Can you feed a baby too much?

[mossycow]

Hello wise Mums!

Am feeding and feeding and feeding. Do babies always stop when full or are they like grownups and have bigger eyes than their tums then get fat?

Am breastfeeding as much as possible but have felt a need to 'top up' with bottle as I
ve been exhausted and have had a sore tummy. She's having both breasts for around 25 mins each then drinking 5oz of formular.

Have had latch checked many times and is definitley getting breast milk out (boobs flatterning, milk around mouth etc)

Growth spurt? Am I right to feed till she's full?

The more you top up with a bottle, the less milk you will make, so then you will need to top up more. This way your own milk dwindles. If you want to boost your own supply you need to stop supplementing, and just let the baby feed until she comes off.

It is not so easy to check the latch. Your baby is clearly getting milk from you, but whether she is draining each breast is another matter. Some babies seem to fall asleep on the job!

Breastfeeding can seem like a full time occupation when a baby is very young. Of course you are tired, so take every opportunity to get horizontal (I lived on the sofa at your stage) and delegate other jobs to other people, or let them stay undone if you want to establish bf. It pays dividends in the long run, when feeding becomes so easy and convenient and much less frequent, all on its own.

Watch telly or read a book. The hind milk comes after the watery stuff and it's often better to let her suck to stimulate the creamier hindmilk.
(I had the problem of too much foremilk - which you can't remedy- my milk wasn't rich enough. So she fed on lots of watery stuff and had no room for the good stuff. She was wanting to fill up again in 45 minutes
Drink enough water so that you're not thirsty, but not too much that you dilute the good stuff. Eat really healthily.)
Are you feeding her on both sides?
Let her she suck on one breast until you feel like you're empty then see if you can express any creamy stuff. If you can - put her back on, that's the good stuff. Keep doing this until it's really heard to express the creamy stuff, then pop her onto the other for another drink.
Think soup for starter - main meal and cuppa tea.
Put her on the 2nd breast the next time

Breastfed babies can process the excess stuff. My midwives say you can feed a baby too much formula milk.
My babies all got greeen seedy poo when they were eating too much.

If she is having a growth spurt and needs more milk it should take about 3 days for supply to equal demand, but make sure she sucks for ages before topping her up so you get your stimulation to produce more milk. 5 oz does seem excessive, so maybe what elasticwoman is saying is coming true

FWIW - I'm taking a Fenugreek supplement (from Holland & Barratt) which is meant to help increase milk supply. I'm also expressing in the morning to try to encourage milk supply and giving that as a top up in the evening. Hope that helps.

Bugger

Have comfirmed my worst fears. The thing is she is taking herself off the breast then latchin then coming off then screaming and giving feeding cues. Not really stopping her feeding cos I'm tired but becuase she seems get really cross with my boob...

Have just sat and cried while husband gave her a bottle. She is now happy and content but I'm not.

Have been doing 'starter, main then drink' but it just seems like she's sucking and gulping for ages then suddenly cross and fussy. I persevere but after an hour of this this afternoon I just wanted to make her happy (she has a sore throat and hurts when she cries).

She's 6 weeks old by the way

bit of a long shot, but could she be a bit snuffly? my lo has been on/off/on/off and it drives me mad - and hurts too. Its only on the right side. she has a cold at the moment so I'm using a saline drop in each nostril (Nasosal) and that seems to help.

perhaps its something to do with positioning? They tend to be more upright when having a bottle.

Who has checked the latch/position , it may be she isn't sucking efficiently and tires before she is full, so worth seekign out naother opinion . Also check for signs of thrush etc.

Formula top up is like pudding after a large main course so yes she could over feed on it, which in turn could reduce her appetite for bm at the next feed, creating a viscious circle. At this age she may be havign a grwoth spurt but only regular effective feeding from you will enable your body to step up production to keep pace.

mossy - can understand how difficult this is for you.

5 oz top up of formula after feeds will already have impacted on your supply....4 week old babies may well feed v. ftequently and for a long time each time. If you have been giving this amount of formula for more than a few days then you will need to cut back gradually if you want to return to full bf. Maybe call one of the bf support lines for a good talk about this ?

Tartan - lots in your post is misleading. Drinking lots of water will not dilute the breastmilk. Your milk will not have been 'not rich enough' - the creaminess of milk is related to the amount of milk in the breast and high volumes are likely to be less creamy. See kelly mom for more info on this.

There is no need for a mother to be expressing half way through a feed and you cannot really judge the fat content by looking at it - not accurately enough to guage whether to put the baby back on again, anyway.

Hope you get some good help and encouragement, mossy

Sorery, mossy, I see your baby is 6 wks - but makes no diff, really.

mossy - take tiktok's advice and call someone.

FWIW, ds, and many babies I know, seemed to go through a fussy stage at 6 weeks. Ds would scream and fuss, bob on and off exactly as you describe and if I'd not known I had loads of milk (this was part of the problems in my case I think - fast letdown) I would have said he wasn't getting anything.

Worrying about how much milk you have and whether your baby is satisfied seems to affect nearly all of us. Unfortunately giving formula topups just makes it worse in many cases.

mossycow- have read about other mnetters doing 'babymoons' to get breastmilk supply increased. basically spending a few days in bed; letting their lo's feed when they want too with lots of skin to skin to encourage production; it seems to have helped some of them.

also- if your lo will take a feed from a bottle; have you tried expressing bm and giving that via bottle? dh gives my lo his last feed from ebm. i then also express at the same time a feed is being given to ensure supply is being kept up. i use the medela swing and it is fab. using that over time may also help with production and you can continue to give feeds from a bottle if you would like.

no more advice than the others, but just wanted say that i have cried and fed or dh has fed while i cried many a time so really feel for you.

you do just have to sit on the sofa and succumb to it, preferably with a dvd and a cuppa!

good luck! it does get better. and keep posting, I've often had 3 or 4 thread active in this topic at a time!

I don't think you can over feed a BF baby but I'm not sure about a baby having mixed feeds.

FWIW my son was having 8 ice cubes of puree when the AK books said 2, and while he was a good size then he is now 6 and a skinny thing.