Is my big baby getting enough formula?

[blueskiesfrompain]

My baby is nearly 5 months old, and always been big! Not really ‘chunky’, but just long and stocky— on the 99.8th percentile for weight on height. Totally in line with where he was born. BUT, I’m wondering about how much formula he should be having.

As of today he’s around 10kg (22lbs) and here in the U.K. the calculation we’re given is that he should have between 150-200ml of formula per kg. This means that he should be having between 1500ml (53oz) and 2000ml (70oz) per day. We track all feeds in Huckleberry and the max he’s even taken is 1400ml, and most days it’s more around 1200ml over a 24hr period.

My question is, does he really need such a big amount? Or is he feeding as much as he needs?

We currently offer 240ml/8oz bottles at every feed (roughly every 3 hours) and he often struggles to finish them, leaving around 50ml (2oz). He’ll go ~5hrs at night between feeds if that’s relevant. He’ll do somewhere between 7-8 feeds per 24 hours, landing at the average of 1200ml overall.

If I were to offer him the top end of the suggested range (2000ml p/day) that would be 7 x 285ml/10oz feeds. That just seems crazy, for eg the MAM bottles only go up to 9oz!

Does the need for more taper off at some point? If I can barely get the ‘suggested’ amount in him now, how am I supposed to do it when he gains a couple of KG?

My concern is that we are somehow under feeding him, despite him growing like a weed! Or, we’re not getting enough into him during the day, so he’s doing shorter stints at night (he only really wakes in the night from hunger).

If you have any wisdom please let me know!

Edit: spelling

 

[missesdenim]

@blueskiesfrompain I’ve always heard babies should be getting between 24-32oz a day here in the U.S no matter the age. Seems like your babe is eating great. My 9 month old only eats like 25oz a day.

 

[emmarona]

@blueskiesfrompain Your kid is growing and can’t finish all that you offer him so that sounds perfect. Your night sound similar to what my babe did at 5mon too. The stomachs only hold so much and I could never “force” a feed for convince her to eat more. Your babe is also eating more than my 78% kid at 5mon. She was consistently ~900ml.

 

[ilovejesus1969]

@blueskiesfrompain Following cuz my 1 month old is already eating 32 oz and I'm scared. I think as long as he's not obese (I don't think babies can be?), not spitting up more than normal, and pooping normally he is probably fine! When he's eating solids it may go down considerably.

 

[lizjan]

@blueskiesfrompain The parenting book I have suggests a similar equation for judging how much formula to give, but caps it around 32oz (with an acknowledgement that some babies certainly eat a little more, and most babies go through spurts and lulls). 50-70oz is a LOT of formula! If my math is correct, it's approaching 2 liters. I suspect your baby is getting plenty eating at his own pace.

 

[brothergee]

@blueskiesfrompain My 5 month baby is quite chubby at 7.5 kg. She drinks about 900 ml/day (30 oz) or less. I was actually wondering that maybe I'm overfeeding her since she's growing on percentiles each month.

 

[jesking]

@blueskiesfrompain My 5 month old baby has been plateaued around 32oz per day for quite a while now. What's changed is how often she eats (increasingly less often) and how big the bottles are (increasingly larger). So right now she does four 8oz bottles per day, every 4 hours or so during the day.

 

[maplesyrup]

@blueskiesfrompain In Australia, they suggest for a baby between the ages 3 to 6 months, to give them 120mls per kg per day. So if your bub is 10kg, that's 1200mls a day, which is spot on what you've been giving. 2000mls seems so excessive. But I guess always follow your baby's cues, if he's happy and content with plenty of wet nappies and poos, gaining weight - then it sounds all good to me!

 

[blueskiesfrompain]

@maplesyrup This honesty sounds more sensible than the U.K. guidelines!