Formula Feeding General Chatter

Emma, I demand fed our boy on advice from our paediatrician and it worked well for us. I think it is something you have to keep an eye on because you can overfeed on formula. We never had that problem and he is still in good proportion with both his weight and height in the 99th and 98th percentile. I guess you can just keep a close eye on weight gain vs height? Feeding our boy when he wanted it and until his was full really helped us on the sleeping front. Over time he regulated his own feeds and now only has a bottle every four hours and has tapered back on the amount he drinks now that he is on solids. I will definitely demand feed our next bub.

Rach and Sambo- Thanks for that.
Zoe is having between 6 and 7 feeds a day.
The tin says she should only be having 6?

Emma, our boy was also having more bottles than the tin specifies. If you go back to earlier on in this thread, I posted a calculation on how to find out how many mls your bub should be having based on their weight. You can work out the total daily volume from there. The tins are really not accurate in determining the correct amount for all babies because they are all very different. So it is all about working out the total volume that your baby should be drinking each day. The number of bottles they have in order to get that volume in, isn't important. I was really concerned because our boy used to frequently have more than his recommended volume based on his weight. This is what made me query from the paediatrician whether demand feeding was ok. I know many paeds are against it, but he said it wasn't a problem and it wasn't. Now we are actually trying hard to get our boy to have enough milk since he started solids!!!

How are we all going? Been a bit quiet lately so I thought I'd pop in.

DS11 wks has been doing some weird things with his feeds lately. He will suck pretty intently for a very short period of time. Then seems "finished" and isn't interested in any more. However this is normally only after 30 or 60 ml. I try and keep offering over the next hour and he will drink but is also squirming and playing with the bottle at the same time. He is particularly bad during his morning feeds.

Any thoughts? His day sleeps have always been terrible so I'm not sure if this is a follow on.

Cheers, Fiona

I had the same issue with Charlie but she worked herself out. She was gaining weight perfectly and MCHN said that it seems something is going right. If you're really worried go get him weighed if your child health centre has open clinics and maybe pick the MCHN's brains. Charlie was also really horrid with day sleeps.

I know that there have been some questions surrounding the minimum amount of formula required once solids have been commenced. I asked my paediatrician today and thought that I would relay what he said for those interested. Obviously I could only really ask him questions in relation to our boy, but it should give people an indication, anyway. I just want to preface the following by saying that our bub's height and weight are in proportion (albeit both in the 100th percentile!!) and he got a 100% bill of health. Different weight vs height issues or dietetic requirements could result in the following being inaccurate:

Firstly he said "always ignore the can - that is for babies who are not on solids"

Secondly he said that once baby is on established solids and having a balance diet, i.e. 3 meals per day, they require 800mg of calcium per day which is derived from the formula (particularly for my bub who is milk protein intolerant and cannot ingest calcium any other way). So I suppose that can be reduced if your bub is guzzling yoghurt, cheeses etc.?

Thirdly he said that the absolute minimum for a bub on established solids is 500ml per day BUT that you should be aiming for between 600 and 700mls.

I hope this helps - it sure put my mind at ease :)

BW - I asked him about bubs having formula beyond one year and he said that it is 100% fine. He even said that they can have formula for as long as they like (obviously within reason, in moderation and not as a food supplement). He said that once babies move onto cow's milk you need to supplement their diet with iron as cows milk contains little or no iron. Even at this stage, all of the iron-fortified cereals constipate our boy, so this is definitely something I will offer him beyond 1 year. I hope this helps.

Thanks for that, Sambo. We got some lactose free milk for Sam to try, but then he got sick so the UHT carton is still sitting in the cupboard despite the fact that he's been well again for over a week! Formula is still just way more convenient when out. We still have issues with Sam getting constipated really easily, when the paed suggested we put him on pentavite I made sure to get the one without iron! Poor kid seems to have his mother's slow, sluggish digestive system.

BW

Thanks for that info Sambo.

DD isn't quite having 3 meals a day, just random solids when she's interested, but I was wondering how much milk she should be having/balancing it out with. Now from reading that I've got a bit of guideline to go off.

:bump:

Isn't it funny - I actually asked for this thread to be made, and then bloody forgot about it and never posted in here.. :lol:

I have formula fed all three of my kids - DS from day 3 in hospital because of some wicked attachment issues, and not very helpful midwives! The experience scarred me so much, I put DD1 on formula from birth, and had a much more enjoyable experience with her as an infant because of it. Then I was determined with DD2 to bf - and then she arrived, and fed for 2 hours immediately, my poor nipples didn't know what hit them, and she was still screaming for food at 10pm that night (she was born at 6.15pm!) so we dropped into KMart on our way home and picked up bottles and formula for her. She also had reflux, was a "happy starver" so wouldn't wake up for feeds, so I would assume she was getting enough from the breast when we eventually started bfing again. And of course, because she wasn't demanding it, I didn't think to give it (cos I thought she was satisfied) so my milk supply dwindled, she never emptied the breast properly because of a lip issue (she couldn't flare her top lip out, so wasn't sucking effectively and emptying each feed) so with all these issues - finally when she was a month old we turned to formula full time. I did express as much as I could (but didn't get much out) but it wasn't fair to my other kids because they were missing out on mummy time. So we made the educated decision for our family and put her on formula. And to this day (she is 6 months) she STILL can't flare her top lip around the bottle teat.

Anyhoo - thats my journey - how is everyone going?

forgot about this thread too :redface:

Starting to think about transitioning DD to cow's milk/reducing the number of bottles she has. Won't do the cow's milk thing just yet but doesn't hurt to start thinking...thinking about not having to fork out $20/week for a tin of formula! Lol

When did you start to reduce the number of bottles? Atm because she is waking 1-2 times a night she's back up to having 5 or 6 bottles in 24 hours. I did have it down to one bottle overnight, and because she was waking at about 4am I'd skip her breakfast bottle and give her cereal instead, then a bottle before she went down for her morning sleep. But now she's waking at about midnight and again at 4 or 5am, and only has one day sleep, so my great routine has once again been turned on its head!

Due for a visit to the MCHN shortly so I want to know what I *should* be doing so I can tell her that instead of what I am doing so I don't get a lecture :hide:

It's been good to read your story Mel.

Personally, I feel like a bit of a fruit loop for still giving my 18 month old boy formula... But every time I get ready to do the slow wean onto cows milk he gets sick... and he's been bouncing from one bug to another for the last month, so I'm not messing with things any time soon!

BW

ss - I can't really remember with my kids, I *think* Miss M was still having 3 or 4 bottles a day at 1 year old, but I can't really remember.. funny how you forget things!!!! Eden is still having 5 bottles a day, sometimes I think she's about to drop one, but then she wants it in the middle of the night instead, we're a bit all over the joint here.

BW - I don't think you are a fruit loop at all :hug: I never gave my kids formula after about 14 months of age, I gradually made the switch to cows milk - and I've always taken about 2 months to make the switch, to let their bodies get used to it :)

ss, at 12 months Sam was having three bottles per day, but was still having two day sleeps so each bottle came before a sleep. I kept getting told that he would gradually drink less and less with one bottle and eventually drop it, but he never did. I can remember that we made the decision to stop his first bottle of the morning (I think at around 9-10 months) and that's how we got him to go from 4 to 3. I don't think he's ever dropped a bottle of his own accord - he loves his milk and the only way we've ever got him to eat more was by reducing the number of bottles.

Mel, I kept asking DH to wean him on to milk, but he just didn't seem confident in doing it. But I've stopped working now, and DH will go back to full time work soon enough and then I'll get on to it. DH just finds formula easy and familiar and doesn't like to change things.

BW

I can understand that BW - I'm not a big fan of change myself... LOL

Oh were chatting again yay!!

Im a bit confused with Millys feeding atm she is all over the place...
last night she had 180mls at 7pm went to bed, woke up screaming the house down for another bottle at 10pm then slept till 6am and when she woke this morning she only drank 30mls!!
the night before she had bottle at 7pm then 11pm 3am and up for the day and refusing a bottle at 6am
she has never had any routine...sometimes she goes 2hours between bottles sometimes 4 hours or longer some nights
I know i shouldnt let it but to be honest its doing my head in

Aww honey :hug: Is she teething? I found teething always put the kids off their bottles and made them all over the place. At the moment, Eden is all over the place too with her feeds, she drank about 90ml of her bottle at 9.00 - but drank about 200ml at 5am. Then I'll probably feed her around 1.30, 4.30 and 6.45 today - thats our usual times, but sometimes she wants it earlier, later, but I just think, oh well, if she isn't drinking she mustn't need it - and if she cries for one, well she must need it.. LOL... I do hate wasting formula though (even though I hate that feeling) because its so expensive!!

I'm the same Arimeh...I threw out a full bottle (240ml) the other day because DD stuck her nose up at it. Had a few mouthfuls and after that didn't want a bar of it!
Po5 DD was/is the same when she is teething, she really goes off her food. It's only been the last few days that she has completely finished her bottles.

yeah Arimeh she is getting some teeth...hopefully they come thru soon cause she is being a PITA!! Im with you on wasting formula, she has just gone up to 180mls but only for some bottles so we waste heaps :wall: she is just fussing at the bottle so Im thinking of going up to the next stage teats