is he still hungry

[jodie1984]

hi, i made the huge mistake of listening to my hv when my ds was 1st born and i an paying for it now. she told me to only feed him every 4hrs no matter how much he cries!!! i now know different but me ds doesnt.
hes 12 wks and a very fussy eater he will only drink 3oz per feed during the day every 4hrs he will not drink any before he just spits it out but he will go 6hrs during the night and take 6oz for his middle of the night feed. this is why i dont know if he is hungry.
anyway my main worry is when he has had enough of his milk he stuffs his bib and his fists into his mouth and will try to eat them he is not sucking but chewing them. he is quite a big baby he was 8lb 8oz at birth and 11lb 6oz 3 wks ago.
i dont want to ask my hv for advice because she was so terribly wrong before, does anyone have any ideas??

My gut says that if he wanted more milk, then he would take it. DD spent all her time munching on her hands and bib without being hungry.

xxx

Babies often chew their hands and their bibs - they can feel things better with their mouths than their fingers so it sometimes seems as if they spend half their lives chewing on something. If he was hungry the chances are he wouldn't stop feeding.

Babies often chew their hands and their bibs - they can feel things better with their mouths than their fingers so it sometimes seems as if they spend half their lives chewing on something. If he was hungry the chances are he wouldn't stop feeding.

Agree with what the others have said here. My dd started frantically chewing her hands abot that age and everyone said she was teething. She wasn't nor was she hungry. She just sucked/chewed her hands for comfort or to explore or just cos it felt good.

She also became really distractable about the same time and wouldn't settle to feed anymore than the bear minimum to keep her from being hungry. I used to have to feed her in a quiet dark room or when she was really sleepy otherwise she was just more interested in everything else around her. If your ds is similar that might explain why he'll take twice the amount at the night feed.

thats good to hear because my dp's mum doesnt think i am doing a very good jon and keeps on telling me to give him some babyrice, i keep on ignoring her but shes driving me round the bend.
but at last the council has offered us a flat so i will be leaving her behind soon thank god and its 20mins drive away so she wont be visiting that often!!

thank you all for your advice

Jodie - know what you mean about the 'give them some rice' advice. It's crap & really really irritating. Good on you for ignoring it !

Agree with everything said here. I also had the comments about teething and introducing solids when my ds was about 12-13 wks as he was shoving everything in his mouth.. Yawn. I knew he wasn't teething or hungry so just ignored them. Around the same age ds was also able to suck his thumb properly, no coincidence then really that other things were going in his mouth. It's just that at that age they have the co-ordination to put things in their mouths, so that's what they do and it's how they learn about things. My ds also got very distractable when feeding around this age, and has become increasingly so (now 24wks). I only have to sniff and he stops feeding! What I have resorted to is feeding him in a darkened room. I am breastfeeding so I can't tell how much he is taking, but he is definitely much more focused and isn't coming off every 2 minutes for a look around. I know this isn't always practical, but try it - it will also give you an excuse to have some time away from 'people' until you get your own space! HTH and good luck xx

PS, Jodie, I really feel for you if you are getting negative comments from MIL. Why do people do that? You would think they would remember how they felt as a first time mum. I hate people telling me what's 'wrong' with my baby, it doesn't help you at all does it? You can be confident about ignoring all the baby rice advice - guidelines on weaning were completely different when MIL was doing it, she won't know anything about the reasons why we are encouraged to hold off now.