6 week old snacker not taking enough food

[Finding it tough]

My DS is 6 weeks old and 12lb 5. He takes approx 1 hour to take 90ml of formula. He is on level 1 teats. He was snacking and I have substituted the later feeds with a dummy and the easy cycle takes about two hours. Does anyone have any suggestions to increase the amount he is feeding so that he will last the suggested 3 hours?

[Lolly]

Hello and welcome to the boards!

A bottle feed should be done with in about 20 mins, even for a tiny baby. Have you tried a faster teat or a vari flow teat (depending on what type of bottles you are using!), it could be that the level 1 teats are too slow for him. Which formula are you using too?

Can you tell us what your day is like in EASY format? So..

Eat - what times, how much
Activity - how long for
Sleep - what times, how long for

Laura

[Finding it tough]

I'm quite new to easy, I was doing another more regimented routine before and changed as I wanted to rectify his snacking that we allowed him to do. This means each day is pretty different at the moment. Yesterday's was like this

E-730
A-nappy change
S-900

E-940
A-5 minutes on playmat
S-1100

E-1130
A-nappy
S-1215

E-1345
A- 5 minutes mimicking me
S- 1500

E-1600
A-nappy
S-1730

A-bath
E-1910
S-1930

Attempted DF 2300
NF 0300
S 0400


The sleep times are not straight, he's not sleeping very well in the day about 30 minutes sleep the rest of the time is trying to settle him back to sleep to extend the time between feeds to encourage him to take more or see if its hunger or if he just wants to suck.

I started faster flow teats (not on every bottle as I'm waiting for the others to be delivered -tommee tippee adv comfort) it didn't seem to make much difference. I get the rest today so I will continue trying with those.

[Lolly]

I think the reason he isn't sleeping very well in the day is that your A times are too long so he is getting overtired (OT). At 6 weeks his A time should be around and hour, maybe 10/15 mins more and that time includes the feed time (awake time rather than activity, eyes open to eyes shut). If he naps less than 1.5 hours you need to shorten the next A time or he will get even more OT.

Have a look at this link - chronological EASY samples, 0-3 months

Have you got a sleepy time routine yet for him? Is he only having one nightfeed? That's great if he is! What's his night sleep like, is he sleeping soundly between bedtime, feed and wake up?

With the feeds, I would say he is probably still snacking really. The way to tackle it is to feed him, stop at about the 20 min mark and then leave him as long as possible until the next feed. You don't want him to get distressed but distract however you can to get as long as you can until you feed again. He should take a better feed as he will be a bit hungrier, next you keep the next feed at least the same time scale apart and stretch for another 5 mins if you can. He should be able to do at least 2.5 hours between feeds on formula.

With my DD we did some formula feeds and some breastmilk feeds for the first week or so of her life. She was taking 3oz a feed at that point and would last 3 hours if it was formula but be hungry at the 2 hour mark if it was breast milk. By 6 weeks she was taking a good 5oz at a feed.

Laura