Too much weight gain in a breastfed baby?

[londonfeather]

Saw the health visitor today who told me to increase the time between feeds for my 6 week old soon as he is gaining too much weight. He’s not on a schedule and I feed on demand with feeding cues as recommended by the hospital and initial health visitor.

He is exclusively breastfed and had gone from 8lbs at birth to 12.6lbs at 6 weeks. He does look a bit chubby but he just loves eating and gets really stressed out if he cues to be fed and I don’t feed him.

It’s really knocked my confidence and I don’t know what to do - is this weight gain too much, should I stop feeding on demand and try and push him to a schedule?

Any similar experiences?

Thank you so much everyone for your votes of confidence. I think we will keep going as we are for now, we have an appointment with the docs next week so I will ask her advice. She was very unimpressed last time the health visitor misdiagnosed Mastis for thrush so hopefully she won’t agree with this advice or give me some more constructive advice

@happy2bhomely double cream before feeds made me laugh!

*between

The only time i've known this to be true is when a friend had a baby who fed for comfort because she was actually in pain from an allergy. I imagine this is rare so please know you're doing great and your HV is a fool.

My DS was also 8lb at birth 50 centile and gained so much weight he was beyond the 9.6 centile . Exclusively breastfed on demand. He is nearly 3 now and absolutely fine. Most babies follow a line but not all. Keep feeding on demand.

*99.6 centile not 9.6!

Ignore. You cannot overfeed an exclusively breastfed baby. Hes doing brilliantly and you should be proud of yourself.

DD was like that. She started off around the 50th centile and ended up around the 98th. She put on 1lb a week on a normal week and 2lb during growth spurts. She was really fat until she started walking, when she slimmed down completely and stayed slim. She's now a tall and thin 11 year old.

As with broomstick DS was average at birth, a complete Buddha shape at 6 months, and carried on being "well covered" til he was about 5. He is now a head taller than anyone else in his year and a beanpole. Hold your nerve!

DD2 was born 6lb 14oz and within 2 weeks had shot up to over the 75th centile. My milk always comes in really quick. She wouldn’t feed for long but seemed to be efficient at getting the milk. She was very content. I was a little concerned at the rapid speed of weight gain and worrying where it would end but I continued to follow her queues. By her 1st birthday she was only 18.5lbs (25th centile). My advice is to completely ignore this rubbish. Trust your instincts and respond to your baby’s cues. You’re doing a great job 🙌🏼

*cues

A GP once had the gall to tell me that it would be my fault if DS was obese when he was older as I fed on demand.

Please please ignore the advice you were given, it is utter rubbish. My LO was 11lb 9oz at birth so on the 99th percentile. It didnt take him long to start zooming up and over the top of the chart and he ended up so big the HV referred him to a consultant. What did the consultant say??? He said “why has this perfectly healthy child been sent to see me?? Admittedly we dont get many babies this big but there is quite obviously nothing wrong with him except that he doesnt fit the neat box the HV wants to put him in”

Continue to feed on demand and respond to your baby. The consultant advised me that babies have a very fine tuned sense of thirst and hunger. At this age they will feed for as much or as little as they need barring illness etc.

Apart from anything else how can you explain to a hungry baby that they cant feed??

DD 2 looked like the Michelin man at that age. Had trouble locating her neck when washing her. HV gave me lectures on childhood obesity. She still likes her food and at 11 is so skinny that we have trouble finding jeans (had that problem since she was around 4).

I had the same experience with an ignorant HV telling me to "stretch out time between breastfeeds" and that I was "overfeeding" when my baby jumped from 75th centile at birth to 98th at 6 weeks. She has followed that curve perfectly since, that is just exactly how she is meant to be.
Sounds like you are doing a great job, well done & enjoy your beautiful chubby baby.

My DS2 jumped from 50 to 91 centile in first 8 weeks and now at 2 he is off the charts! I exclusively BF and on demand. Did the same with DS1 but he has been 25/50 centile from day 1 - always felt I maybe didn’t feed DS1 enough! But realised they’re just different as I don’t remember either of them NOT being on my boob for at least the first year..

Madeoman, Morrison's jeggings are the surprising perfect fit jeans for my skinny 11 year old. Her main problem is dresses, which are either far too short or gape around her upper body.

My baby gained 1kg in two weeks (wk 2-4) and the midwife was thrilled! She jumped from 50 up to 75 centile. She's still greedy but her growth has slowed to a more steady rate.

Well done, OP, and keep doing what you're doing. See a different HV/midwife if you can.

OP please don't worry, you're doing a great job. My son was breastfed at the beginning, he was born at 8.4 then went up to 9.3 and 10.8 in the next couple of weeks. HV and midwife were thrilled with this.
Ignore her, you can't overfeed a breastfed baby. They will just take what they need.

Congrats on your baby

Well done. You cannot overfeed an exclusively breastfed baby. Some do gain a lot of weight but soon run it off as toddlers.
My second son and youngest daughter were both big babies and both latched and stayed feeding most of the day and night. They were very well covered babies to the point they got fungal infections in the fat rolls on their legs. They changed rapidly through toddlerhood.
She is now a 4’11” size 4 midget and he is a slender 6’3” beanpole. Neither were fat past nursery.

Medical professionals don’t know everything. My GP (who had been very against my homebirth) told me firmly that I must offer my newborn DD water in addition to breast milk because she was born in the middle of a heatwave. Luckily I knew that to be wrong and ignored her but if anything, that comment gave me more confidence in my own motherly instincts and taught me to take what HCPs told me with a pinch of salt.
[Should add that that same fully breastfed newborn grew to be the fattest baby known to mankind, but is now a total stringbean of a 12 year old, with not an ounce of fat on her.]

Bollocks! Ignore and feed your baby when they want feeding. Remember HV questioning my babies weight asking if I was “sure” I wasn’t weaning early because of her weight gain. I of course wasn’t and carried on regardless. Your giving your baby so much goodness. My 6yo DD is now a very healthy weight and thrives on my full fat milk for 7 months before needing food x

My baby shot up from the 25th to the 75th percentile in the early weeks. Health visitor was pleased. Please don't worry x

As long as your baby is content, with mormal nappies, all is well.

I had massive oversupply, a gassy, colicky, miserable baby constantly feeding for comfort and similar weight gains to yours. In our case it was absolutely the case that I was overfeeding a bf baby and the prevailing wisdom that it is impossible to do so kept us both very miserable for six weeks. A schedule calmed down my supply and his bloated painful belly within 24 hrs. I know from other bf mothers that this is not an uncommon problem. So please don't everyone assume that you cannot possibly bf too much - occasionally you can.

Incidentally, thrush is a form of mastitis.

Through the fog of time I can't remember the exact details. I know for a fact that by 8 weeks both boys had gone from 50th to 95th centile. I was really worried with DS1. I am so glad I had the HV that I had. She reassured me that he was fine and to just keep going as I was. "You can't over feed a breastfed baby." Brilliant advice.

He went up to 99th and stayed there (as did his brother later on.) DS1 is now 8 and skinny as a rake (has DH's build) DS2 is also perfectly proportioned AND I got the bonus of the best, cuddliest babies ( IMHO!) DH affectionately called my boobs "gold tops" for a while, which will only mean something to MNetters of a certain age.

You're doing a great job. Ignore.

Chances are, he us just finding his natural weight.
However, please just do a quick check for allergies or reflux. I know a child who fed constantly because the acid from silent reflux was soo painful, and milk soothed it.
5 years later they still struggling with being a very large child.