be able to get a better gauge on what he really needs (I hope).

Thanks a lot for your support and advice, Alison

[Lolly]

We are all good - although I can't believe we have 5yr olds! Life with a 5yo and a 2yo is certainly interesting, keeps me busy!

Try the AR formula for a while and see - both my refluxers did well on that with ranitidine. If it doesn't seem to be suiting him it's worth considering milk protien intolerance, that's often a cause of reflux in babies and switching to a hypoallergenic formula can make a difference. Have a look here for some useful tips too - http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=654.0

Laura