Some calm reasoned advice please: is my refluxy baby too fat?

[LLDoubleYou]

This was the cause of an Enormo Row with my mum.

In a nutshell:
baby was born at 35 weeks. She was very sicky, tried infant gaviscon, comfort milk and then had miraculous results with Aptamil Reflux and Regurgitation formula. Brilliant!

The baby is, what I would call, a gorgeous, thriving, chubby legged 5 month old baby. At HV clinics she has been weighed at 95th centile, so within a normal population range, statistically.

She has 5 x 7oz feeds a day and no longer feeds in the night. She sleeps from 7pm ish to 8am ish.

My mum thinks she comfort feeds to soothe acid reflux pain after 2.5- 3 hours and that we should make her wait longer in between feeds. This absolutely breaks my heart.

So any advice please?

Has your mum got any medical training?

Don't forget, our mums' generation were given very different advice to us. She is just trying to help, but with outdated information. Have you told her that the HV has no concerns?

she was a midwife, but not for 20 years.

Yes I told her HV has no concerns and I will go back to HV next week to ask advice.

It's really hard in my eyes to say a child under about age 2 is 'too fat'. It's possible your DM is right but like you say, she's within the chart lines.

Perhaps if her length is down below 50th centile I'd be a little concerned about the disparity, but not much. I think if she was full she wouldn't drink or she'd posset.

And if the formula works then would she be in pain? I don't really know about reflux - are you basically seeking a formula that stays down or one that does that and relieves the symptoms?

I've just checked her red book and there's no height measurements at all. She look long in the body proportionally. I'm short but her dad if tall.

She was at about 65th centile for weight at birth and has been hovering around 80/90 for all visits (just the usual 6/8/12/16 weeks).

I'm not sure about the theory behind treating reflux. The doc/HV couldn't suggest anything and it was reading MN that I heard about the Aptamil reflux and regurgitation formula. The difference it made for her was that she wasn't constantly in discomfort and puking. She used to wake up crying and have a puke. That doesn't happen now, she's very contented unless hungry, tired or teething.

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