Is my newborn eating too much?

[KP2404]

Hi all. I have a little girl who will be 3 weeks old tomorrow, formula fed. She seems to be eating more than she should and has been since day 1. After her first week we had to retire the 120ml Mam bottles, now she is draining the 160ml ones!

We’re doing paced feedings and have tried to stop after 160ml but I think it’s actually starting to disturb her sleep patterns. She’s barely sleeping in the day, and when she wakes she screams the house down (which isn’t like her). We initially thought gas so have been trying Infacol but the last 2 times she’s only settled with another bottle.

I’m worried by giving her more milk we will be overfeeding as the midwife said to be careful. Please help 🥲

If she looking for milk and is not throwing up after a feed then feed her . We had one absolute milk monster (which I was delighted with after one poor feeder)and I remember being told by my hv that if he is keeping it down and looking for it then he needs it .

If the baby is hungry then feed the baby!

Yeah just feed her. As long as it's paced and she's not being sick then sounds like she needs it.

I personally wouldn't deny a 3 week old. Is she being very sick after? That's a sign of overfeeding.

Just feed her. She’s doing a lot of growing.

I remember the midwives giving such unhelpful advice in the early days - how I needed to stretch out the gaps between feeds etc. I ignored them and fed DS when he was hungry. I always aimed to have a little leftover in the bottle and so if that meant going ‘up’ in terms if mls, so be it. DS is 5 now and has not been adversely impacted at all.

As others have said if the baby isn’t being ill it’s probs fine. Don’t go by a guide as being standard for your baby - they are all different. Bottle fed babies can drink more so just be cautious abiut comfort sucking. Does your baby want to eat or suck? Do you give your baby a dummy?

Any signs of silent reflux? This is one situation where babies may overfeed as feeding eases the reflux but the feed also causes more reflux and to make it feel better they want to feed again causing more reflux in a vicious circle.
In the absence of silent reflux feed to babies needs. If there is some silent reflux more frequent smaller bottles might be better. For example 5 4oz bottles would be preferable over 4 5oz bottles even though the daily intake is the same.

My son was draining 240ml bottles by four weeks, our pediatrician recommended to feed him as much as he wanted, just as long as we made the formula to the instructions. We are not in the UK and the older generation used to thicken bottles of even very young babies with biscuits or bread.
By six weeks he would not fall asleep until he was topped up to the max, we always had a second bottle on hand to top him up if needed.

Just feed her!

DS and our neighbours son are very close in age. One of them had far more formula than the other at a similar age. The one that are the least is the far taller tern. Both are a normal weight.

Everybody is different.