Is 5-6 oz. too much for a 4 week old.?

Question

I was thinking of feeding him this amount for his last feeding of the night so may be he will sleep longer... He usually eats about 4 oz. per feeding... Any thoughts?

Answer 1

I would stick to four. How often do you feed him? As long as he's not throwing up but just spitting up I'd say the amount you're giving him is fine. 5-6 oz. would be best if he was over 3 months.

Answer 2

He will let you know if it is too much. If he ends up spitting up much of the extra ounce or two that you give, he is obviously not ready. Every baby is different. My chunky 4-month old JUST began drinking 5 oz bottles, and she is in the 95th %ile for height and weight... so there is a good chance he will not tolerate this yet. Little tummies are roughly the size of the fist, so you can see why only a few ounces at a time can fit in there. If your son can't tolerate the extra ounces, don't worry, he WILL become a better sleeper as time goes on.

Personally, I have found "cluster feedings" to work best at night to make my daughter sleep for longer stretches at a time. Try giving several 2 oz. or 3 oz. bottles in the few hours before bed. There is plenty of literature on cluster feedings, I am sure, that you could find online.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Feed baby as much as he will eat in one sitting without forcing him to take the bottle. At 4 weeks my guy ate 4-5 ounces about 5 times in a stretch of two days. I then had to adjust the car seat straps because he was having a growth spurt, after that he went back to anywhere between an ounce and half to 3 ounces. We have just at 10 weeks (OMG he's 10 weeks, I spent this morning thinking he was still 9 LOL) gone up to 4 ounces bottles for about half his feedings.

A good solid bedtime routine will do more than filling his belly full. We have the 3 B's, and an every other night schedule. Night 1: Bath, Bottle (songtime while he eats), Bed Night 2: Bottle (songtime while he eats), Bedtime Story, Bed. Ok, so he's not so interested in the bedtime story but he likes the sound of my voice. Lights go out and we have some quiet cuddle time if he is still awake. I try to put him in his crib with eyes still open, give him his pacifier, turn on his FP Aquarium and he usually dozes right off. Tonight I had to go up once and put the pacifier back in and restart his Aquarium. Right now (it's twenty after 9) all is quiet. We started bedtime at 8:30, normally it's a half hour routine but his fussing drew it out a little longer.

He was still waking every 2 hours to feed when I started this at 5 weeks. We also made the transition from our room to his room in his crib at this point too. It took about a week for him to be completely ok with sleeping there, including returning to his crib after feeding. Then the midnight feed disappeared. Then he started eating more at bedtime (around 7 weeks old) and the 2 o'clock feed became an occasional thing). When I was putting him to bed at 10pm he would sleep until 3 or 4, eat another 3-4 ounces and sleep until 8. I've moved his bedtime up to 8:30 because he just gets cranky between 8 and 10 anymore as his own internal clock is starting to work. The last few nights have been ok. The night he only ate 2 ounces before falling asleep he woke at midnight to feed again. The rest of the time when he eats 4 ounces he'll sleep from about 9 till 3 or 4, but we are up at 7.

Either way I can handle only one night time feed, even if this schedule persists when I go back to work. He eats and then goes right back to sleep. Just be patient, every child is different. Once you settle into a routine and baby knows it's night time/sleep time he may naturally start eating bigger bottles at bedtime but give his tummy time to stretch. You don't want him to throw up in bed because then you will have to change his clothes, his bedsheets and by the time you are done that, guess who is wide awake? It isn't you!

Answer 4

To much. Feeding him more can just upset his stomach and cause him pain. If you want him to sleep more in the night you are going to have to work on it. I just posted this on another question, but I will post it for you too. Its what I did with all three of my daughters. I wanted my babies to go down about 7pm. So at six I start to quiet the house down, feed them, and give them a bath. In that order. Then swaddle them and lay them down in the their beds. I would stand there and rub their heads until they fell asleep. Around 10 I would wake them up to feed and change them. Again I would swaddle them, and calmly put them back to bed. Typically I this would get them to stay asleep until 3or 4 in the morning. I did this until my kids were about 6 months old. Once they stopped waking for the feedin in the middle of the night, I would wait a few weeks and take out the 10pm feeding. If they still slept all night, GREAT! If not I would go back to the 10pm and try again later. Dont worry this phase will pass. :)

Answer 5

A four week old baby needs to eat more often, rather than more quantity at a time. You are in for a long, long year if you are already trying to get him to sleep longer!

HOW MUCH FORMULA DO I FEED MY BABY, AND HOW OFTEN?
As you develop a bottle-feeding routine for you and your baby, the two of you will work out which formula is best, how much, and how often. This routine may change as your baby grows. As a general guide:

Between birth and six months of age your baby will need an average of 2 to 2.5 ounces of formula per pound per day. So, if your baby weighs ten pounds, she will need 20 to 25 ounces per day.

Newborns may take only an ounce or two at each feeding
One to two months: 3 to 4 ounces per feeding
Two to six months: 4 to 6 ounces per feeding
Six months to a year: as much as 8 ounces at a feeding

Small, more frequent feedings will work better than larger ones spaced farther apart. Your baby's tummy is about the size of his fist. Take a full bottle and place it next to your baby's fist and you'll see why tiny tummies often spit the milk back up when they're given too much at one time.

IS BABY GETTING TOO LITTLE OR TOO MUCH FORMULA?
Signs that your baby may be getting too little formula are:

slower-than-normal weight gain
diminished urine output
a loose, wrinkly appearance to baby's skin
persistent crying

Signs that your baby is being fed too much at each feeding are:

a lot of spitting up or profuse vomiting immediately after the feeding
colicky abdominal pain (baby draws his legs up onto a tense abdomen) immediately after feeding
excessive weight gain

If these signs of overfeeding occur, offer smaller-volume feedings more frequently, burp baby once or twice during the feeding, and occasionally offer a bottle of water instead of formula.

Answer 6

Don't try to over feed your baby, it'll cause him to spit up and/or get a belly ache while asleep. My son is 2 months old and barely eats that much each feeding.

Answer 7

If he finishes his bottle each and every time, it's a clear sign he needs more formula, so go ahead and add an ounce to every bottle during the day.

No, that's not too much.. If the baby seems happy and content, there's no excessive spit up or vomit, he's not overeating. =]

Answer 8

i honestly think increasing his night feeding will not keep him from waking up. this sleeping through the night doesn't happen usually until you start adding cereal to the formula because it is heavier and more filling this usually happens around the 3 or 4 month. but if he will drink it let him have it. just watch that he does not vomit, because then you are giving him too much.

Answer 9

If he's taking it - keep giving it!
You CANNOT over feed a baby. If they are getting too much - they will spit up! and you'll know not to give them that much at the next feeding ..

Answer 10

my son is 8 months old and remains ingesting each and every 2 hours...while he grow to be a new child he would consume each and every 2 hours to a T and would awaken contained in the direction of the evening each and every 2 hours to feed. i additionally felt that he grow to be snoozing like loopy in the time of the day. thats all popular. there are some fortunate mothers thats babies dont consume for each 4 or 5 hours...dont be fooled, each and every toddler is diverse