Am I over feeding my baby?

[Mazzatron]

My DS2 is 9 weeks old. He weighs 13.5lbs. He's formula fed. He's eating 5-6oz pretty much every 3 hours, generally every 4 hours at night. So he's usually getting 35oz or more.

He's always keen to feed and always drains the bottle. I'm just wondering if he's actually hungry all the time or if sometimes it's for comfort? Because according to what I have read he's having a bit more than what he should at this age.

He's occasionally constipated with green poos (I've been told this is normal with comfort formula). Also he's got silent reflux but this seems to be getting under control with omeprazole. He vomits up a little after feeds (generally with a burp) but not loads.

Am I just worrying for no reason?

What is his weight gain like?

If he is draining the bottle then there is a risk that you are under feeding. Babies should decide when they have finished so they shouldn’t be finishing a bottle. Are you paced feeding?

@Pissinthepottyplease his weight gain is good, he jumped up to 91st centile at last weigh in on Tuesday.

I do try to do paved feeding. He has very occasionally fallen asleep on the bottle (3 times?)

Do you think I'm under feeding him then?! Hadn't considered that!

If his weight gain is good and he's got plenty of wet nappies you're doing fine.

He'd let you know if he was hungry or over-full.

Certainly he is rarely chilled out and happy after a feed and often cries / thrashes about a bit. Can be hard to settle after a feed. but I had put this down to the silent reflux making him uncomfortable

Agree with PP, if he’s draining a bottle you should add an extra oz.. if he takes more at one feeding he might start spacing out his feeds.

If he has silent reflux, he could be feeding for comfort too. If he’s not uncomfortable and bringing up loads of milk then I’d just keep following his cues!

Over feeding is much more common than under feeding if baby is gaining weight and you're getting lots of wet and dirty nappies. Have you learnt to tell his feeding cues from his tired cues, I need a change of scene cues and his I need comfort cues? I read ff babies often get over fed if these cues aren't identified.

Health visitor told me when I had a similar concern that as long as he’s not being sick then no he’s not over fed.

We are also doing responsive paced feeding, HV said when he asks feed him, if he drains the bottle offer more.

My baby is 5 weeks old, was 9lbs13oz when last weighed at 10 days old. He has 5oz every 4 hours at night and every 3-4 hours during the day. 3/4 the time he doesn’t finish it, but was draining 4oz.

Should also add we know his hungry and tired cues now, in the early days we definitely confused them sometimes.

He was 9lbs7 when born so was a big baby.

I think you only need to worry about the weight of a baby if they have a large gap between centiles on weight/height.
Our son was on 6 9oz bottles a day by 2mth old, he was a very big baby (10lb 12oz at birth) and grew rapidly but his height/weight were in proportion so the health visitors were not worried about it.

@Chelyanne well he's gone from 75th centile to 91st in two weeks. The GP didn't think anything was wrong with that but does it seem a lot?

Not really. Did they di all measurements? If so were they all within 2/3 centiles of eachother? If they were I wouldn't worry