Experience of bigger babies help needed

[EmmieA]

Does anyone have any experience of larger babies they'd like to share? My son was born 10lb and has gained weight every week since and at 17 weeks was 18lb 5. He is on 99th percentile for everything but doesn't look big, just a lot older than his weeks! He is golden in the day, hardly whimpers but is still waking every 2 hours in the night for food. Do you think it is genuine hunger or habit from when he was a bit younger? ANy other things you've noticed for me to look out for would also be very useful. Thank you.

Are you breast or bottle feeding? If he's gaining weight it sounds like he's getting enough either way, but if he's on a bottle you could adjust the amounts so he's getting a bigger feed just before bed. Also make sure he's not waking for another reason - too cold, too hot, kicked off blankets (grobags are good) etc.

My DS was 10lb 4oz and mix fed.

My DS was 8lbs 7oz born but by the time he was 6 weeks a nurse mistook him for 3 months. (now 9 size of 13 yr old!)

He was bottle fed, he wore grobags at night (so cozy) but woke to feed every 2 hours. The HV started him on hungry baby milk and we weaned at 4 1/2 months under advice. Massive difference but we had to stick it out

How old is he now? Would you consider weaning if nec? Could make a difference.

DS was 10lb when born and now on 99th percentile.

I find it unlikely that your DS could be hungry every 2 hours at night unless he's just not eating properly during the day. How often does he feed in the day? And how much does he sleep in the day?

Same size of baby here - we started weaning, very slowly on GP and HV advice at 20 weeks. Only baby rice, just to give him bulk, once or twice a day. then progressed to fruit and veg and baby porridge. Once he was having a proper dinner (say, carrot mixed with baby rice and formula milk about week 23, it worked like a charm and he went straight through the night from his 10pm dreamfeed for the first time in weeks! Ours had started waking every night every hour or two at about 17 weeks. When we offered him milk at night he would sink the whole bottle in 5 mins, so he was definitely hungry. If he didn't need it (i.e. it was habit) he would have been sick, or starting to go off the charts for weight, but he didn't. He stayed right on his 98th centile line. You can also spot if they are really hungry by how fast they are drinking - with our DS, if he was just messing about wanting a couple of ounces we would remove the bottle and try to settle him in some other way.

A lot of people say that solids won't help a baby sleep through. Imagine eating nothing but innocent smoothies, milkshakes and sugary tea. You would probably not starve, in fact you might even put on weight, if you were getting sufficient calories, but you would not feel full and your stomach would permanently be growling. People who comment that they just need more and more milk to sustain them don't have babies like ours.

He's 15 weeks, breast fed but had had 2 bottles of formula the last 2 nights and has always slept in a grobag.

My dd is 16wks and nearly 20lbs (on the 99th percentile for height and weight). Like your dd she looks older than she is and is bigger than most of the 6 and 7 month olds at swimming class!! I find that if I limit her feeds in the afternnon she'll have a huge feed before going to sleep (she's purely bf) and will sleep for 7-8 hrs. If she doesn't have such a good feed she'll be up every 2hrs although she goes longer on less during the day.

sorry, is he 17 weeks or 15 weeks??

anyway, IME it's normal for a baby this young to still be waking frequently at night.
they have a BIG growth spurt at around 16 weeks and what they need is more milk, NOT solids.

they the calories from milk to help them grow, not filling up with empty bulk just to make them sleep more.

DS was 9lb 4oz and feed loads night and day. Weaning onto solids made no difference - he grew out of it at about 7 months, with many regressions, and now at 18 months he still wakes at night. He eats plenty!

When your baby gets a bit older be on the look out for crazy HVs who tell you your child should be achieving more than they are because they assume your child is older than they are.
At 12 months my DS was on the 98th percentile for a 1 year old which is the equivalent of the 50th percentile for a two year old. So at 1 he was the same size as half of all 2 year old!
Last month I was told my 17 month old who can't talk at all should be able to say 200 words. I was shocked until I realised the HV assumed he was at least 2 years old (despite having his red book in front of her).

I don't have any advice re the sleeping, I'm afraid, but just wanted to say it is not always the case that a bigger baby needs solids because milk is not enough. My LO was 7 lb 8 oz at birth and now at 20 weeks has already more than tripled his birth weight, being some way off the chart at 23 lbs 9 oz (he is 99.6th percentile for height). He is EBF and has slept through the night since he was 13 weeks old. This has been entirely led by him, I didn't do anything to encourage this, just fed him whenever he did wake and was hungry (yes, I know I'm lucky). He actually doesn't have a big feed at bedtime. His biggest feeds are in the morning (several close together). Just goes to show that all babies are different!

Could the frequent waking be linked to the 4 month sleep regression? I've seen that mentioned a lot on here but haven't experienced it myself. Or a growth spurt - my LO went through one at 16 weeks like thisisyesterday said. Only other thought is, is he actually hungry when he wakes? It might be obvious that he is, but I just mention this as mine makes little moaning noises when getting himself to sleep/back to sleep. I sometimes hear these in the night, but if I leave him 5 minutes will hear regular breathing, its just his way of self-settling.

Tricky business this one. DD was born 8"3 and average length, so nothing crazy. But at her six month check she was rounding into the 90th centile and at twelve months was off the charts (paed extrapolated to 109th for both weight and height). We weaned her at about 5 months and in a few months she did start to sleep through, from 6.30pm til about 5.30am. But hard to say if this was solids or just what she was ready to do. She does eat huge amounts maybe every third day. I don't know if size has much to do with it?

Few weeks I meant to say, rather than months

Hmm, you say he is 17 weeks and then you say he is 15......?

My DS was "only" 7,9 when he was born but piled the weight on quickly. He was EBF and I remember he was 18lbs at 18 weeks.

He slept through from 8 weeks and we relapsed to night feeds around 15 weeks until he was 7 months with some weeks he would sleep through, some he would need a feed.

I doubt very much that your DS NEEDS to feed every 2 hours all night at this stage so maybe trying to get as much in as possible in daylight hours and restrict him to just 1 feed between 8pm and 6am and see how you get on.

Hard but he is probably just used to waking.

I'm hard line on this though as I like my sleep

my DS wasn't exceptionally huge - was born on 75th centile, immediately went up to 91st, stayed there until 6 months, and has been happily on 75th since. He slept through the night for the first time on tuesday night. He's 18 months old. we stopped using grow bags at 5 months becaue he was standing up then and getting them all caught up, so he would scream more, but until then they were wonderful.

He fed every 2-3 hours from birth to weaning, then dropped his day time feeds a bit at 7 months when I went back to work.

We've just started night weaning in the last fortnight, and although he is hugely unimpressed, we are getting a little more sleep because of it!

he looks a lot older than he is - I'm always being asked if he is 2 or older, but he's fine.

weaning onto solids made sod all difference, crawling made sod all difference, walking made sod all difference, and going to nursery makes sod all difference. Although any hint of ill health and his sleep is atrocious (up every 45 minutes instead of every 2-3 hours), so we keep a bottle of calpol on standby.

My DS was 10lb and I don't remember thinking he was particulary hungry at night
he was mainly breast fed, but he had a bottle of formula as his last feed.
Someone(maybe I read it) suggested that would fill him up more!

My DS was 8lb 1oz when he was born but gained a pound a week or so and by 6 months was off the charts for weight and 91st for height. I think he was about 25lbs at 6 months.

He was exclusively breast fed, on demand, and was probably feeding every 3 hours in the night and this got worse at around 4-5 months which lead me to weaning him a couple of weeks early (at 5.5 months). It is tough, I know! He then dropped back to 1-2 feeds overnight until he was about 10 months. He took to solids like a dream and fairly predictably wolfed them down.

DS is now 16 months but looks older. With all the crawling and running around he does, his weight has totally plateaued and he is now 29lbs - so only about 4 lbs heavier than 10 months ago. Back on the chart for weight, still 91st for height, and he's a really healthy, active little lad. And if he is poorly and off his food, it doesn't worry me too much because I know he has a bit of emergency chub for just such occasions.

At about 10 months he was eating a very full diet of solids, as well as having milk feeds in the morning and evening, so I swapped the night feeds for cuddles and water if he asked. He quickly dropped the habit and started sleeping through until 5.30am-6am, and from about 14 months he goes 7.30pm-7.30am. I think at that stage it was habit, but I think you will know whether it is genuine hunger because there was no way he would settle if he wanted food.

If I were you, I think I'd wait until he was eating solids before trying to drop his night feeds. My feeling with DS was that he was genuinely a big, hungry boy and that food was his thing. It wasn't until I was convinced that he was getting plenty during the day that I thought that I could get him to drop night feeds without a fight.

Good luck OP! It's not easy, I know, but in a few months when your LO is sleeping through, this will seem like a distant memory.

hi glad to see this thread my little boy was 11llb 3 when born, is 11 weeks now and is over 18llbs, i changed to hungry baby formula, think this makes a difference as he now goes to sleep about 9.30 sleeps till half 2/3 and wakes again at 6.30, which is a big difference om 2 weeks ago, problem i find his that routine of sleeping varies from day to day and this affects night time sleep. he only cat naps and i think this is the route of the problem, if you find something that works for you i would be glad to hear it

No reason why a bigger baby would need weaning earlier. Milk is where the calories are. Tiny babies, medium babies and huge babies all show the same signs of weaning readiness. Not waking up at night or feeding 2 hourly but sitting up, no tongue thrust reflex and able to pick up food, put in mouth, chew and swallow. There's no evidence that weaning aids sleep either. In fact the opposite may be true.

DD was 7lbs when born and off the charts by a couple of months. She was 25/26lbs ish when she had her first solids. You might say she was thriving on milk.

It seems that people want you to wean early for all sorts of reasons. Baby is too small and clearly needs more, baby is too big and clearly needs more, baby is waking up and clearly needs more.

I don't think you can ever say a baby categorically doesn't need a feed. With the massive changes they go through, the calories they need and thirst/comfort/developmental spurts chucked in, I think night feeds serve a very important purpose.

I took the view that it's easier to adjust what you're doing (sleep more, housework less, co-sleep etc) than try and adjust with the needs of a small baby.

I hate this kind of thing. Ooh look I have a big baby, I must treat him like he's a different sort of animal...

I'm 6ft4. My sister is 6ft2. Our Dad is 6ft8. Mother is 5ft11 (the only adult under 6foot in the whole extended family, even my Nan was 6ft and she was a child in the War) you get the idea. We are big people. My 11 year old is 5ft7, in a size 16 clothes (not fat, just no waist) and size 9 shoes and she hasn't had her growth spurt yet. My 5.5 month old is tiny, a real little dolly, she's only on the 75th percentile for everything, I would be worried if she didn't look so healthy.

All my life not only me but my entire family have been expected by outsiders to be different somehow. They think of Dad as aggressive ("woldn't wanna mess with him"), they expect my daughter to show more responsibility than her peers ("you don't push people smaller than you, even if they DID push you first"), they expect us to have some form of advanced development ("you should be giving her solids by now", "DOH says not until 26 weeks", "she clearly needs it though, look at her").

Can you all just stop it now please? This is not the playground anymore and by the time you can have your own kids you should have stopped thinking like one. We, the tall of this world, are no different to you. If you don't see a normal little baby when you look down at your own precious child then perhaps you need to speak to someone about your emotional state. We are not monsters, we are not endowed with some amazing capacity to develop faster than you, we are people. Just people.

Underachieving - I think the confusion lies because people know adults of different sizes require different amounts of foods. For example your 6ft4 body is going to require significantly more 'fuel' than someone the size of Kylie Minogue - that's just basic biology.

However, particularly with formula fed babies, the guidelines seem to be age related rather than size - so a 3 month old baby should have x ounces of milk, when that 3 month old baby could have a body weight of anywhere between 4.5 and 8.5kg.

I don't think anybody means to refer to their babies as monsters, they are just trying to muddle through and ensure they get the nutrients they need to be healthy and happy, rather than what an 'average' baby needs.

Underachieving - I don't think anyone on here things of their baby as a monster at all! People are just trying to do the best for their babies.

Anyway. My DS was born 7lbs8 (bit of a shock, thought he'd be bigger!) but at 6 weeks was weighed at 12lbs1 (after initially losing 10% of his body weight). He's 91st centile for height, weight and head circumference.

I've noticed nothing 'unusual' about his feeding habits. He does love his BF but is happy to sleep for up to three hours - now 7 weeks old - between feeds during the day, and 4 hours at night.

My ds1 was 11lb 4oz at birth. He was a very hungry baby. I ended up weaning him onto solids at 15 and half weeks. The first day he ate 15 spoonfuls of baby rice... in one sitting. He hasn't stopped eating since and now aged 7 wears 11 year old tops!

However, DS2 was only 10 lbs and I didn't wean him onto solids till 24 weeks. The advice changed on weaning between my two boys!

I would try to ensure he drinks most of his milk during the day and make sure he is getting enough sleep in the day. I used to find an overtired baby didn't sleep as well at night.