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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Is it an old wives tale that bf babies cannot be overfed - as my ds is an absolute bruiser!

75 replies

hotmama · 01/04/2009 12:54

Bizarre that I'm posting this as I used to worry about babies not putting on weight as my dd's were very slow gainers.

Ds1 is 15 weeks and is 15lbs was 7lbs at birth. Is exclusively bf on demand - I assume that a bf can't be forced to feed - so if he is taking the milk it is because he is hungry.

Ds1 is a happy little soul so I have no worries but am I wrong (contrary to what I have read) that you can overfeed a bf baby (question mark!!!)

Any views gratefully taken.

OP posts:

Fufulina · 02/04/2009 13:41

DD exclusively breastfed - 17 pounds at 15 weeks. Love the chub!

giveusabreak · 02/04/2009 13:52

DD1 tiny and bf - obviously malnourished

DD2 mahoosive totally bf. It was fab to see her fat rolls. Wish I could have been bothered to take her back to critical HV who pestered me about DD1. DD2 has elicited a lot of comments about being podgy int he past but she has totally slimmed down now she is up on her feet.

LeninGrad · 02/04/2009 13:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Chocolatebunnyrabbit · 02/04/2009 14:02

Oooh I just love chunky babies... they baste so well and make a lovely roast

BeehiveBaby · 02/04/2009 18:32

Mine were both spherical on BM, as was I and my sister put on 20oz in a week once. Poor mum was only 17 and got dragged into a side room at baby clinic and accused of feeding me farleys rusks in a bottle as they couldn't believe she was BFing.

Very very extensive studies at Southampton University demonstrated that a healthy birth weight coupled with dramatic BF weight gain was about the best start in life you can get re. blood pressure, heart disease, obesity in later life, all sorts. It was compiled in a book called 'the best start in life' I think, but it is very boring.

BeehiveBaby · 02/04/2009 18:33

www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Start-Life-David-Barker/dp/1844131521/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=123869358 6&sr=8-7

bigmouthstrikesagain · 02/04/2009 18:50

My ds and dd1 - both breastfed excl. and both at the top of the charts throughout first year.

I didn't worry until dd1 went totally off the top of the weight charts - she was a little pudding aged one but also tall for her age. However she put only a kilo on in her second year, so evened out. She is still at the top of the charts as a huge healthy nearly 3 yo.

DD2 is 5 months and still quite petite (for one of mine!) as only on 50th%ile for weight but around top of charts for length. She is excl breastfeeding, but is clearly of a different build to her sibs despite weighing exactly the same at birth as her db (8lb4oz).

So I would assume that what you should look at is the av. size of your family when assessing whether your childs growth is 'normal' the charts are a very blunt instument if you ask me as the individuals genes are not considered at all.

I don't believe it is poss to over feed when breastfeeding either.

Lotster · 02/04/2009 19:12

Well at clinic today I discovered my little girl who was born 4 weeks 5 days ago, and was 6lbs 3oz, is now 9lbs 7oz! She's put on over three pounds in just under 5 weeks and has gone from the 9th to the 50th percentile!! Surely it can't go on like this or I'll need a forklift by the time she's 6 months

disneystar · 02/04/2009 22:56

wow ladies i have just skimmed through the thread and cant believe how much these lovely babes weigh
my ds6 yes ds6...... was ff not my choice but he has a bad cleft palate and couldnt latch
bf sounds fab and those babies are thriving
hes 9mths and a diddy 17 lb ....bless...

giantkatestacks · 02/04/2009 23:02

I have a huge ebf dd - on the bus the other day some old busybody lady leaned over and said 'isnt it nice to see a chubby baby' another girl with pram in the buggy space started smirking and looked away, old lady 'its just so much better to see a fat baby dont you think?' old lady gets off bus, girl with pram 'she just called yer baby fat'.

But fair play she is...

I think theres a pic on my profile from before christmas where she looks as if she could eat her 5 year old brother.

Cailleachna · 03/04/2009 01:47

My little monster DD was 8lbs 1oz when she arrived at 38 weeks, ALMOST EBF in the hospital (spent 2-3 days in special care and nurses threatened to re-insert drip if she wasn't given some formula to bring her blood sugar up) and lost a grand total of 2oz in her first week. I continued to EBF (with the odd FF, and I do mean one every couple of months, when Daddy was looking after her and ran out of EBM). She proceeded to pile on about 1lb a week and eventually I just stopped weighing her. She has lovely chubby arms & legs (although the "fat rash" does contribute to her eczema!) and her tummy podges out when she sits up, although you can see her ribs when she stretches!

She is now 7 months old and weighs about 22lbs. We switched to 50/50 about a month ago when I went back to work and it got too hard to pump enough for a full EBM diet. Ironically, since she has been having formula regularly (soy to try and keep the eczema under control), her weight gain slowed considerably and she's only gained 1lb in the last month. She's now crawling and trying to walk and I would think she is likely to be very active.

My HV told me there was no possible way to overfeed a BF baby, and when I mentioned her "excessive" weight gain to the doc (along with her prodigious need for sleep - even now she needs 15-16 hrs a day!) and he scoffed and said he wouldn't even be slightly worried about it. My only issue is the speed with which she outgrew her clothes and the back strain I'm getting from the baby carrier!

chefswife · 03/04/2009 05:46

my DD was 6lbs 7ounces when born and at almost 4 months, she is only 10lbs 3oz. she is on-demand BF. she eats well but is still so tiny. she is so dainty. my friend's baby who is a month younger but 3lbs heavier. i don't know where i'm going with this.... um... i can tell when she is done because she comes off, goes on and sucks a couple times and repeats till i say enough's enough. but because of her small size i always do the boob poke to make sure she keeps eating a bit when it looks like she is finished. ok, i'm rambling.

jenniferturkington · 03/04/2009 09:36

DS was 6lb when born and the piled on a pound a week and shot up to the 50th centile ina few weeks- only bf.
DD 9lb when born, now 6wks old and 13lbs!! Right at the top of the charts, lovely chubby thighs Funny thing is though, she hardly seems to feed, 10 mins every couple of hours and she's done (except clustering in the evening of course!). I was led to believe that you can't over feed...

MsSpentEaster · 03/04/2009 16:14

My milk must have been crap by the sounds of it, i BF until 9 months and my DS started on the 50 centile and gradually made his way down to the 5th centile.

But the group i went to mall the BF babies were slender and the FF babies were porkers, i thought thats pretty much how it went???

Strange! How you are certain that you are right about something (BF babies being slim) and there is all this evidence stacked against it

imaginewittynamehere · 03/04/2009 17:18

dd1 born on 50th percentile , followed it to 13 weeks but then continued to gain in a straight line (rather than following the curve iyswim) until she was above the 99.6th percentile line at 34 weeks, At 2 1/2 she is now 17kg & just above the 98th percentile - she is between 91st & 98th percentile for height.
Exclusively Bf to 25 1/2 weeks - bf to 20 months

I have to admit that I did doubt the advice at times that you couldn't overfeed a bf baby...

EffiePerine · 03/04/2009 17:21

DS2 14.10 at 13 weeks. DS1 was even bigger (both excl BF)

Original poster

hotmama · 03/04/2009 20:17

I'm so glad I started this thread (also never had so many posts on anything I started before!).

Nice to know that my 'chubster' is very normal and positively skinny compared to some of yours - so I will keep bf on demand and snuggling my pudgy sweetheart!

OP posts:

Daffodingles2 · 03/04/2009 20:35

ds1 and ds2 were both 8lbs exactly when they were born.
Ds1 immediately shot up to the 99th percentile and was something enormous like 17lbs at 15 weeks. He still is and he's now 9. He's 154 cms tall and weighs 6-7 stone but is not at all chubby, just solid..
Ds2 was tiny in comparison, dropped to the 25th percentile and has stayed there. He's now 7 and is still tiny.
Both were exclusively BF on demand,
So you have nothing to worry about at all OP. Completely normal and no chance of overfeeding.

ByThePowerOfGreyskull · 03/04/2009 20:39

Chunk lived at our house for a while too

DS2 born at 7lb1oz
exBF and by 20 weeks he was 21lb

he never fed for more than 15 minutes but usually 10 mins every 3-4 hours..
He slowed down when we started weaning and went for ages without putting on much weight at all.

He is now 2.5 and content at 2 stone.

dinkystinky · 03/04/2009 21:52

DS1 was a very contented little breastfeeder and started - and stuck - at the 75th percentile until solids came in (not so much of a solids fan; dropped down to 50th percentile while still on or above 75th for height). He was a pretty efficient feeder - usually 15 mins in total for both boobs to be emptied..I love those little fat rolls and in his passport photo taken at 4 months he had a perfectly spherical little head

DS2 was smaller than DS1 when born (came 3 weeks earlier than DS1 did) but has steadfastly stuck to the 75th percentile from birth for height and weight (is nearly 8 weeks old) so looks like I have another BF fan in the family...

Poppity · 03/04/2009 23:30

DS2 was a little bulldog, just breastfed on demand no solids until 6.5 months as DH has asthma. So chunky, 95th and over, never lost any weight. I was always told to go for it and keep up the od feeding as long as I was ok.
Fed as much as he could, bless him, only stopped when he was 2 and I fell pregnant with dd.
Keep it up, sounds like you deliver gold top!

callmeovercautious · 03/04/2009 23:42

Best comment I ever had about DDs weight was at about 20 weeks when she was lovely and chubby was "ohh aren't those formulas good for making a cute baby?". I suppose they thought she was FF. She was EBF to 6m then just food and BM until 2.3yrs, never touched Formula in her little life

Super milk DH called it

GoodGrrrlGoneBad · 04/04/2009 14:02

DS2 was our 'chunker' (still is really!) 8lbs born, i struggled to breastfeed him because he wouldn't latch on properly, so i used a breastpump 5 times a day and put it in bottles for him, and kept trying to get him to latch on too. Finally he got it, and i couldn't get the bugger off for 9mths! And he can wear his 2.5yr old brother's clothes!

It's obviously done him the world of good

Grange · 04/04/2009 22:30

My second baby was 10lb 12oz when born and is now 20lb at 18 weeks. At her 4mth check the HV presumed it was her 8mth check "from the size of her" She is off the scale for height too though

MonkeyMargot · 05/04/2009 15:19

hooray for chubsters ! My LO, exc. BF, born 7'11, on 51st percentile. Is now on 98th percentile at 19 weeks (19 lbs). She has gorgeous dimply chubby thighs, bottom and arms - I love them!

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