Reassure me "big" dd

[gluttom]

Dd is 16 weeks and weighs 6.7kg - she is huge compared to my other dc at this age and others in our post natal group. She is ebf and eats every 2 hrs and that is often at night too. My mum tells me I feed her too often and now DH is pressuring me saying I should distract her. I din't want a screaming baby but I don't want her to become overweight. If it is my fault. I offer her boob when she cries. I thought that you can't over feed - maybe she is greedy/ slow metabolism?!!

She's not huge. She's on the 75th centile. This means that one baby in every four is bigger than her.

She's not 'greedy' and nor does she have a slow metabolism - she's normal :)

Your family should be supporting you, not criticising you. It's esp none of your mother's business :(

No not at all, you can't overfeed a breastfed baby.

Trying to distract her is just going to make her misrable and possible casue you supply issues when she hit's a growth spurt so completly counter productive.

By the way I just checked and my DD was actualy 7kg at 16week's. Is now a very healthy happy 4year old who doesn't look cubby at all. They often slim down when they start crawling/walking.

Thanks so much- my mum is an idiot about bf and not very in favour of it. A bit sick of people saying "she is huge isn't she?" and " what do you feed her"

My DD is pretty much exactly same age and weight and EBF.
To be fair she does have a very chubby face and loadsa thigh rolls but I like it! Plus she is only on a tiny centile for her length so short and round I reckon

I think I would be tempted not to offer the breast EVERY SINGLE time she cries as she might not be crying for milk at all.

I would be concerned about baby being dependent on the boob for comfort. I am well aware though that probably no one else on MN would agree with me!

Ps my DD is also on a constant 2hr feeding schedule, 3 if I'm lucky.

You're doing well and your family should appreciate that rather than doing you down

My ds is currently (at 6mo) between the 50th & 75th for weight and on the 75th for height. It is frequently assumed that he is overeating (possible as he's ff) but if anything he's under eating. So nowadays rather than justifying myself I just smile and nod and say that I put miracle grow in his bottles

Keep doing what you are - you are being all she needs and should be proud of that!

ploink, no, you;re right - not everyone would agree with you at all :)

This baby is 16 weeks. By now, she will have developed other means of gaining comfort - cuddles, singing, rocking and chatting, etc, and the OP will have a range of strategies. The breast may well be numero uno and there is nothing wrong with that at all.

Could you just give a big grin and say, yes, it is wonderful how she is thriving, isn't it? She is a normal weight, and feeding is 'normal' too - nothing that needs to be fixed at all

You can't win - Baby looks small, maybe you should wean
Oh Baby looks big, maybe you should wean
Oh baby looks...lovely, what can I interfere with now??

Blimey your family are not very helpful are they! At 16 wks my DC1 was 9kg (which is off the chart). He's now a normal sized 3 year old.

ds1 was 12lbs 4oz when born and remained on his curve and always fed 2-3 hourly, including over night.

ds2 was born lighter, but at 13 weeks now weighs 16lbs (over 7kg) but can go 6-8 hours over night and sometimes a 4 hour stretch in the day, but cluster feeds morning and evening.

Both ebf.

Ooops. The point being they will feed what is right for them no matter what their size!

Thanks to everyone - felt like she was a monster this at group.

you cannot overfeed a breastfed baby, as breast milk is rich in the beginning and then gets more watery. Basically nature has it spot on, and you should not worry!

my DS2 was very large and "greedy", much bigger than the other kids. I did not want him weighed in year R when they do the weigh-in thing, as I did not want to get patronising letters from the NHS.

He was never overweight, just always the biggest baby, biggest toddler. He still is the tallest in his class, still eats like a horse, and is now almost skinny (age 7) after having been such a lovely round tot.

He is just built a certain way, with wide shoulders, big feet, he'll be a tall guy. No wonder as I'm 6 ft1 myself! (I was a FAT baby too!)

can't tell you the amounts of comments I've had about his size, he is taller and heavier than his older brother.

Your DD will be fine, and will probably just be a very tall adult later on!

I did space out the feed a bit more at that age though, and started feeding him solids much earlier than my other DC.

trust your instincts.

If you are finding it tiring feeding every two hours then no harm in trying a bit of distraction as crying can be for loads of other reasons than wanting food, but from a weight gain point of view I really wouldn't worry. I think it does hold true that you can't overfeed a breastfed baby My EBF DD was ENORMOUS - above 90th centile (having been on around 20th when born), she was about as wide as she was tall and rolls of chubbiness and I had to sort of lift up the creases to clean or they got yucky and smelly. I was a bit concerned about how much bigger she was than other babies of the same age, but didn't give it a great deal of thought. Now at nearly 7 she still eats like a horse and is one of the tallest in her class but is very skinny and wiry (she was routinely weighed at the doctor the other day who said she was a bit underweight but clearly v healthy so not to worry).

I really wouldn't worry, DS was weighed last week at 10 and a half weeks and was 6.73kg. He's ebf and just lovely and chubby.

I have found over the last couple of weeks that I can tell more now when he wants a feed and when he just wants attention but even so I'm feeding him every 2 hours.

tbh I just feel smug that he's such a good size as we had problems feeding in the first week and the hospital insisted that I formula top up (while giving me NO breastfeeding help or advice) , I did that for 12 hours until they weighed him for the second time, then smiled nodded and came home and fed him continuously for weeks.

Both of mine were 10 pounders at birth and breastfed. When people commented on their size I smiled and felt proud that I was doing such a good job of producing great milk - that's how you should feel too!!

ds1 and ds2 were both gimassive, both ebf too, right at the top of the centile scale which i pretty much ignored and just kept feeding them when they wanted. they are now 10 and 4 and completely average sized if pleasantly broad shouldered.

little bit of distraction fine when crying. I reckoned if my 3 stopped crying quickly when my husband distracted them then they weren't really hungry, if they didn't stop crying then then they got fed. my smallest baby (9lb 3) rarely got beyond 3 hours between feeds till I started weaning him. my middle child fed more like every 3-4 hours and had such deep fat creases that we had problems stopping them from getting sore and did a nice steady growth curve, it just dropped 2 centiles. useless nursery nurse told me I had to take her to the doctor as this was a worrying drop of 2 centile lines, doctor looked at me as if I was mad and asked me if I was worried. pretty much didn't bother to get 3rd child weighed at all but he seemed to stay about 95th centile ......

DS2 was gigantic at that age, and now at 10 months he his rate of gain has slowed right down and he is actually not much bigger than DS1 was at this age.

You should feel very proud of yourself, and when anyone says anything take it as a compliment and beam with pride