feeding 4week old water?????

[LeaderOfPeople]

I was at the docs today and they said that my 4week old is over eating, although her weight is perfect she is scofing 4oz every 2hours and often still hungry. The doctor said to give her 2oz and if she is still hungry give her plain water. Does that sound right cause she seems to young to me to be on anything other than milk?

Pretty sure that's not recommended so young. They should only need breastmilk.

If you're FF, possibly she's downing it so fast and then wants to comfort suck. If her weight is fine, I don't see the issue though.

sounds like rubbish to me and 2oz is nothing. Feed to your lo's hunger. When my los started draining bottles I added an extra ounce to each - better for them to stop when they are full and not because they have run out of milk. Too much water can also be harmful to babies and is not normally required along with milk feeds unless they are constipated and/or have started solids. If you were overfeeding then your lo would be racing up the centiles so I wouldnt put your baby on a diet if she is the weight she should be.

I suppose it's possible she's thirsty. Breastfed babies get watery milk first and if they're thirsty can stop feeding before much richer milk comes through. Bottle fed babies don't have the opportunity to just drink so may that's his intention.

TBH if her weight is fine I can't see any reason to change anything. If you do start to offer her water and it's milk she need she'll just be hungry even sooner. Can't really see how that would help

she is bf but i am expressing too as she would bf all day if she could and i was getting sore and bored stuck on the sofa all day and my dp was never getting a chance to see her. personally i think she just likes nursing. Alison-yes the doc said it was just thirst but think im going to stick to milk for now.
thanks all

You could always try a dummy or a clean little finger with the nail cut short. It sounds like she could have been sucking for comfort rather than food. My DD1 did that and the little finger fooled her but the dummy never succeeded.

Sounds like nonsense tbh in that situation. More likely she/you hasn't yet learnt to feed efficiently - e.g. if she's positioned on the breast so she gets less fatty milk, she'll need top-ups to not lose weight (that hapenned to us, but my LO was in scbu at first so we've had lots of feeding issues).

Young babies can need to feed alot. Thats normal.

yes we have tried both but she will screem till her little face turns blue and she is bottle or bf

Sounds like she needs the top-ups, especially as her weight is fine on them.

yea i think she should be allowed as much as she wants she is far to young to discipline. thanks everyone

Im a bf support worker, the guidelines say that bf fed babies do not need ANYTHING other that bm for the first 6 months.

Gave mine water from around 2 weeks if I remember correctly, but definitely not if he was hungry. It was hot and I was also told to get him used to water. His weight was absolutely fine (90th something percentile?) so thought there's no harm giving him around 60ml-90ml of water per day in total. I personally love water myself as given water since newborn and my DS now loves water too given water since a few weeks old. Not a bad thing if given appropriately but definitely wouldn't use it to substitute milk! I'm sure I've read before birth of DS that you don't need to give water at all if BF?

Glad you're sticking with milk since it sounds like baby is hungry..

Breastmilk is something like 90 per water. Babies solely breastfed don't need it.

Strange advice from the doctor. Feeding every 2 hrs is normal for a baby of this age.

I suppose it's just remotely possible the doctor doesn't understand about normal breastfeeding? Could it be that? Good heavens.