Should I stop my baby eating too much?

[macneil]

I still haven't managed to get my tiny mouthed baby to latch on, have started taking domperidon, and am expressing about 40-50ml with the pump for about 3 out of 4 of her feeds. She drinks 125ml without my EBM supplement, but up to 150 with it. She's not yet 7 pounds and eats every 3-4 hours, although sometimes goes about 5 hours between feeds. During and after feeds, she vomits a couple of teaspoons, sometimes through her nose, which upsets her, and is very refluxy. I burp her 3 times during feeds, and once after, and she gets quite upset if I'm not skin to skin with her during this, and sometimes gets upset anyway. I'm worried I'm giving her too much to eat but she often gets annoyed if I take the bottle out at just 125 and don't give her more.

I'm not really sure how much she's supposed to eat and read that babies regulate their own food and stop when they're hungry, but I don't know if that's true. I wish I could breastfeed, I feel it would make things simpler, but I know that isn't always the case from the posts here. I wonder if I should be being a bit firmer and making her stop at 125, but for all I know that's a totally random number and has nothing to do with what she can eat in one sitting. Is all this a quite stupid question?

[MKG]

This isn't a stupid question and I wish I had an answer. Hopefully, someone will be by to help you.

[fussymummy]

None of this is a stupid question.

Is this your first baby?

How old is she?

She must be days or a couple of weeks old, judging by her weight.

Most babies feed on demand to start with.

Babies will only eat what they want.

To go every 3-4 hours seems a long time for a demand fed baby.

Hopefully they'll be someone who can give you more advice.

If you're worried then call your HV in the morning.

[mamama]

This isn't a silly question. I'm sorry you're still having such a hard time.

I forget how old she is now - a few weeks? Is this a growth spurt time? When my DS had big growth spurts all he would do was eat (bf) and throw up (and cry). He seemed fine so it didn't bother me. It happened every couple of months or so throughout most of his first year

I know that BF babies regulate their own intake - I don't know if that is true of ff babies, it may well be but I'm not sure. I thought it was that breast milk changes during the feed so helps the baby feel full when they've had enough but the formula doesn't do that so they don't know... I may be remembering that incorrectly though. My instinct would be to let her eat as much as she wants especially as she's small but I don't really know anything about this, so I hope someone more helpful comes along soon.

Sorry to be so useless!

[macneil]

Not useless at all! Thanks for the posts, I always do seem to have slightly clueless questions. She's 4 weeks old on Friday. And yes, now you mention it, I remember the milk at the end of a breast feed is different - is it hind milk? something like that - so I guess it is better at tipping off the baby. She is still quite tiny but seems to be putting on weight incredibly quickly and actually may be over 7 pounds now. She was very very skinny, but is double-chinned and round cheeked, which makes me very happy, as I spent a few stressful nights in hospital being told she was severely jaundiced so we couldn't leave. She's always been very sleepy, so it can sometimes be more than 4 hours until she wants to eat again, I think maybe I should try to encourage her to be more awake during the day.

I just sometimes feel like she's lying there and I've got a giant comedy funnel and am just pouring it into her while she goes 'ulk, ulk, ulk' and really I ought to stop before she explodes, rather than leaving it up to her.

Will talk to GP on Friday. Thanks again.

[wethreebobkings]

What teat are your using - if it's too fast she will just skull it down(to avoid choking presumably). Her tummy is only the size of her clenched fist though, so what won't fit will have to come back up somehow.

Presumably when she goes 5 hours between feeds it's because she is asleep.

[macneil]

Avent. Yep, she sleeps, wakes, wants to eat. That makes sense, though: I'll stop her oftener and take it away longer. But she does seem to get quite annoyed if she isn't given more, and keeps rooting like a maniac. I've wondered if that's just a comfort thing.

[fussymummy]

Would you consider trying a dummy?
Does she still have jaundice?
When my daughter had it, i was told that jaundiced babies will sleep a lot more, and i had to wake her to feed her every two hours.

[LIZS]

Personally I'd give her less , more frequently if the amount seems upsetting. Possetting isn't unusual in itself and it can look more than it really is. If you would like to breast feed more I'd suggest you phone and see a breastfeeding counsellor (NCT, La Leche League et al) asap.

[macneil]

The breastfeeding isn't happening yet, but I'm seeing a doctor at a specialist breastfeeding clinic about it. She told me my nipple was just too fat and the baby's mouth too small, but that that could change in as little as a few days (although it's been nearly two weeks since she said that). My GP also said today that she had the same problem and a month after the baby's due date her baby picked it up, so I'm suddenly more hopeful about that, and I think have gone through the period of being as depressed as I was ever going to get because I was failing her. I'm quite sanguine about it now, because I've been convinced it's more a physical mismatch than just me not trying hard enough or doing it all wrong.

The GP today said she keeps asking to suck to calm herself, so the best thing was to try a more concentrated formula (that would deliver the calories but lessen the volume) or just to wait out her asking for more and not giving it to her.

The dummy stuff is interesting. When she was a bit littler, my mum would stick the dummy in and my husband would come rushing to get me and whisper 'Your mother has put the dummy in again! come in and take it out! take it out!' and now he's constantly sticking it in her face. I've still been reluctant, but it makes much more sense to give it to her post-feed, when she's still hoping for more teat action, so I think this is indeed what I'll try next.

Thanks again, it's always good to talk about this stuff.

[macneil]

Oh, and fussymummy, no she is most definitely not jaundiced now, the little piglet. Honestly, her face is wider than it is high. I do now think - from what I've read here, and today's doctor - I have to stop giving her all the food she's asking for.

[TwinkleInSantasEye]

Hi Macneil, I don't know if this is any use or relevant, but when I used to breastfeed my DS and top up with formula he was on 4 feeds a day. Since I stopped breastfeeding he's gone back to five feeds a day. My point being that he was taking more milk in one sitting when I was mixed feeding. It strikes me that this is similar to your LO drinking more when you give EBM as well as formula. I always assumed it was because DS could digest the breastmilk faster than formula, but I don't know if this is true.

Also, my DS certainly seems to know when he's had enough - he doesn't just go on drinking until the bottle's empty. Every baby is different so I don't think I'd worry too much about a specific figure. Why not try giving her what she wants for a while and see if that makes her more sicky - if so, then she probably is taking too much and you might have to regulate it more.

[TwinkleInSantasEye]

Just read your last post and re-read your first one. How many feeds a day does she have? I understand that babies generally take between 60 and 100ml per half kilo of bodyweight, which for your baby I suppose would be somewhere between 450 and 700mls ish a day. I found this link useful.

[fussymummy]

Hi macneil I forgot to say, that one of my sisters had dificulty getting her son to breastfeed, as he would latch on, but wasn't sucking properly!!

I told her to try a dummy, to see if it helped with the sucking motion, and within a few days he was feeding with no problems at all!!

[LIZS]

Have you tried latching her on after expressing a little , that should draw the nipple out more and she won't have to work as hard to trigger the let-down reflex, or evn in the bath . If she wants to comfort suck why not use that as a way fo getting her used to being on the breast more often , with skin to skin contact if not actually latched on.

[LIZS]

Presumably she has been checked for tongue tie . Is the breastfeeding clinic attached to the hospital or independent ? Do they actually watch you and your dd trying to breastfeed.