How to make a bottle feed baby drink more at night!!

[First Baby White]

Mylittle milk monster is a very hungry baby, at 3 weeks old we have had to switch his formula to Aptimal number 2 hungry baby and increase his bottles to 6oz ones even thought you arent supposed to do this till they are at least 4 weeks old because he wasnt getting full!!
The issue we have is when he has his bottles in the day he drinks the 6oz usually in 2 sittings so he takes 4oz we burp him then he takes the other 2 and sleeps for 4 or 5 hours but at night he tends to only take 3 or 4oz and falls to sleep meaning he will wake for another feed after 2 or 3 hours so how can I get him to take his full 6oz as I am convinced he will then sleep for longer and means I know he is full and happy????

 

[CoreysMummy]

.. Lots of 's and hope!!

I cant really help im afraid, its odd that he changes the amount he takes tho... shame its not the other way round, more oz in evening etc.

Tried feeding 3oz, then half hour later 3oz, then half hour later seeing what u can get in him.

My LO feeds 4hourly now, wakes at 8am, feeds, 12pm feeds, 4pm feeds, 6pm feeds, half 7 feeds - 8pm bed. So in the evening he kind of cluster feeds, keeps him full til about 5am. Mabey give that a crack!?

Also, feed him before hes tired. As he will just fall asleep if you dont, he may drink more if hes not half asleep.

 

[kalia]

It seems like he's going for a long time between feeds during the day - the gap between feeds is timed from the beginning of the last feed so if he's sleeping for 4-5 hours I assume that means there are between 4 and a half hours and 5 and a half hours between feeds. Maybe feeding him more often during the day (DD has always ate around every 4 hours as that was what she asked for) would mean he wouldn't need so much during the night.

I guess he's eating less because he is sleepy so maybe give him what he will take then change his nappy as this will wake him so you may be able to feed him more.

Or it could be he wakes and needs settled and could be settled with out food so that he eats every 4 hours at night instead of every 2-3 hours.

Or it could be that because he is a sleepy newborn he has day and night round the wrong way so eats more at night and less during the day. Try offering milk more often during the day to see if this helps.

Good luck!

 

[Krystal]

try changing his nappy half way through the feed to wake LO a little?

 

[Sage]

lol typical newborn! ha your lucky he sleeps for 2 - 3hrs even after 3oz! it would of been a dream come true if my son had done that at 2 months let alone 3 weeks! he'd be wide awake kicking his legs at 3am for hours before he'd decide it was time to go to sleep dont miss those days!! he had no concept of day or night for ages.

I think its just guna be a case of waiting. i found my son changed his habits so often as a newborn. i would guess the reason why is your clever boy already knows its night time so is naturally sleepy and 3oz is just enough to satisfy him and drop off again. id continue with what your doing, give it a couple weeks and im sure those periods will get longer.

Does he have a dummy? maybe hes not waking coz hes hungry? maybe he just needs a cuddle back to sleep? Praps when he wakes soon after his feed just try and cuddle him back to sleep, then the next time he wakes he will be even more hungry and might take a full feed? My son wakes at 3am usually for a bottle if he wakes before crying its usually coz his dummy has fallen out and if i just pop it back in he'll go back off.