Worried about overfeeding FF baby- I am feeding on demand, but he is eating loads!

[roslily]

My ds is 6 weeks old. He was EBF for 5 weeks, and for several reasons he is now FF. (Doctor advice, bad now I know about reflux as well as other issues).

Anyway I feed him on demand (I figure I eat on demand, why should he stick to a timetable!)and he had started to spread feeds out to between 3 and 4 hours, eating anything from 3-5 oz. At night he will go 4-5 hours (although not often!!)

Today he has not gone more than 2 hours between feeds. I have tried winding him, offering cooled boiled water (on advice of HV) when he starts making hunger signals after an hour half/2 hours. But then I feed him, and he gulps down 5oz! The contented noises he makes make me think he is hungry.

Anyway, I know it is ok to feed a BF baby on demand, but now I am FF have little or no help in RL (seeing as I have "given up" to quote HV) Is it ok to feed him this much, am I over-feeding him? Could it be growth spurt?

hi roslily

my ds has also been FF on demand from an early age due to complications with BF. He is 22 weeks and thriving.

You mention reflux at the start so I wondered is your DS bringing up some of his feeds and therefore getting hungry sooner?

Have you tried him with a dummy? some may object to this suggestion but my DD had reflux and was using her bottle for comfort which was a bad combination and a dummy worked well for her.

It could be a growth spurt so you could just wait and see if his feeding calms down again. Are you concerned about over feeding due to his current weight?

My DS is at the top of the weight chart and the HV's comments have not been great - i am very at your HV's comments as its never as simple as that!

Hi Roslily

my ds was FF on demand, now 13 months, and sometimes seemed to take loads of milk. This could be a growth spurt. I second the dummy idea if you think he is taking the bottle just for comfort. The main thing is how his weight is going. As long as it's not spiking too much I would not worry personally. Obviously I'm not qualified so just another Mum's opinion

I FF DD on demand and she would wolf it down too. As long as is otherwise healthy/ alert/ settling I wouldn't worry about overfeeding.

Thanks. He is being weighed tomorrow, first time since FF so we will see. He was on 50th centile.

I have tried dummy (they are my saviour sometimes!) but after a while he spits it out as if to say"that isn't milk!" I think he is actually hungry. Last time he did this I upped his intake from 4-5 oz, but I don't want to up it again!

Gosh, isn't it amazing how we worry if they're eating too much and we worry if they're eating too little!! It's all down to those centile charts.

My DD is 19 weeks old and only takes 4 bottles a day and only between 4-7 ozs at each... I've been absolutely desperate with worry as she has dropped from the 25th centile to just above the 2nd since she was born but she did have undiagnosed oral thrush for 12 weeks because the GPs thought I was "making a fuss and it's just residue milk" .

So I've decided, for my sanity, not to get her weighed. She is shooting up on the height charts and has gone from the 50th to the 75th and she is healthy and happy. So I've made the decision not to take her back. I know that some people won't agree with me, but it got to the stage where I was crying with every bottle that she wouldn't drink and that's not been helping anyone.

Good luck with the weigh-in, but just remember that you don't HAVE to take them to be weighed if you start to stress too much about it.

xx

I was told if they are draining the bottles to offer 1oz more, seemed to work for DD

Right so 6oz it is- little guzzler.