Hi,
I'm hoping that some of you might be able to shed some light on our feeding and weight problem.
Basically Elliott is 5 weeks old tomorrow and he's 10lb 15 oz. He was only 7lb 12 oz at birth so he's put on more than he should have since birth according to the Health Visitor.
Also he's been increasingly demanding food, at a rate of 2oz more a day in the past few days. He was on SMA Gold, taking 6oz every 4 hours. We've had him on a rough schedule but it never seemed to be that much at odds with when he was hungry anyway and he has always been an enthusiastic eater. We haven't given him anything extra, haven't forced him to eat when it looks like he's finished and when we've tried to encourage him to stay at a certain amount (say 5oz) by giving him boiled water or a dummy after the feed to see if it's a sucking thing rather than actual hunger he wails the place down!
Anyway, the HV yesterday said she thought he didn't need that much food and that he was just greedy. Is this possible do you think? One of the midwives told us it wasn't a few weeks back when we mentioned it- she said that they don't overeat unless you give them extra stuff like sweet drinks or force them to eat and that if you tried that he'd just puke it up anyway...? The HV suggested putting 5 scoops of formula in 6oz of water so that he gets 5oz plus 1 oz of water if you see what I mean? So the same bulk but less calories. Or that I swap to White.
Well I decided to do both yesterday. At 3 he took the 5oz + water ok but by 6 he was really grizzly, at 7 he took it again but my DH (who had him from 7 until 11) said he started screaming the house down at 9 so much so that he fed him more water which he did not fall for at all and then fed him earlier than normal at 10.30 because Elliott was so frantic. (I had my earplugs in ) At 10.30 he had a proper 6oz feed
After this he fussed until 12.45 (normal sadly!) but slept until 3.45- just over 5 hours since the last feed. He wasn't going mental for food either- so... was it hunger after the 3pm and 7pm feeds if he can go 5 hours at another time? Hmmm?
Has anyone had problems like this? How much are your babies taking at 5 weeks or at this weight? Any bright ideas?
Thanks!
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I'm hoping that some of you might be able to shed some light on our feeding and weight problem.
Basically Elliott is 5 weeks old tomorrow and he's 10lb 15 oz. He was only 7lb 12 oz at birth so he's put on more than he should have since birth according to the Health Visitor.
Also he's been increasingly demanding food, at a rate of 2oz more a day in the past few days. He was on SMA Gold, taking 6oz every 4 hours. We've had him on a rough schedule but it never seemed to be that much at odds with when he was hungry anyway and he has always been an enthusiastic eater. We haven't given him anything extra, haven't forced him to eat when it looks like he's finished and when we've tried to encourage him to stay at a certain amount (say 5oz) by giving him boiled water or a dummy after the feed to see if it's a sucking thing rather than actual hunger he wails the place down!
Anyway, the HV yesterday said she thought he didn't need that much food and that he was just greedy. Is this possible do you think? One of the midwives told us it wasn't a few weeks back when we mentioned it- she said that they don't overeat unless you give them extra stuff like sweet drinks or force them to eat and that if you tried that he'd just puke it up anyway...? The HV suggested putting 5 scoops of formula in 6oz of water so that he gets 5oz plus 1 oz of water if you see what I mean? So the same bulk but less calories. Or that I swap to White.
Well I decided to do both yesterday. At 3 he took the 5oz + water ok but by 6 he was really grizzly, at 7 he took it again but my DH (who had him from 7 until 11) said he started screaming the house down at 9 so much so that he fed him more water which he did not fall for at all and then fed him earlier than normal at 10.30 because Elliott was so frantic. (I had my earplugs in ) At 10.30 he had a proper 6oz feed
After this he fussed until 12.45 (normal sadly!) but slept until 3.45- just over 5 hours since the last feed. He wasn't going mental for food either- so... was it hunger after the 3pm and 7pm feeds if he can go 5 hours at another time? Hmmm?
Has anyone had problems like this? How much are your babies taking at 5 weeks or at this weight? Any bright ideas?
Thanks!
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