To think my BF baby is overweight?

[Rowenleaves]

My baby is 3 months old and, despite being born at an average 8lb 5oz, is now on the 98th percentile and always looks so chubby when next to babies of similar ages. My HV says that exclusively breastfed babies can't be overweight and I should continue to feed him on demand. He does love feeding and sometimes I think I should try and space it out a bit but don't want to ignore him if he's hungry. What do you think?

DC2 is now 4 both him and one of his friends were proper chubsters as babies, and they are both now unremarkably sized. Although DS definitely has a heavyset build, but he's not fat.

98th for weight and 91st for height sounds perfectly in proportion to me. Just a big, strong baby.

Ipost,I can't believe they prescribe that tea thing in Italy!

DD was EBF and enormous at about 4/5 months - she was born at 6lb 13 and shot up to 91st centile.

However she has since slimmed down and has converted her weight to extra height - she was born on the 9th centile and is now on the 50th.

They take what they need.

so was mine, he was HUGE - just keep BF and relax. I love big fat babies

in fact mine was so greedy, when BF he did not shit for 4 weeks. No word of a lie, he digested everything

Going up percentiles is fine, if they drop they are at risk of not fulfiling genetic potential. Ebf went from 50-75% just gives me more of workout, I have good core and arm muscles now

DS2 never stopped feeding and went up over a pound a week. He looked like a little Michelin man.

He's now 6'7" and built like a brick out house.

I wouldn't worry.

Don't worry OP, as pps have said, you can't overfeed a baby. My BF DS was an absolute round pudding (and bald) and on the 98th percentile. He is now a v tall and slim boy - I was looking at some of his baby photos yesterday and thought WOW! miss the chubby legs and tummy tho!

Rowen

Well to fair they might not now. It was a decade and a half ago.

We had the additional horror of the Feed By Feed Weight In.

You have to rent baby scales. Weight uncooperative baby. Write it down in special book. Feed baby. Re weight baby after feed before changing nappy. Note number. Calculate how much breastmilk had been consumed by baby. Note number. All in correct columns with date and precise time.

Which I'm sure works fine for some people.

Doesn't work so well when you gave birth to a small, pink leech and have no idea when to weight him cos you can't work out when a feed is actually starting (or if it's just a nibble) and when it actually ended (cos he took short rest breaks before relatching, all the time) and anyway you are knackered and just want to lie prone with said small pink leech tucked up against breast so he won't howl like a banshee.

I hated ped. visits. Everybody would sit there with their carefully plastified and colour coded feeding/weight books. And I'd be holding a tear stained, dog eared thing filled with a few random numbers and "excuses because I was too lazy to fill it in properly" as Nurse Ratched at reception put it.

I got book shamed every.single.time

If I could go back I would just block out all the unsolicited bollocks about my heffalump of a baby, and spend the saved worry-time blowing raspberries on his rolls of babyfat instead.

He won't even let me kiss him now. (teenage dignity and all that jazz) I should have done more nuzzling when I had the chance.

My BF DS was a tiny little scrap of a thing at 4 months, despite feeding round the clock. My sisters 4 month old DS was a bowling ball she could barely lift, even though he fed less often.
Now at 8 they are almost the same exact size and shape. a baby can't be overweight at 4 months because you shouldn't care what weight they are at 4 months (barring actual medical issues, obv)

Both mine were EBF and both went through a "mitchelin man" phase with rolls of fat. Once they started to move around the weight dropped off them.

If it helps my HV told me my baby was too long, too heavy and head too big.

Also known as in proportion.

This is why the constant weighing when a baby is happy and growing really irks me. As if you don't have enough to worry about. As you were chaps. Carry on.

Both my entirely BF babies were practically spherical at that age. They're both now fairly lanky at 3 and 6, and the 6 year old is positively skinny.

Every single professional I asked about my fat Michelin babies said you can't over feed a breast fed baby who is fed on demand.

my ds2 was a complete bloater compared to most other babies, Fully breastfed, and was born big and gained and gained. Hes slim as anything now hes older.
If youre not forcefeeding him, then hes fine x

This thread should have a warning in the title - I am exploding with broodiness picturing all that delicious chubbiness

Ds was huge at 4 months. Big rolls of chub, countless chins. EBF.
By the time he started school he looked half starved he was so skinny. Hes a teenager now and in healthy proportion.

On the other side, my DH had an old friend who lived overseas. He and his wife had a baby who weighed in at 11lbs and was ebf. His Mum was feeding him on a strict 4 hourly schedule, 10 mins each side.

They visited when he was 16 weeks old. He weighed 14lbs and looked like a wrinkled old man. He was unnaturally quiet and didn't cry to be fed. DH and I (trained health professionals, as were they) tried to gently suggest that she could loosen up the schedule but it fell on deaf ears. When they got back home we heard that they were firmly told to mix feed him and he was monitored closely. He's fine now, but he did have a broken leg before he was 2.

Unlimited feeding is the way to go, he'll take what he needs.

My EBF baby was absolutely enormous- rolls of fat everywhere...

He is now a 6'2", skinny 18 year old; he has been thin since he was about 4.

I can believe it, my DM said she used to give me very weak camomile or fennel tea. It was meant to be a cure for constipated/windy babies...that was 28 years ago mind!

I might actually take DS to the paediatrician next time we go to Italy on holiday just because I want a colour coded weaning chart to follow

But yes, just carry on feeding in demand...someone has to be at the top of the centres chart. I bet he looks adorable.

Dotdotdot, I read that book French Children don't throw Food and the writer says lots of French women feed on schedule:at 8am, 12, 4pm and 8pm. I was in awe!

Ah, my EBF baby was the same, he's a slim and energetic child now. Just wait until he starts moving, it'll soon come off. I can't believe the size of mine when I look at his baby photos! Very cute though!

Best advice I can give you: Ignore percentiles for ANYTHING!

My DD was exclusively breastfed for almost 6m. She looked like she had been pumped up with a bicycle pump - she was a right little chubster! However, as soon as she became mobile she started slimming down and now at almost three is a really good healthy weight and not overweight at all. So, what I'm saying is.... I'm not sure I agree that breastfed babies can't be overweight (seriously, you should have seen her), but I don't really think it matters.

My breastfed babies went through a chubby phase. Enjoy, it doesn't always last!