Forum home Babies Breast & bottle feeding

Lots of questions!!

Ok, so I am slowly replacing my breastfeeds for my twins with bottle feeds. After the initial feelings of guilt I am coming round to the idea as this will definitely be best for my boys. So, I have a few questions about bottle feeding if anyone can help!

1) How do I know when they have had enough? This is also a problem I had with breastfeeding. The boys root for more but then dont suck, or spit back out what they are getting. Is this normal. They suffer terribly with wind but winding them doesnt make any difference.

2) How do you make up feeds? I have been putting hot water into sterilised bottles - enough for the day - then leaving them on the side to cool and adding milk when needed. Is this ok?

3) How long should a feed take? The boys have been having a replacement feed since Sunday and feeding them, including winding and changing, takes about an hour. Is this about right?

4) Im using TT CTN bottles. Sometimes the boys suck so hard that the Teat sucks in on itself. Theyre number 1 teats and the boys are 6 weeks old. When do I know when to go up to the next flow? I think the boys suck harder as they have to when bf.

5) When you put 150ml water in bottle and add powder it produces more milk so how much am I actually feeding them?
Thanks in advance for your help

Gemma, Ryan and Alfie (6 + 3)

[Modified by: Gemmiebaby on 19 November 2009 15:37:37 ]

Replies

  • Hey sweetie! Glad to hear you've got your head around formula feeding. I have dropped down to one breast feed from yesterday - and even though I feel bad every now and then it is actually much easier as H now feeds at the same time every day and it means I can plan our day so much better. Also, he is much more chilled out ...

    In answer to your questions ...

    1. I don't really know I'm afraid - I think H would drink until he was sick if I let him. I was giving him 4oz bottles - but he was still seeming hungry when he finished ... he was rooting like a maniac! - so I've taken to giving him 5oz. Sometimes he doesn't drink that much - he will start spitting milk out - or rather dribbling it down his chin ... and so I stop feeding him then. Or sometimes I'll take the bottle out of his mouth to wind him or check how much he has left, and he then purses his lips and won't let me put it back in - so I know he has enough. You'll soon learn the tell tale signs from you boys.

    2. That's exactly how I do it. I get up in the morning, wash and sterilise my bottles, then fill them with cool boiled water and leave them on the side. Then when it is time for a feed I add the formula.

    3. I think this varys with every baby. H takes about half an hour start to finish - but he didn't often spend more than 20 minutes on the boob when I breast fed.

    4. H is 7 weeks and using half number 1 teats and half number 2 teats. I find he dribbles milk far more with the number 2 teats so I use the number 1s in the evening when he is tired otherwise he can't swallow the milk fast enough ...

    Hope some of this helps a bit

    K xxx
  • Hiya,

    Just so you know, I've been bottle-feeding for 6 months and some things still confuse me so here goes:

    1) our midwife told us they won't drink more than they want/need so just give them what they want. We have a very windy sicky colicy baby. The wind and the clic get better after about 12 weeks. Try Dr Brown or MAM Anti-colic bottles. Both these worked well for us. Also infacol worked well but you have to use it with every feed and it takes about 2/3 days for the effects to kick in. If you have a sicky baby you just have to wait it out I'm afraid. We got a dramatic reduction in vom about 2 weeks ago but it was horrific at the start. You can also try infant gaviscon for that from your doc or one of the comfort milks.

    2) That's fine, loads of people make their bottles like that. We're old skool and naughty and make ours in advance and pop them in the fridge. It's each to their own with this one I'm afraid no set answer!

    3) Our fella varies from 15 minute chug downs to one hour epics. If he's being fussy though I tend to pop the cap on and leave him to have a think about it before trying again in 20 minutes!

    4) There's no harm in trying the next size teat. If it looks like they're struggling to cope with the amount of milk coming out then go back down a size.

    5) My husband and I have this debate all the time! We still don't know the answer but to shut him up we use the biggest number.

    Good luck with it all
    Clare x
  • Hiya,

    Think the other girls have covered everything.

    What formula do you use? I only ask as we use Aptamil Easy Digest/Comfort and it recommends to use size 2 or vari flow teats. We originally used no1's with it but they got blocked (as the milk is slightly thicker to help it stay down) and we found vari-flow too fast, and no2's perfect.
    If you use a regular milk, could you try an easy digest version to help it stay down?

    With regards to when you add the powder - I know what you mean, it confused me too, but I always go by the water, so for mine I add 210ml of water which is 8oz (ish) so I take that as how much I give lo and ignore the amount when the powder is added!

    I make up the bottles the same way as you. I know your meant to do them fresh everytime but I just cant do that, it doesnt work for us and LO is happy with it how we do it.

    HTH xx
  • Hi!!

    I think the others have given you all the answers i would have for the rest but as for number 4, i only posted on here last week needing help with this!!

    If the teats turn inside out on sucking, next time your washing them make sure the anti-colic valve in the teat is opening ok. Squeeze it on the inside of the teat until you see it open and then it shouldnt happen when feeding.

    I had one very unhappy baby because of this, he was in so much pain from taking air in when the teats turned inside out, it hasnt happened since a lovely lady on here told me to do this!

    Hope this helps!

    xx
Sign In or Register to comment.

Featured Discussions