confused :(

[nds]

i don't understand feeding..


i know to count from the start of a feed. but for eg samuel has now only taken 1oz and fallen asleep? he's been taking 2oz every 2hours. (once hes got past 2oz and given up after ive tried several times and hes not interested then i just leave him be?) and mostly sleeps til he's hungry again (2hrs currently).


how long is a feed supposed to take for a week old? it's 3oz i'm aiming for each feed right every 3-4 hours?


is this still the same feed if he's had a nappy change fallen asleep done whatever in the middle of it? how long do i give it before giving up? what if he takes him two hours to take this 2 or 3 oz, then his next one would be due?


he was taking 1oz every hour to begin with although i think i was counting totally wrong. i asked two different midwives who both said to try space out and coax him to drink more..


i'm so confused :'(
x

 

[Ella1979]

I would say that you go from the start of the feed in terms of the bottle, e.g. you make a 2oz bottle, you can only keep it 2 hours before discarding, so if he feeds from it at any point up to then, that's the same feed. You'll probably find that if he takes an hour or more to take a feed, he'll still want his next bottle roughly 2-3 hours after the start of the last bottle.

We used to have to coax our daughter to take more formula. She was fed through a tube to start with as she was so tiny and once on the bottle, she'd get tired, give up and fall asleep before she was full. On the advice of neonatal, we fed her upright and kept her awake by blowing in her face/pinching her toes etc. (sounds awful, but it was important to keep her awake enough to take her feeds).

At a week old (or a couple of weeks now, I guess!), I'm not sure that 3-4 hourly is often enough. I'd be going for every 2 hours and giving him at least 30 minutes to take the feed and no more than an hour. A lot of it depends on what gestation they were at birth, their birth weight and ability to take in formula. They're all so different. My daughter used to take 1-2oz every 2 hours, but my son would take 3-4oz every 2 hours.

 

[nds]

thank you.
we are taking between 2&3oz every 2&3hours, so slight improvement.


i have been timing from start, and giving next one about two hours after start of first feed like you say - so good to know i'm doing it right!

we try to keep as up right as we can, and sometimes i'll have to undress him a little or do a nappy change before he'll take more.

thank you.
x