Worried about overfeeding 4 week old

[woowoo22]

My son is 4 weeks old. He is formula fed (Aptimal). He seems to have the appetite of a rugby team. Today he had his normal feed of 120ml, screamed the house down for more (did everything I could think of before offering another bottle, was the only thing that he wanted), had about 70 ml from the next bottle, after about 10 mins was sick everywhere, then had major hiccups, then went to sleep.

This happened twice today. I am feeding him on demand but am so worried am overfeeding him, especially as he is being sick. I know he only has a very small stomach. I spoke to the HV who said to make his bottles bigger. Not really much help as he cries and cries for more milk regardless of which bottle it comes from!! Tried making up a bottle to 150ml and he still wanted more. He is 50th centile for weight and 90-something for length. I don't think I'd be as concerned if he wasn't being sick.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Could he be a bit refluxy? Swallowing soothes their throat so he may not be hungry just the swallowing helps. If its silent reflux they aren't sick do much.
I'm not that clued up on reflux sure someone else can explain better. Dies be have a dummy? Perhaps he's just a sucky baby.

Does- autocorrect fail

Maybe it's the comfort of sucking he wants, not the actual milk? It is possible to overfeed with formula, and being sick would be a sign of this. There was a good link to something on this recently, let me see if I can find it ...

Cross posts :)

I'll google reflux, thank you for that. He makes an awful fuss when I put him on my shoulder to burp him sometimes, maybe it is that. He has a dummy which he's quite happy to suck on, unless he's wanting the bottle.

my ds was similar at 4 weeks. He is ebf, but my boobs are like fire hoses and it is really really hard to get a burp out of him. I would keep feeding because he was screaming for it, then he'd back up like a toilet!

I found if I really worked the air out of him he'd stop asking for food so much.

I don't know if this will help, but it helped me when I was told by a friend to really work at getting the wind outta him.

Thanks aufanie, found lots of threads I'll have a read through. That sounds familiar monsterchild, my ds seems so hard to burp sometimes. Will definitely give that a shot.

After me posting the above, he woke up for his feed, had only 50ml and has promptly gone back to sleep again! Ahhh.

could he be tired, not hungry? My DS seems hungry when he is over tired :)

Yes, that is a good point! How do you tell the difference when it isn't very obvious? When he's in munch mode I try the usual stuff to get him to sleep (rocking/singing/dummy etc) but he won't drop off until he's had his fill.

Was looking online and for his age he is having the maximum amount which is considered "normal" in 24 hours. Compared to the formula can i he seems to have so much though :(

I too have a 4 week old, and you are going through exactly what we are. my HV has advised me that it is possible our son is thirsty, because he's not getting the water in the fore milk, (we feed aptamil ready made, because I'm unable to bf) and she told us yesterday to give him 20mls of cooled boiled water twice a day, around the times of day he tends to demand so much more. Although our son started off small, he's started gaining weight faster than the average, last week he went from 7.3 to 8.4lbs in 7 days. we started offering the water yesterday, and so far there seems to be an improvement, and we've had a calmer evening tonight so far. I don't think you ought to offer your baby water though without checking with your hv or doctor first!

At 4 weeks old, he probably just hasn't learnt to recognise when he's full.

Thanks k, I will mention to the hv next week. Will see what the GP says about everything at 6 week check too. His munchy periods are definitely in the morning then again around teatime.

Def an element of him knowing when he's full as he does spew up after some feeds.