Not having enough to eat?!

[a mum]

My 3.5 months old baby boy weighs 16 ilb and is at the 97 percentile. When he was about 2.5 months old, he weaned himself for the 4am feed and recently midnight feed. He can sleep straright from 10pm to 11 am (I think he can sleep even longer if I don't wake him up). However, he doesn't seem to need more ounces during the day. Which means his intake has dropped by 6 meals X 5 ozs to 4 meals X 5 ozs. I found out that he may not be having enough milk since he only wet abt 5 diapers a day. Should I be increasing his total intake. I read articles that he should be eating 16lbs X 2.5 ozs each day i.e. 40 ozs. My questions are:
1) should I be doubling his intake since he is already at the 97 percentile? 2) if so, how should i do it? 5 meals X 8 ozs@? But since he sleeps so much i am left with less than 12 hours to give him 5 meals. (I am feeding every 4 hours now) 3) should I let him sleep or should I wake him up to feed? which way is better for him?

 

[barbwong_130]

The calculation for weight and how many ounces a baby needs only works in the first few weeks of life ? it won?t be accurate for a three month old. Most babies drink between 25 oz and 32 oz a day. I would slowly increase the amount in the four bottles your son is now drinking to make it up to about the same as he was getting with the six bottles. i.e adding another 2.5 oz to make each bottle up to 7.5 oz. But remember not to force him to finish the bottle if he shows signs of not wanting it. Remember that it is in the manufacture?s interest if you over feed your baby. So babies often find it difficult to keep up with the recommendations on the side of the tin.

The best way to see how your baby is doing is to watch the baby and his development and weight gain rather than to worry about the qualities he drinks. After all it is what he does with the food rather than the food itself that is important.