Greedy DS

[alfie22]

sorry - mainly posting for traffic here!

DS is 6 weeks old. We recently increased his milk to 6oz as he was draining the 5 and still chewing his hands afterwards, but he is now doing this after drinking 6oz!

Surely 7oz would be a lot of milk to give him at this age? feeding guidelines on the formula box suggest 7oz to be introduced at 4 months old..

Would it be worth trying him on hungry baby milk or is there not much difference?

Ftm here so not really clued up

P.S. sorry that link harps on about breastfeeding so much - I was trying to find a link that explained paced feeding and didn’t really read the article properly before I posted 🙈

Is he a big baby? My babies were on to 8oz bottles by this age. They were both nearly 10lb at birth.

@Feefsie he's 9lb 7 now. He was 7lb 5 at birth

What size is he OP my son was 9.1 at birth but skinny as hell he was a MASSIVE feeder compared to my girls. Babies that age aren't greedy they are hungry try him on a larger feed and see how he settles. Btw my boy is now 16, slim 6ft 3 and size 12 feet and still has a MASSIVE appetite lol

toriathet, from the figures you've given, your lad is very overweight, BMI on the 98th centile for age, and heading for adult obesity. Unfortunately some children's' appetite is set higher than their metabolism needs, so we can't always 'feed to hunger' - if weight is accelerating, things need to be managed more actively. It's not easy.

@Walkacrossthesand

Did you miss the part where her son is 5' 2"? 157cm tall? Literally off the WHO scale?

This is the reason that BMI for kids is a ridiculous and blunt instrument. I have the same with my son who was 'very overweight' except he was 11lb and 24 inches at birth. He remains much taller than all of his classmates and getting him clothes is a nightmare as his waist is that of his age but everything is way too short in the limbs.

I took my son to the doctor btw after that stupid letter from school and the doctor told me it was obvious my son wasn't even overweight let alone obese and I should chuck the letter away.

He would need to be over 13lb to be on the 95th percentile. My babies were bigger than 9lb 7 at birth - was I supposed to put them on a diet? My elder son tracked between the 90th and 98th percentile throughout his childhood. He is now 17, 6 foot 2, slender and eats a lot. We got the fat letter from school but ignored it.

If we’re going with some anecdata - I used hungry baby milk with my twins and they’ve never had any digestive problems. It meant I only went through a carton of formula every day and a half rather than every day. I only started giving it to them at about 4 months though.

@ElizaPancakes yep DS is going through a box of formula like it's going out of fashion

do what they want you to do, my boy who is 14 now was weaned at 4 months as he was a hungry baby....nothings changed will eat for three if he could and is as skinny as a rake!!!! its just not fair LOL
always go with what they want guidelines are just that guidelines!

I’d speak to your HV about trialling the hungry baby milk. It can cause constipation, it didn’t for mine (in fact, SMA milk caused constipation) but you soon find out and it passes.

You could also try a slower teat on the bottle, although that might just frustrate him!

@ElizaPancakes well he's definitely not constipated at the moment because we've just has a massive poo explosion! 😂🙈

ah I remember those days well! Never forget the double-whammy explosion in the Mothercare carpark....!

ElizaPancakes your babies were 4 months old which is a lot older than 6 weeks. OPs baby is barely past the newborn stage. Hungry milk is not really suitable for that age group when her baby is feeding at normal intervals. I also used it with mine but not until 14 weeks. I wouldn't have used it at a younger age.

Which is why I offered up my anecdote, the ages of the babies, PLUS said to speak to her HV.

Plus I also said “I only started giving it to them at about 4 months though” indicating I had noted the difference in ages.

DS1 was taking 10-11 oz at 7 weeks. HV said as long as he was happy with lots of wet nappies, to feed him as he wanted. He's always cost a fortune to feed (hollow legs) but is now very very fit and active. (He's now 28yo lol)

11oz from and hour old and now has 9-10 meals a day.
I’m really struggling to believe this

Babies need 120 to 150 mls per Kilo of milk over 24 hours. So take baby's weight in Kg, multiply it by 150 ( the maximum) , then divide it by 6 or 8 (ie. if feeding 4 hrly divide by 6, and if feeding 3 hourly divide by 8).
EG. 3kg baby feeding 4 hourly = 3 x 150 = 450. 450 divided by 6 = 75 mls per feed. if you exceed this, then you are overfeeding and chances are baby is crying because of reflux and abdominal discomfort. ( one ounce = 30 mls).

Feeding them more actually results in reflux and they will cry because they are uncomfortable. Overfed babies cry and vomit more, and some parents STILL confuse the cries with hunger !

As time goes on, obviously the volumes increase, but the same formula for baby weight / feeds applies to all babies who are not yet weaning.

That calculation is a rule of thumb so you can't say that going over a certain amount is overfeeding. You're supposed to feed on demand and to their appetite.

Actually, it's not simply a 'rule of thumb', it's the formula paediatricians use to calculate feeds for infants in the NHS.

As a paediatric nurse working in a childrens hospital it's something we see every day. Many parents of new infants assume that if the baby's nappy is clean and they're still crying, they must be hungry, and then they overfeed them.

I'm not saying all babies are the same, but I AM saying that over a 24 hour period, the 150mls per kilo IS the maximum that should be fed to an infant.

@spam390 are you saying I should reduce his milk?

Op how long are you winding for during and after a feed? Hands up to mouth can be a sign of wind rather than hunger, especially if crying. Babies can sometimes take half an hour or more to get the wind up properly.

Well even the NHS website gives different amounts to that:

By the end of their first week, most will need around 150 to 200ml per kilo of their weight a day until they're 6 months old. This amount will vary from baby to baby.

Although most babies settle into a feeding pattern eventually, they vary in how often they want to feed and how much they want to drink

You should have a long discussion about feeding with your midwife or GP as I cannot give you advice, I can only give you information.

The formula I've given IS what is used in the NHS by paediatricians to calculate infant feeds, and we DO see parents every day who are overfeeding their infants and causing then gastrointestinal discomfort, which leads to crying, which leads to more feeding.....and so it continues in a never ending cycle.

Your midwife and GP know your child's medical history, and can plot their growth and discuss any other symptoms e.g vomiting, constipation, raising knees to stomach, any stool changes e.g mucous/ blood, stool frequency and colour, whether they cry more when lying flat after feeding etc. All the history and symptoms need to be assessed in person by a medical professional in order for them to be able to advise you on a course of action/ treatment.

Please ignore all the wild stories about 'my baby takes this much milk' or ' I weaned my baby at 2 months' type stories as they are either exaggerations the same as ' my baby was walking at 4 months' or ' my child was potty trained at 4 months', and made up by competitive parents who have nothing better to brag about.

Unfortunately it's true that previous generations were weaned much earlier than is now recommended, but research and medical advancements have shown that the intestines of an infant are not developed enough to cope well with solids until 6 months of age. (just as many parents used to smoke in front of their children unaware that it was affecting their childrens health, I even remember showing visitors to the smoking room in hospital and seeing both patients and visitors smoking in the hospital canteen!).

Thankfully, things have progressed since then, and so has the recommended feeding and weaning advice, so please, don't ask mumsnetters for advice, ask your midwife/ health visitor/ GP, as they are the ones who will give you accurate, up to date advice, not old wives tales.

Hopefully you will both settle into a routine with feeds and no longer be worried/ anxious.

All my best wishes to you xx