Too much weight gain?

[bunny85]

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone has experienced this. I've got an almost 4 week old baby boy who is exclusively bf (he did need few formula top ups while we were in the hospital after birth as his blood sugar levels went down due to my gestational diabetes but no more top ups have been given after those first few days). I feed him on demand and looks like he is hungry almost constantly. He feeds a lot and never refuses a boob if offered. He feeds every hours sometimes, I lost track of when one feeding ends and another starts.

So, my question is this. He was born weighing 2870g (at 38+2) and is now 3680! He has gained 380g in the past week alone. I am of course very happy he is eating well and putting on weight, but I started asking myself if this is even normal? I know you can't overfeed a bf baby, but...what if you can?

Thanks in advance!

Anyone?

My baby was born at 36 weeks, 2950g. Also bf with formula top ups in hospital due to low blood sugar but no more formula since hospital.
At 2 weeks he was 3240 g. and now at 8 weeks he was 5140g.
That is absolutely normal weight gain :) Look at the weight charts in red book - my baby is just below 50th centile - so not heavy at all.

Thank you for your reply Kristine. Made me feel much better.

Re low blood sugar, if you don't mind me asking, how low was your baby's? Was it due to GD as well? My baby had it as low as 2.2 once (other times 2.3 or 2.5). It made me sooo worried, I still am to be honest, hence my question. I've heard it can cause brain damage. What do you think of that?

He had 2.3 or 2.4 at one time. But only once- the rest of measurements were around 3 and 4. He is absolutely fine now - I just made sure he eats every couple of hours for first few weeks to make sure his blood sugar doesn't go down.

My DD (now 11 weeks) was the same in terms of never refusing the breast/feeding every hour. Even now she seems to be able to drink huge amounts (I'm also expressing). I think that at 3 weeks babies are stimulating your milk supply by being at the breast, which is why they can eat so often. Also their tummies are still tiny. I don't think that HV are worried about BF babies gaining too much. Despite eating so much DD just seems to follow her weight centile!