Can you overfeed a breast fed baby?

[wasabipeanut]

My DD is 6 and a bit weeks and we are having serious puking issues! She will feed happily but then spend the next couple of hours bringing it back up again, Or she projectiles loads immediately.

I have tried breaking feeds after a couple of minutes and burping her which sometimes helps. She feeds very fast (if we last more than 10 mins its unusual) and she is gaining weight well and progressing along the 50th centile so she is obviously getting enough to eat so I'm not worried and it isn't a huge issue - just a bit fed up with all the washing and having a wet shoulder. I'm more curious than anything to know if babies be, well, greedy!

She seems to bring up wind very fast and is generally settled so I don't think its a trapped wind problem.

I know that breastfed babies are meant to just take what they need but is it possible that I am overfeeding her?

If she's happy, healthy, and enjoying her feeds then this is a laundry problem not a feeding problem, I think

She may be taking more than she needs at one time, because of your fast and enthusiastic and generous flow....and her body makes the appropriate adjustment for that. Isn't nature wonderful?

No need to label her 'greedy' or yourself as 'over-feeding'.

This sort of thing almost always resolves itself in the first few months.

Hi Wasabipeanut - I would say no that you cannot overfeed your DD. She takes from you what she wants. It sounds like she just "possetts" a lot and from what I know, some babies do and some dont. I have also been told the regurgatation reflex in some babies is more sensitve than others. As she is progessing well I wouldn't worry - it might look like the whole feed has come back up but as she is gaining weight then it reallly isnt. Similar thing happened when my DS was about 8 weeks and the health visitor advised me to cut down on dairy to see if it stopped it or reduced it. Do be honest I don't think it made too much difference for us but may be worth a try IF you think you have a high dairy intake. Good luck.

Hmm, I think a high dairy intake could be made up largely of chocolate

Thanks for advice - it sort of echoes what I thought anyway, its just nice to have it confirmed by those who know more than I.

I am lucky that I have a very fast let down - she starts swallowing pretty much immediately on latching on so I guess she just needs to let the excess go.

Speaking of which....

I fed both my babies at the first sign of hunger. My first did throw up a lot as did my second until I stopped winding him.

I found sitting him up was enough to release wind if needed and it really reduced the possetting and laundry pile

I think I overfed ds1 a bit. I never understood that sometimes they get irritable due to wind, or other stuff - it isn't always necessary or appropriate to shove the boob in their mouth at every squeak.

As a result I feel he is, and always has been, a bit overweight. This is just me though and he was almost exclusively bf to 16 months. I'm really not sure.

Mine was exactly like this. Muslins all over the place and he was constantly wearing a bib so I didn't have to change his clothes all the time. He stopped puking gradually from about 4.5 months. He very rarely does it now he's 6.5 months.

The thing is I don't feed her that much - she usually gets peckish every 2 hours or so during the day and goes 4-5 hours in between at night. At the moment anyway - it can all change at short notice of course!

I think the fact that she chugs it down so fast is the main issue!

DD had tremendous projectile vomiting tendencies at 8 weeks. HVs were convinced it was reflux and advised I shovel Gaviscon down her at every feed for a week.Even though being BF, I wouldn't know how much volume of milk DD had had and Gaviscon needs to be dissolved in a set amount of liquid. So, not being keen on overmedicating DD, I completely ignored this.

Instead, I stopped offering her 'seconds' after winding her, thinking I would rather she fed more frequently than she stuffed herself every few hours (it was a very hot summer with us and I was worried about her losing fluids as our house was roasting).

And lo, it worked (she's very much a "well, if you're offering, it would be rude not to..... "sort of baby). By 4 months it wasn't an issue.

Her weight was absolutely fine, so I would say no, you can't overfeed a BF as such but if they are like DD, who would quite happily latch on for hours they can take in more milk than their stomach can comfortably hold but as Tiktok has pointed out nature does sort it out, somewhat explosively at times!

Yes, it is primarily only a laundry issue but it's a nightmare when it happens at 4am when you're feeding them in bed, you hear the tell-tale 'cough-cough' and you snap awake to realise they've spewed what looks like GALLONS all over your side of the bed and you need to get everybody up to change it...while DD beams at you!