Formula feeds all over the place?!

So my boy started out being combi fed at birth but ended up being a formula baby pretty soon after. He’s been consistent with his formula feeds from birth and he moved up to 7oz at 6 weeks and would consistently have 6-7oz every 4 hours. He’s now nearly 10 weeks and all of a sudden his feeds are all over the place. He’s always been a good feeder but now he’ll have 7oz but the next feed he might have 4oz then 3oz and then 5oz. I’ve included a screenshot of the past few days. He’s always been a good sleeper too and I’m quite lucky as he sleeps through the night so he does go a big stretch overnight. He has always gained weight each time he’s been weighed, however despite this, at his last weigh in he had dropped a centile even with gaining. He went from 8lbs 2oz to 10lbs 7oz in a few weeks. The health visitor has us booked in next week for another weigh in to see where he’s at. I’m starting to wonder if he’s maybe got something else going on that I’m not seeing? I do believe he has silent reflux, he’s does get sick but it’s very little and I would say it 1 to 2 ounces worth over the whole day on a bad day, with a good day being hardly anything. However his reflux isn’t awful and we seem to currently manage it with pace feeding and all the other tips and tricks. He’s on infacol which has helped massively with his colic. He’s generally really happy and healthy baby and is currently meeting his milestones. So is there something I’m not seeing? Is the drop in feeds normal for a formula baby? We are still waiting for his 6-8week check and 8 weeks jabs. For some reason my doctors can do it up to 10 weeks which is this Friday. Anyone else experienced a formula baby upping how much they have, to then dropping it again?

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Babies go through periods of growth spurts where they feed more and then it goes back to their usual pattern so it could be that

The same thing happened to my baby but it was because he was on kendamil infant formula (pink tin) there was some changes to the formula/how it was being made and the new tins didn’t take to well on baby his oz dropped and were all over the place and started spitting up

My mother in general said to me In general it could happen because babies have growth spurts and they take exactly however much they need - she says if I was breastfeeding I would never fully know how many oz he would be having at a time anyways 🤣 as long as you are feeding on demand and maintaining a consistent routing around them like bath times, time you turn off the lights for bed time, open curtains in the morning etc for them to still differentiate the day/night etc x

Also it’s natural for baby’s to spit up in general, a little is absolutely normal however if you are worried a few people have said that getting probiotics has really helped silent reflux - https://uk.biogaia.com/products/protectis-baby-drops I am currently just trying it on my baby because I am also unsure x

Following this as my baby is exactly the same, has been on 5oz for weeks and weeks, but in the last couple he has been all over the place - a 5, then a 3, then another 5, then a 4 and it’s stressing me out so much! If you speak to your doctor, could you do an update? I don’t have mine until next week, but will see if the HV has any idea too!

@Scarlet 🤍 of course! I’ll let you know what they say!

I always fed my bottle fed babies on demand the same as a bf baby. I do wonder why we are all so obsessed with schedules. Both for feeding and sleeping. Babies are perfectly good at babying . We should leave them to it

@Alana I think it’s because hospitals and midwives drill it into us. I was poorly after birth and they were constantly telling me every 2-3 hours for a feed and they would ask me every time they did my observations how often he was feeding and how much he was drinking. He is fed mostly on demand as the four hour schedule is what he was naturally doing so that’s when I prep his bottles unless he wants it sooner.

Oh, and to add, my baby has dropped a centile, and is now gaining perfectly along that line. I was told HV don't worry unless they go below the 0.4th centile, or cross over 2 centile lines x

@Charlotte I just mean in general. Wr are all so focused on schedules and moniterjng and timing and it causes us so much stress ! Much easier to fo with the flow x

I completely agree with the whole schedule obsession, and like you said, if you breastfeed you have absolutely no idea how much they are actually getting so why are we so obsessed with a bottle! It’s so hard to change your thought process with it though!

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