feeding question?

Question

I have a 6 week old baby who is never satisfied with her bottle anymore! She was full term and was 6 pounds when she was born she is now 9 pounds. She was sleepying for at least 5 hours a night. I have increased her formula to 6oz and when she is done she is still sucking and crying! How much more should I give her. And I would really like to sleep at night instead of getting up every 3 hours to feed. Anyone know any trick to get her to sleep longer.

Answer 1

Don't OVER FEED your baby............formula should be given every 3-4 hours only.......and breastmilk 2-3 hours......

if she's crying she may be colic or she may have gas........OR the formula may not agree with her and you might have to try another kind of formula.....

and the sucking DOES NOT mean they are hungry....that is their reflex......so you put anything in their mouths they will suck....so DON'T mistaken this for hunger....

and it's ok to let her cry.......

my god she is only 6 weeks old.......that's what babies do!!
she's comunicating with you.......you can let her cry a little....
if you've fed her, changed her, played and cuddled with her....
put her in a safe place and take a break........

She will eventually fall into her own routine.....
and you have many more sleepless nites ahead of you......consider when she's sick or teething.....you'll be up with her....

Age: Birth to 4 months------------

Feeding behavior:
• Rooting reflex helps your baby turn toward a nipple to find nourishment

What to feed:
• Breast milk or formula ONLY •
***Your baby's digestive tract is still developing, which is why solid food is off limits for now***

From 4-6 months------------

Signs of readiness for solid food
Your baby probably won't do all these things — they're just clues to watch for.
• Can hold head up
• Sits well in highchair
• Makes chewing motions
• Shows significant weight gain (birth weight has doubled)
• Shows interest in food
• Can close mouth around a spoon
• Can move food from front to back of mouth
• Can move tongue back and forth, but is losing tendency to push food out with tongue
• Seems hungry after 8 to 10 feedings of breast milk or 40 oz. of formula in a day
• Is teething

What to feed
• Breast milk or formula, PLUS
• Semi-liquid iron-fortified rice cereal, THEN
• Other grain cereals like oats or barley


http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/baby/ba...

Answer 2

Sorry to say that I feel the obvious answer is that you should be breastfeeding her instead of feeding her artificial formula. At 6 weeks it is not too late for you to re-lactate and start breastfeeding her. It would be a lot of work and it would require determination on your part but it would be worth it in the long run.
Setting that aside, if you opt to continue with the formula I would increase the amount to a point that satisfies her. Babies that young will vary in the amount of milk it takes to satisfy them. She may be experiencing a growth spurt, for some reason she wants more formula right now. There is no harm in giving it to her. A 9 pound baby may very well need more than 6 oz's of formula. I would ask your pediatrician but it seems to me that 8 oz's would be appropriate.
She may just be going through a fussy period where she wants the comfort of sucking. If you are not opposed to it you might want to try a pacifier. If she just wants to suck that will make her happy, if she is truly hungry it won't help. That could help you decide what to do.
Where does your baby sleep? My babies always slept all night if I put them in bed with me. There again that is a personal choice. Some people do not want their baby in their bed with them for one reason or another. All 5 of my babies slept curled up with me and they were all sleeping all night at a very early age.
Good luck and I hope you find a solution to your problem.
Love and Blessings
Lady T

Answer 3

I had the same problem, except my son was larger. He was born an ounce under eight pounds and by the time he was six weeks he was ten pounds. When I was feeding him six ounces, he would still continue sucking on the empty bottle and cry. So I did what I thought was best, give him more food. He was obviously still hungry and I wasnt going to deprive him of food.

So I upped it to eight, sometimes ten ounces, and I thought to myself that it was ridiculous for him to be drinking ten ounces every four or so hours. So I decided to put cereal in his bottle. Boy, that fixed everything. He loved it, went back to about five to six ounces at a time and didnt have to eat every four hours.

After the cereal feeding started, if I gave him a cereal bottle right before bed, he would sleep from ten to about five. Sometimes he would wake up around one or two just to suck on the bottle til he fell back to sleep.

He is now three months and stays asleep from ten to seven. Dont do the cereal thing for too long though because it could be hard to get them to eat solids if they are used to sucking a 'solid' through the bottle, they wont want to eat from a spoon. So sometimes once a day, or every other day, I will give my son stage one baby food, just so he gets full and still learns to eat from a spoon and not totally rely on the sucking action.

Answer 4

Feed on demand. Most 6 week old babies wake up to feed during the night at least once or even 3 times.

Answer 5

In my personal oppinion and what I do with my own baby who is going through a growth spurt is feed her her four ounces if she is still hungry i feed her until she is full, once or twice i ended up feeding her six ounces. There was no harm done at all, and its not like she wants to eat six ounces at every feed, its probalby just because she is going through a growth spurt and they will eat like that when they are going to go through one, i dont see any harm in over feeding your baby because the worst that could happen is that she may vomit a bit of it back up, but if you do not feed your baby enough she is going to be a heck of a lot more demanding and cranky.

When my girl did eat like that it was only once or twice and then she resorted back to her normal feeding routine of 3-4 ounces afterwards,

Answer 6

A little rice cereal in her bottle at night won't hurt and hopefully she will sleep longer and so will you. Been there, done that. Sometimes they go through that growing spurt and just want to eat all the time.

Answer 7

Feed when she is hungry. You may need to switch formulas. Talk to your doctor about it and see what he/she suggests. Don't give her cereal yet!!! 6 weeks is way too early you should at least wait until 4 months, 6 months if possible!

Answer 8

Honey she's not hungry..she's eating out of bordom or security one. babies can and do develope what i like to call security blanket's. Your daughter just might have one. my daughter did for a long time. She only wanted the bottle because it made her feel safe and conforted her. If you want her to sleep longer Prop a bottle of water in her bed while she sleeps at night. She'll be close to it and can reach it and just wait she will sleep longer. because she'll have what she needs. i know doc's say not to but do it anyway . as long as the bottle doesn't leak it will be fine.

Answer 9

Ok, I'm an older woman who raised 2 children and a grandchild. When my kids were infants, we fed our children cereal at 2 weeks old. I followed the same proceedure with my granddaughter. It worked. Feed her a small amount of rice cereal before bed or dilute it with formula and put it in a bottle, before bed. This will help.

Answer 10

you go by your baby she is obvious a hungry baby so she may need more feeds during the day if she is not sleeping through the night try baby rice i would speak to your health visitor or doctor my baby was on cow and gate milk step 2 cos he was a hungry baby