Strange advice from NHS Direct - Don't overfeed your bf baby???

[Eirlys]

My 12wk old DS is one of life's "happy spitters" (lovely term from kellymom) and he possetts regularly throughout the day but he's seems fine with it, and the only problem is that we both smell of sour milk .

Yesterday his vomit seemed quite different, accompanied by general out-of-sorts and culminating in persistent screaming last night. So I called NHS direct and the main recommendation was to call our GP (i know next time to bypass NHS direct).

However, another thing from the nurse's assesment was to take care not to overfeed DS and take him off the breast after a time, to let his tummy process it, then put him back on again. I asked how long and she said she couldn't tell me in minutes but, "just after a while" .

I have a feeling that it was bad advice but willing to stand corrected if anyone knowledgeable can say why she would have told me this?

The story for me had a happy ending - just as we were getting DS ready for a taxi to the emergency GP practice he woke out of his fitful sleep, smiled, took the best feed he'd had all day (and I let him stay on as long as he wanted), then fell into a blissful sleep .

I can sort of see her thinking there in a 'little and often' sort of way, but theres no reasoning to it, and of course breastmilk is digested so quickly that it doesn't really apply.

My DS was a happy chucker - we think just sheer greed and his body would chuck the excess each feed. It stopped when he was around 6 months iirc.

Glad to hear he sorted himself out in the end

hmm

when dd had a vomiting bug I had to limit her to frequent small (5min) feeds as anything bigger resulting in huge cascades of vomit, but this was when she was much older (7m) and obviously ill (clingy, grizzly, feverish).

I think it depends on the baby and the situation.

my dd was a "happy spitter" too - I think because she used to feed for too long without a break. Little and often helped her

My dd always vomitted if I gave her both breasts - one at a time and feeding more often worked for us.