How is everyone’s LO eating so much at 6-7 weeks?
@kcollins14 Baby boy here and they eat a lot more. 100-150 ml every 2-4 hours depending. Have you tried a different bottle or nipple?
@artistguy We’ve tried a few and she seems to be happy with most bottles in terms of latching and drinking but spit up and gassy wise she did best with Dr browns anti colic bottle and a low flow nipple so we stuck with that.
@kcollins14 My 7 week old is guzzling at least 4 oz per feeding, sometimes 6 oz. He’ll usually drink a 4 oz bottle in about 30ish minutes (sometimes more or less). Middle of the night feeds will vary a bit more, usually ranging from 2-3 oz.
Check with your doctor and see if there’s a digestion or allergy issue possibly? Some babies do seem to drink less. Only your doctor can see what’s happening.
Also, would recommend not doing the premie nipples (saw you mention that). Move to the 1s. We used the premie head for a couple days and the feedings were so slow, he’d get tired before he even finished.
@1samuel I was starting to feel like the odd man out - my girl is 7 weeks and drinking 4-5oz a feeding, sometimes less at night. Eats every 3 hours at least.
@kcollins14 Hey. Talk to your pediatrician. I’d say apart from slow weight gain, what you are experiencing is normal! My LO will do days of eating 3.5oz and then days of struggling to get her to eat 3oz.
It freaks me out every time but I guess babies are gonna drink what they feel like they need at the time.
What you describe about your LO fighting with you to drink the remainder happens to me almost daily. It really is a struggle.
Your doctor will know if the weight gain is a concern or not, I can’t offer any advice there.
One more thing, my LO hasn’t projectile vomited but will spit up.
@finoni9 Thanks for your reply! so when your LO fights you to drink the remainder, do you power through it or do you just give up because they look so miserable?
@kcollins14 I normally power thru. Are you stopping and burping baby in between? If I get good burps it’s way easier, but sometimes I don’t get good burps and then it’s way harder.
@finoni9 I do burp her a few times during session but will be more vigilant and see if it helps!
@kcollins14 My baby is 14 weeks and eats 4 oz in one sitting now. When he was 6-7 weeks, it was probably more like 2-3 oz. And he's a big baby (born at 8.1 lb, was 13.2 lb by his 2 month appt) that has never had issues eating. He did go through a period around 6 weeks where he spat up a lot (including out his nose), and I found that small frequent meals (ie every 1.5-2 hours) helped rather than encouraging long feeds that were more spaced out.
@kcollins14 Definitely worth talking to your doctor about dropping percentiles but the small feeds alone don’t seem very abnormal to me. My son only drank like 3oz per feed, every 2 hours, until at least 4 months. Then more like 4oz. He’s 10 months now and still averages 5oz per feed.
@kcollins14 At 7 weeks ours was putting down 6 ounces at every feed. Like every 3-5 hours. When we told our pediatrician she was eating north of 30 ounces per day and we weren’t force feeding her, he was shocked.
She was a very fat baby, 99th percentile in weight, until she started getting mobile. Now that she’s crawling and cruising she’s slimming down really fast.
TLDR babies are distinct little individuals with different preferences.
@kcollins14 You should see a lactation consultant if you haven’t. Maybe your baby has a tongue tie (like mine).
@rhayven We’ve seen an LC 2-3 times in the first month, mostly worked on BF technique and latching, as well as how to get my supply up. Tongue tie never came up. Is that something I need to bring up specifically or the fact that it never came up during observation clear her of that?
@kcollins14 Switch LCs, they should have checked during the first appointment. They will out their fingers into the mouth and sweep around to check for tissue resistance
@kcollins14 I spend way too much time trying to figure out how much my kid should be getting. We EFF so we measure and record every feeding down to the ounce. He was born in the 80th percentile for weight. By two weeks in he was in the 40th percentile but taking 18-20 ounces a day. He stayed in 40th until 2 months when he peaked at 28-32 ounces a day. He had a feeding regression and dropped to 22-25 ounces a day, by 3 months he was in the 20th percentile but around 27 ounces a day. He’s 3 and a half months now, just started doing 32 ounces a day this past week, about 28 ounces a day last week, he’s still in the low 20th percentile but I have no clue how to make him gain more weight, it already seemed like he was getting a lot for the day even with the one month regression
@kcollins14 at that age, my LO was eating around 80-90 ml 7 times a day. she drinks pretty fast so she will finish a bottle in 4-5 minutes. when she started having reflux, i reduced it down to 80 ml and she ended up drinking 8-9 times a day.
@ministermark7 Is reflux/gerd actually diagnoseable or is it when you have these symptoms ? Mine exhibits a lot of symptoms like irritability during feeding, spitting/vomiting, refusal to eat and arching, but none of the other more serious symptoms (green or yellow spit up, blood in stool, difficulty breathing, etc)
@kcollins14 we never got a formal diagnosis. i was just observing her situation to see if it would take a turn for the worse before seeing a doctor... she doesn't display any symptoms other than just spitting up immediately after finishing her milk so we just figured she's a happy spitter. it lasted for a month before she stop spitting up.
i would say just with the baby's schedule. feed her when she give hunger cues and not worry about timing. my baby would take a bottle sometimes in 2 hours, sometimes 3 hours
@kcollins14 One thing I haven't seen mentioned here is reflux - Does your LO spit up a lot during or after feeds? If she's starting to react to the milk/formula then she may be dealing with reflux pain and discomfort during the last half of the bottle, which could be why she's refusing. Some other signs are that she may be extremely fussy/colicky and hate to be laid down. For my son, stomach or back were both miserable. Back increased the reflux and stomach increased pressure on his poor bloated belly. For us it was a food allergy issue, which was also a huge contributor to his failure to thrive and total lack of weight gain.
Big hugs, I know how hard it is and you are doing everything you can!
@godsgatekeeper Thank you so much! Yes we suspected food allergies but experimented with diff formula without too much difference. We tried various enfamil, similac, kandamil (no palm oil or corn syrup) and are in the process of trying kendamil goat in case it’s CMPA.