Is it possible to overfeed FF 8 MO? Just switched from EBF and weight gain has massively jumped!

[loudhalibut]

Hi looking for advice...

BF until 7 months, DD was having steady weight gain along her graph and recently been gaining about one pound a month.

We've weaned over the past few weeks from BF to FF and she has also been having 2x meals a day. She'll be 8 months next week and instead of gaining one pound it looks like it will be over 1.5 lbs!

Her formula intake seems much higher than general guidelines, however she seems genuinely hungry during some milk feeds, grabbing for the bottle and latching herself back on when I try to give her a break etc.

At other times, if she doesn't want the full bottle she will pull away and leave 30-50 ml left. Which leads me to believe she can't be over fed because when she's hungry she drinks and when she's not she lets me know.

So I guess my question is -- is it possible to be over feeding her?? Or this is just a coincidence as this is the age of most common weight gain??

Did anyone else experience anything similar when done with breastfeeding?

Please reply! I am really distraught. I don't want to hurt her somehow and not sure if this is in range of normal or worth mentioning to gp.

Plot her weight on the centile chart and see if she's following her line. Sometimes they go through stages where they grow more than others. As long as she's not crossing lines on the chart, and she's the same line for height and weight, you're fine. It's not about the actual numbers on the scale, it's about the big picture.

Yes, one of the downsides of bottle feeding is the risk of overfeeding.

Milk flows much quicker and easier from a bottle and babies can't comfort suck without getting milk.

Bear in mind that during breastfeeding, your baby probably had 3-4oz breastmilk during each feed.

You haven't hurt her, but you could think about offering less per feed, giving her a dummy to comfort suck on, and rearranging milk and solids so she isn't filling up on milk.

Unfortunately it is very possible to overfeed a formula fed baby, maybe she isn’t self regulating so well as it’s so different to breast feeding. Have you looked into paced feeding? Baby might also used to suckling for comfort but not getting much milk from the breast at times.
However - it’s really really early days, so there’s no need to worry and it might just be a one off reading, you’re only talking about an extra half pound of weight so far so you can track her centile and make small adjustments as needed.

@MolliciousIntent her centimeter will jump 16% at this rate... am I being daft, what does crossing line mean on the graph?

* centile

@Connie2468 that logic totally makes sense thank you.

Dumb question -- if that's the case should I stick to the newborn slow flow nipple teats?

Our bottles have newborn, 3-6 months, and 6+ months, I assumed 6+ months would be developmentally appropriate esp. as she's also learning to drink from cup but now second guessing this?

@Connie2468 that logic totally makes sense thank you.

Dumb question -- if that's the case should I stick to the newborn slow flow nipple teats?

Our bottles have newborn, 3-6 months, and 6+ months, I assumed 6+ months would be developmentally appropriate esp. as she's also learning to drink from cup but now second guessing this?

@Connie2468 that logic totally makes sense thank you.

Dumb question -- if that's the case should I stick to the newborn slow flow nipple teats?

Our bottles have newborn, 3-6 months, and 6+ months, I assumed 6+ months would be developmentally appropriate esp. as she's also learning to drink from cup but now second guessing this?

Yes, you could go down a teat size. How much milk are you giving her vs. what's the recommended amount on the tub? I'm guessing she is having 3-4 bottles in 24 hours now?