Formula not enough?

Sam is just not satisfied by formula, since his 12 week growth spurt he is just hungry, hungry, hungry, non stop all day until he goes to sleep at night. He is still sleeping through the night and sleeping 2+ hours twice a day but when he is up he is looking around for food the whole time. I give him his bottle (usually 150mls is all he will take), and he is ok for a little while, maybe half an hour, then he wants more, so I give him another 100mls, which he takes, then an hour later he starts crying and trying to eat everything that he sees, like his hands, his toys, me. He wanted the seahorse from his playgym so badly that he pulled it clean off. So I make another 100mls to see if he will take it and he doesn't want it, but for a couple more hours he makes hungry signals the whole time, until such time that he has some room in there for more. It's quite tiring and I'm going through a hell of a lot of formula at the moment.   A tin usually lasts just on a week, but I'm over half-way through a new tin in just over 2 days.

What should I do? I'm trying to hold out till 4 months before introducing solids but this is getting ridiculous. I know it doesn't have to do with their size, but he's 8KG and 67CM, which is in the 90+ percentile on the charts, so he's pretty massive. I don't want to overfeed him, but I don't want him to go hungry either.

Any advice much appreciated.

Well there is a 12wk growth spurt so persevere, I know it's tempting to introduce solids early but it is usually better on their system to wait... at least 2-3 more weeks .

It doesn't sound like hes hungry he might just be getting bored if hes grizzly or just want to chew on things. They get to a stage where they can't quite play with toys but are bored doing what they do so you could try maybe going for walks or jolly jumper (can't remember how old they need to be).

Thank you all.

Peace, I thought Sam might have reflux a while ago, but it never eventuated into anything and he's a really happy boy. I will call the Karitane nurses and see if I can see one as I only saw Plunket twice. :(

I want to wait a couple more weeks before introducing anything else. A midwife friend of mine suggested 16 weeks as an ok time, and that's only two weeks away, so I think we can hold out.

Might have to find some more toys for him to play with!

Sterryn wrote: We got told by Plunket that they are ready for solids when they start waking up through the night hungry. If he is still sleeping through then he is probably ok.

This is interesting! Kaleb stopped sleeping through (and would take a good sized bottle overnight) but Plunket never mentioned this to me!

yeah i know that plunket says that it is too young but my hubby and his sibblings were started really early so i dont have a problem with starting him a bit early. Bay was started at 3months.

Whey and casein are the two main types of protein found in milk. Breast milk is whey predominant and cow’s milk is casein predominant, whey formula is processed by babies bodies at a much faster rate. Casein formula is a little harder to digest so moves through babies gut a bit slower. I know that S26 is casein predominant and Karicare is whey predominant. Good thinking Kez