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Can you help newborn babies space out feeds?
My son is four weeks old and weighs 12½lbs. He was born weighing 10lbs, 13oz. He is formula-fed and takes a bottle up to 15 times a day — two to three ounces per feed. We are sleepless. Isn't there some type of supplement we can give at this age that will allow him to go longer between feeds?
He was a very big baby, and he seems to be putting on the right amount of weight. As a rough guide, babies should be back to birth weight by 10-14 days, and then put on around 7 oz (210gm) every week.
I would expect a baby of four weeks weighing 12? lb to be feeding 6-7 times a day, taking 5-6 oz per feed. But what your baby is doing is 'snacking' - taking 2-3 oz every 1?-2 hours, rather than taking a proper feed every 3-3? hours. There is a problem with this very frequent feeding, as it means he will not have time to sleep well between feeds, so is likely to become overtired and unsettled.
This in turn means he wants to suck again for comfort as well as hunger, and the sucking makes him fall asleep after only a couple of ounces of milk. But only a couple of ounces of milk will not allow a baby weighing 12? lb to sleep for very long, so the pattern of frequent small feeds is perpetuated.
The first step is to try and gradually lengthen the interval between his feeds, say by 15 minutes a day, and help him to learn to take more milk at each feed. Rather than leaving him to cry, it may help to distract him by giving him a dummy, rocking or walking around with him.
However, once you have spaced the feeds to every three hours, if your baby still only takes 2-3 oz a feed and then cries and arches his back, I would suspect a condition called reflux. This is not difficult to treat, but you would need to take him to your GP.
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