Over feeding?

[HannahWB151]

Hello,

My baby girl just turned 4 months (17 weeks), she is 8.6kgs and 70cm long so she's a big baby.

We moved from EBF to combi feeding about 6 weeks ago. She has 2 breast feeds & ~5 bottles a day.
She was having 5oz's per bottle but this has gradually increased so is now consistently finishing 7oz's at a time. The packet for formula doesn't go higher than this so I called the health visitor for advice but was told I'm over feeding her for her age (without accounting for size or seeing her) and that it's clear she's over fed as she's jumping percentiles.

Just wondering if anyone has had similar with their big baby or has advice on overfeeding?

It's 1oz/30mls per scoop so you can make any amount e.g. an 8 oz feed would be 8oz water to 8 scoops

What centiles does that put her on for length and weight?

The 99th (or over it) for height & 98th for weight 🙈

She sounds beautifully in proportion then. I can't see why the HV would assume that you're overfeeding? Taller babies will obviously need more milk as they grow more.

Thank you ❤️,
I agree she's not a chunky baby either. I am going to take her to be seen this week and just make sure she's getting what she needs.

If baby is drinking it and you're not fighting to get it into her, how could you possibly be overfeeding her? That HV sounds dense! Your baby obviously needs more than a smaller baby of the same age.
My baby is the opposite in that she has never taken as much as she is "supposed to" per bottle - she likes smaller bottles more often. Before we realised that this is just the way she is, we tried to coax her to drink more and believe me it is very very difficult and upsetting to feed a baby who doesn't want it! So if your baby is happy then I can't imagine you're overfeeding her!

I had similar comments about my baby, she’s 6 months and has been having 4 7oz bottles a day (2 of breast milk and 2 of formula). She’s recently gone up up 8oz.

Id just keep doing what works for your baby. They are all different and if they didn’t want it they wouldn’t drink it!

Just go with what demented said

Like the PP said, it's pretty difficult to persuade a baby to have more than they need. You can overfeed a FF baby but then they would usually have centiles they weren't in proportion.

It's also normal for her to increase the volume in her bottles if she's previously been fully BF.

A BF baby will take roughly 25 Floz a day between 6 weeks and 6 months whereas a FF baby will need roughly 2.5 Floz per pound in weight a day.

So she's been used to having smaller amounts and now she's getting used to having to drink more.

Baring medical exceptions like if baby has bad reflux because the swallowing milk can provide relief, overfeeding isn’t really a thing because babies, even those who are formula fed, regulate their appetite and refuse the bottle when full. Some babies will be naturally bigger. If you and/or Dad are tall then that’s an obvious explanation for why she’s on a high centile! And IDK about the guidelines on the box, they’re only really meant as a starting point anyway, but every baby I know was on 8oz bottles by the time they started weaning at 5/6 months old. So it’s not a thing that you can’t increase from 7. I even know a few who are now healthy slim toddlers but used to guzzle 9 ounces before bed every night! Also, the number of feeds comes into it- a baby that sleeps through overnight will need to take more milk in the day than a baby who has several night feeds. Roughly, they should be having 2.5 ounces of formula per pound of body weight in a 24 hour period. So if she’s 17lbs she needs about 42.5 ounces every day which is 6 7oz bottles. Work it out and see if you’re ballpark- if you are then all good.