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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Over feeding a breast fed baby? So confused!

47 replies

MissTwister · 27/08/2015 18:22

My 7 week old daughter has been packing on the weight, up to 12oz a week. Midwife and HV said this was great and you 'can't overfeed a breast fed baby.'

She feeds about 12+ times a day and La Leche League and Breast feeding cafe and people here said 'that's great feed whenever she wants' which is what I have been doing.

So today I saw a paediatrician at the hospital and he said all this was wrong. She has put on too much weight going up too many centiles and I have apparently overfed her and I should only be feeding her 6-8 times a day. He said rooting/ hands in mouth etc is not a good signifier of whether she is hungry or not and babies display the same behaviour when hungry or fall. He is an expert in his field.

I am so bloody confused by all this!

OP posts:

PourquoiTuGachesTaVie · 27/08/2015 18:23

He's an idiot. What he says goes against every other expert on breastfeeding that I've ever read.

iAmNicolaMurray · 27/08/2015 18:24

What Pourquoi said! Stick to what you're doing.

FATEdestiny · 27/08/2015 18:27

Personally, I would not ignore what a paediatric doctor advised me about my baby.

TeaPleaseLouise · 27/08/2015 18:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

MissTwister · 27/08/2015 18:30

He is an expert in the field - just confused why this is at odds with all other advice out there.

OP posts:

JassyRadlett · 27/08/2015 18:35

When you say 'his field' - are you taking paediatrics, or infant nutrition, or something else?

How many centiles has your baby moved?

Scotinoz · 27/08/2015 18:35

I'd fed her on demand. Paediatrician/GPs/etc are often a bit hopeless in breastfeeding. Next time ask, him to explain to your baby that she's only allowed to be hungry 6 - 8 times a day...

ISaySteadyOn · 27/08/2015 18:37

Expert in which field? Breastfeeding? If so, I still think he's talking bollocks.tiktok might be more able to help if she us still around.. Anyone know?

Wolpertinger · 27/08/2015 18:40

Impossible to answer without knowing what your paediatrician's field is and why you were seeing him - presumably more than just a routine check?

Original poster

MissTwister · 27/08/2015 18:45

He was a paediatric surgeon who specialises in tongue tie.

OP posts:

Scotinoz · 27/08/2015 18:50

Defo ignore him them!! He's a surgeon. 6-8 feeds a day is an old school 'baby feeds every 3-4hours' thing. Twaddle.

cruikshank · 27/08/2015 18:53

I agree that this sounds like bollocks, especially if you were only seeing him about a tongue tie and there are no other more rare obvious issues.

Babies might display the same behaviours at different times and can be hard to read, but it is a vanishingly unusual baby who takes milk when she is not hungry. That's the key to if it's the right time to feed her. Is she feeding? Then she's hungry.

TelephoneIgnoringMachine · 27/08/2015 18:56

Babies generally don't feed unless they need to. Doctors don't know everything & your baby hasn't read the book that says this 6-8 times a day rubbish.

dragonflyinthelillies · 27/08/2015 19:01

Its surprising how little some surgeons know about general medicine... I think somehow when they specialise they forget everything they've already learnt!

Original poster

MissTwister · 27/08/2015 19:02

What about the weight gain though - he said it was too much. She's went from 6.5 at birth to 9.13 at 6 weeks.

OP posts:

TelephoneIgnoringMachine · 27/08/2015 19:05

But the HV & midwife said it was great. They are the ones who know about the baby's overall health. The surgeon specialises in how to cut tongue tie?

iAmNicolaMurray · 27/08/2015 19:05

This link may be useful for you. I found kellymom to be a great resource for breastfeeding in the early months.

magicpuppy · 27/08/2015 19:06

I think 1/2 lb a week is what is considered average and mine definitely were gaining around that much. She hasn't gained much more than that.

She was quite a small baby at birth like my dd1. Maybe she is just catching up.

dragonflyinthelillies · 27/08/2015 19:09

How tall is your DP/H? My DS was average size and now he's above the 98th but I'm fairly small and my DH is 6'5 so I figure hes going to be big/tall but (thankfully) wasn't too big at birth!

TheEagle · 27/08/2015 19:16

Look at the weight gain overall and not just weekly.

My DS1 has always been on the 91st centile for height, weight and head circumference. One week he gained a pound!

Breastfed babies tend to pack on the lbs and oz initially and then become leaner than their formula fed counterparts around the 4-6 month mark.

He's not an infant feeding specialist, you're doing a fab job and don't worry. Keep responding to your baby's cues and you won't go wrong.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 27/08/2015 19:21

I've said this before on Mumsnet, but EBF DD1 was like a baby seal. She was the fattest baby I have seen, but she was wonderfully contented and an excellent sleeper. As soon as she started getting mobile she turned into a dainty little toddler and is now a slim young woman.

Booboostwo · 27/08/2015 19:56

I had the same issue with DD. She was born on the 50th centile and within a couple of months shot above the top curve for weight. My GP kept saying she was too big but couldn't recommend anything else as DD was ebf, she just kept making me worried. Around 18mo she started dropping curves again and now at 4yo she is on the 60th centile. Her height however grew more steadily and is at the top curve. I think all the weight gain was feeling the height increase. She will probably be very tall but her BMI is right in the middle of normal so her weight is not a problem now.

Wolpertinger · 27/08/2015 20:19

He's a surgeon not a paediatrician then. I'm sure he's v v v good at tongue ties but for how much weight your baby puts on and how your baby should breastfeed, your midwife and health visitor are going to know far far more.

He won't be an expert in baby nutrition.

pearlgirl · 27/08/2015 20:29

Ds2 went from 8lbs 7oz at birth to 20lbs at 10 weeks - he was a happy content baby who was bf - the health visitor did give me a talk about ratios of formula powder to water and was a bit nonplussed when I said he was only breasted - she then said it would even itself out which it did - at fifteen he is tall and skinny.

villainousbroodmare · 27/08/2015 20:39

I went to the paediatrician yesterday with my nearly 6 week old bf baby who has been increasingly unhappy, frantic, screamy, bloated and gaining weight at a rate of 400g/week. I was feeding 12 or more times a day as recommended by everyone. He never slept for more than an hour, had projectile diarrhoea and we were all exhausted. My breasts were like throbbing shiny rocks.
I was advised to cut down to 5 feeds a day, cool boiled water if wanted in between, and a soother. Physio for the engorgement. He is miraculously happier. He slept last night, he is no longer bloated with agonising gas, our feeds are peaceful and not red-faced, back-arching misery, and there's not a frothing pool of diarrhoea in every nappy. Utter and very rapid transformation.
Now, I had/ have a LOT of milk - I could pump easily 200ml at any time which is about twice the capacity of my baby's stomach. And the reason I was at the paediatrician was because of the increasingly frantic screamy feeding pattern more so than the excessive weight gain. So my situation may be a little different.
I was surprised that the advice I received differed from everything I had read and been told and googled. However, I would absolutely not dismiss the advice of a immensely qualified and experienced medic, especially not with the level of contempt that is being expressed in this thread.
I am not an expert in human baby nutrition but I am in animal baby nutrition. There are potentially very serious orthopaedic consequences for excessively rapid weight gain in animals, though this is exacerbated by the fact that they are weight-bearing, which our babies are not until much later.
Why don't you take his advice and drop it to 8 feeds a day?

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