Hi all... I'm curious if anyone else has issues with there baby not being satisfied with powder formula!! My four month old son takes 5 bottles a day (four 6-7oz bottles of breast milk and one 8oz formula). I recently switched to Similac Sensitive powder formula from Similac sensitive ready to feed so that when we transition to food at 6 months I can start to ween off the breast milk (being attached to a pump 24hours a day has been the pits). I started the one bottle of powder about a week ago and where he can go about 4 hours on a bottle of breast milk he seems to be starving after only 1.5-2 hours on the powder formula. We didn't have that problem with ready to feed. I've tried to thicken the powder formula up with and extra scoop but even that doesn't work. I'm going back to Ready to feed for now since its only one bottle and the price impact is minimal. But eventually this will become a very expensive habit.
Any help would be greatly appreciated :)
Thanks,
Meg
Thanks for all the replies. I think for now I'll put the powder on the shelf and continue with the Ready to Feed formula for that one bottle. I just found it odd that he got hungry so fast after the powder formula but all other forms (breastmilk and R2E) he did fine! We have his 4 month appointment next week so I'll address it with my Ped. then. I agree that he's to young for cereal, perhaps when we hit the 6month mark... I'll ask our Ped her opinion of that too!! Thanks again!!
I don't have a great suggestion, but I have heard of mom's mixing breast milk and formula together in a bottle. Do you think he would do better with a little of both??
I also would NOT put cereal in his bottle.
All three of my kiddos were formula babies. There came a time with all of them when they were no longer satisfied for any real amount of time. So I put rice cereal in their formula. My eldest was about four months, my second was two weeks and my third was about four weeks. Putting more formula in the bottle doesn't thicken, it just adds more calories.
Some moms say not to use cereal but I always have and my pediatrician has always supported me. You don't want to just keep feeding them because that is how you get overweight babies, the cereal really helps them feel full.
I put 1 scoop (I use the formula scoop) in each six ounce bottle of formula. And my 11 week old son eats about 6 6oz bottles a day. ALL with cereal.
if he is not on soy formula put him on it. my oldest did this and we eventually learned when he was about 6 months old he was allergic to formula. I even gave him cereal in his bottle and he ate like that ask at the wic office about formula allergies. see if you can get him switched to soy my sons eating went down when I switched him.
I use the Similac Sensitive Soy - my DD loves it and has no issues...maybe try the soy? I exclusively breastfed for 4.5 months, and when I started giving her rice cereal, I mixed in some formula with it instead of pumping...and she would eat it and finish the bottle afterward...so I switched to mostly formula at around 6 months and just weened her completely now that she is 7.5 months...it is a gradual process, but she is doing fine with the powder formula...ALTHOUGH, she hates it cold out of the purified water in the fridge - she will gulp it down if I heat it up first....so right now she is eating 4 8 oz bottles (7 oz water and then goes up to 8 when the powder is added...) and one extra bottle....which varies from night to night....sometimes it is 8 oz, sometimes 3....just depends on how hungry she is when she wakes up....Also, the more solids she eats the less she needs more formula (although she hates a lot of solids...rice cereal backed her up, so I switched to oatmeal cereal and she doesn't like either, so I started giving her orange veggies like carrots and squash and sweet potatoes, and she likes them, but still won't eat some fruits and other greens, etc...). I figure she will eat at her own pace and if she is still only drinking tons of formula and not a lot of solids in the future it will EVENTUALLY become a problem, but she is still young and I am not going to worry about it right now. Good luck - hopefully you can afford the R2E until she starts eating more formula and solids....
Have you tried the concentrated liquid formula that you mix with water? My daughter had a horrible time with powder formula, and the ready to feed kind was just too expensive. But once we tried the concentrated liquid, she was just fine... She also was on Similac Sensitive, from about 2 months all the way up until right after her first birthday.
Both my kids were/are formula fed so i cant really compare, but my daughter is almost 6 months old and eats all the time. She is on the target brand of the lactose free sensitve and eats often. I just feed her when she is hungry. My son could go longer in between than she can. She eats oatmeal for breakfast and lunch and stage 1 food for dinner and i do also put cereal in her night time bottle only. Each to thier own if you agree with it or not. My son loved it and so does my daughter. He could just be growing and need more to, or it just may take time for him to get used to the formula. It will all work out and its just for another 8 months and your little one will be on milk already. I like the idea of mixing the breast milk and formula togeather while transitioning though. That might help keep him full longer also and will make both last a little longer. Good luck.
I never used formula, but I do know you should NEVER mix the formula outside the directions, never add an extra scoop, that won't thicken it, but it jacks with the chemistry of the formula, giving your child too much at a time, don't do it. And don't mix in cereal either.
My son was the same way. I started putting baby cereal in his bottle to thicken up the formula so that it would keep him full. Hope this helps
I dont see the big problem with putting baby cereal in your babys bottle. I even asked my pediatrician about it and she said it was fine. What else are you to do when regular formula and breast milk are not working? Some babies have a bigger appetite.
I would not put cereal in his bottle! He's too young.
I always used the pre-mixed formula and had a much happier baby that he was when I tried the powder. It's not really that much more expensive if you crunch the numbers.....it was the difference of 5-10 dollars a week and it was very worth it in my opinion. My son wasn't that hungry that soon with the formula--maybe he's in a growth spurt? Feed him if he's hungry, of course!
