Can you overfeed a breastfed baby?

[Willowfalls]

Hi all,

My LO is 7 weeks old. He was born at 38 weeks at 6lb 15oz and since then, his weight has increased no end.

At 5 weeks he was 10lb 4oz and he hasn't been weighed since (has 8 week check up next week) but I've weighed him on the scales with me and he is around 12lbs.

i'm EBF. Throughout the day he can go 2-3 hours without feeding but in the night, we sleeps no longer than 2 hour stints without needing a feed (often it's 1/1.5hrs) The feeds overnight are short-ish and he often feeds from one side only.

People keep commenting on his weight gain/cheeks etc and I'm just worried that I'm doing something wrong/over feeding? I don't know whether to introduce a bottle of formula to help fill him up a bit at night? Unsure if he in using me as comfort too. He won't take a dummy.

Any advice greatly received.

Thank you x

No you can't overfeed a bf baby

No.

No you can't use the short answer.

Sounds like you are doing a great job and have a healthy, thriving baby.

Keep doing what you are doing.

These comments are meant well and meaningless and people say them about every baby.

Not from the breast, no. BM from a bottle yes you can. My son gained a pound a week for ages, he was fattening up in front of my eyes. It’s great, he’s thriving and you’re doing a wonderful job.

Thank you so much for the reassurance! ☺️

You’re there to give him comfort too, it’s not a bad thing! Dummies are stand ins for boobs. He’s doing exactly what he’s meant to.

I had to ask this with my DC. They were so fat! (They're adult now and none of them are even chubby)

Babies do go through a chubby phase, they’re meant to bulk up and gain fat to keep them warm. Sounds like he’s doing what he’s meant to be doing. Enjoy his chubby cheeks while they last 😊

You can overfeed a formula fed baby.

You can't overfeed a BF baby.

You sound like you're doing brilliantly! Your baby is thriving on EBF. Absolutely no need to introduce formula.

Formula brings certain risks with it, plus smelly poos! If a mothers needs to formula feed for some reason, the benefits may outweigh those risks, but if you have established BFing well and your baby is thriving, there's no need to formula feed.

Also, babies can't "use" you for comfort in a bad way in my opinion.

Mothers are meant to comfort our babies, we are their world at that stage. If BFing provides comfort, isn't that amazing that something so simple can comfort our DC?

Our culture is oddly anti-BFing, we have one of the lowest rates in the world. This idea that it's "just comfort" comes from this view of BFing as negative IMO.

agreeing with everyone else, you can’t over feed a bf baby. DS was exactly the same, frequent feeding at night, no dummy, putting on a pound a week. He was a butterball! But at 13 he is a tall skinnymalink!

Sounds like you are doing an incredible job! Well done! You can't overfeed a bf baby so don't worry. If you can hold off, I wouldn't introduce formula as it could make your milk supply drop leading to more formula.

If my (greedy) baby drinks too much breast milk, he brings up the excess.

Mine were similar - tiny at birth, made up for it over the next 6 months. Pls ensure you scoff a lot of mince pies to compensate for your thriving child - I have never been so thin as when my babies were leaping up the centiles.

Sorry just to respond to the last part regarding waking - unfortunately it’s very normal to wake up a lot for feeds at night!

I wouldn’t introduce formula, unless it’s for your benefit (so you can sleep and your partner can give a feed). It doesn’t sound like your baby needs it.

If he’s waking up after a short amount of time and you’re pretty sure he’s not hungry you could try a dummy and see if he will settle back to sleep.

Thank you everyone for your kind words and reassurance 🥰. I will keep going as I am.

Thank you for taking the time to reply xxx

Yeah, you just have to remember to actually stop eating the extra cakes when your little one starts dropping their feeds and eventually weans. (I didn't! )

But while I was BFing loads it was great! I ate all the cake but lost weight at the same time. Winner!

I had no end of criticising comments from family members when I was BF'ing but I was told by the midwife to not listen to them and feed when DS wanted to feed. The midwife was amazing and said, look how he's grown..you've done that!! I felt very proud so thank you to that midwife.

Keep going and ignore all those haters out there!