to think my friend's plan is a little ... unusual?

[WestieMamma]

She has decided to reduce the amount offered to her son at feeds because she is worried about his weight and the fact that obesity runs in her family. He's on the 50th percentile for length and the 75th for weight which she feels is too big a difference. He's 5 months old.

My first thoughts were shock and 'you can't put a baby on a diet'. But she's a nurse which makes me wonder if she's better informed than me and it's the right thing to do. The reason I want to know what others think is that my little tubbles is on the 40th for length and the 95th for weight, so should I be doing the same. (I wasn't worried until she told me her plan)

I think she's planning on feeding him if he cries but to just not feed him as much

But surely she will just be feeding him more in the long run, as he will get hungry quicker?

No win situation, really!

YABU It is a absolutely possible to overfeed a FF baby

this research

He'll just be hungier again sooner though, won't he? - so she'll end up feeding him less each time but more often. Pointless

I get really fed-up of hearing about people completely misunderstanding percentiles. It is a RANGE, it doesn't mean their baby is big or fat if they are past 50%. It's all perfectly healthy!

If it was past 100% then I'm sure the HV would discuss what to do.

That poor little baby .

FFS!

It doesn't matter what baby is like now bar have some weight on them to help out when they get ill. And they always get ill to build up the immune system.

It's genetics. If dad and mum are big, chances are pretty high that baby will be big when he's older. As PP have said, its unfair to project parental eating issues onto a baby/child.

xylem8 - I'm not understanding how that research is relevant?

'xylem8 - I'm not understanding how that research is relevant?'

Overfed babies gained more weight and were more likely to be obese by age 5.How is that not relevant

But they were overfed on purpose by adding things to formula. The point of it was that the slower weight gain on normal undoctored formula was better for long term health over faster weight gain on formula with nutrients added. - it's got nothing to do with whether a baby can regulate feeds or whether parents should be doing it.

I'm pretty sure you'd get the same results if you added things to breastmilk.

The only relevance it would have is if parents were making up formula too strong, it's got nothing to do with the amount of milk actually being consumed.

At four months old DS' thighs were so chubby he wouldn't fit in his bumbo seat. He was breastfed, and I was told he was overfed and to reduce his feeds and try to feed him water in a bottle instead by my bonkers old-school HV, 'to fill his tummy up'. I didn't.

He's now three and a skinny bean and has a healthy attitude towards food.

Just because they're 'health professionals' doesn't mean they can't be dead wrong. She sounds mad!

Got to agree with 3birthdaybunnies, have seen this on many occasions, and it's just a case of people not being aware enough of the society wide conditioning of "finish up your plate before you leave the table/get dessert/etc"

However, putting your baby on a diet sounds mean!

For fucks sake. Re bottle feeding and getting all about the babies who are "forced" to finish the last oz.

I ff both my babies and they sometimes arse around with it...just like bf babies they piddle about and you need to wiggle the teat to remind them of the job at hand. All the faced can get fucked as far as I'm concerned that's NORMAL. BOth my DDs are healthy weights at 9 and 5 thank you very much.

oh and I NEVER say finish your food all up or any twaddle like that either!!

I think it sounds fairly sensible tbh.

It is possible to overfeed a bottle fed baby - I see quite often people trying to persuade their baby to take how much they "should" or finish the bottle. Or the baby will drink so much it is sick.

If your friend thinks she might be inadvertantly over feeding her baby, then surely it is sensible to offer smaller bottles and see how he gets on?

A baby might down 8oz because of the mechanism of feeding from a bottle, and because they can drink quite quickly. Actually, if they were offered 6oz they might have been quite happy with that.