Breast fed baby gaining lots of weight!

[eskimod]

Hi all,

Just wanted some reassurance really... im a FTM so I worry about everything!

I've been breastfeeding my 3 week old and on day 4 she went from 6lb 9lb birth weight to 7lb then on day 12 she was 7lb 12oz and now at nearly 4 weeks she's 9lb 11oz!

It's been pretty full on- she feeds a lot, mostly every hour (most feeds are actually feeds, some are just comfort). I feed on demand and try to read her cues- she often doesn't calm until I offer the breast- she mostly opens mouth, roots, licks lips etc so I think she is hungry. When I feed her, she only lasts about 10 mins before coming off or falling asleep, I don't always get to offer the second breast.
There's been the odd occasion when DP has taken her to give her a bottle (to give me a couple of hours sleep because she's so full on) but this hasn't happened for quite a while and hasn't happened enough for me to say she is combined fed- she's basically exclusively breast fed, I don't even pump any off...

I suppose I just wanted to make sure this all seems normal? Is it okay for her to put on so much weight?

Any advice would be great!

Thanks

Sounds perfect. Are you worried about anything in particular?

@Wolfgirrl I was just wondering if it's possible for a breast fed baby to gain too much weight. Am I feeding her too much? Is she feeding too often?
But I've heard you can't over feed a breast fed baby 🤷🏼‍♀️

Nope! You cant overfeed a breastfed baby. It sounds like she was born on the smaller side and is 'catching up'.

@Wolfgirrl thanks for the reassurance. Do you think she'll start going longer between feeds any time soon?

Most likely. Babies feed very frequently for the first few weeks to build your supply up. After that it tends to space out. You sound like you're doing a great job.

I mean, that's what you want to happen, isn't it? That's a good thing!

Breastfed both of mine - DD was born on 98th percentile and maintained it, DS on the 25th and quickly ramped up to the 75th. They're 8 and 6 now and both tall, healthy and skinny.

My daughter was the same she loved her milk and got to the 99th percentile and was so chubby and cute. I got worried that she was big but as soon as she started walking it dropped off.

She's now nearly 7 and was on the 50th percentile for height and weight when last checked at school.

It sounds like you're doing a fantastic job and should just keep on doing what you are!

My LO is nearly 6 months old and is on the 95th centile at about 20 lb 11. He was around the 50th centile until about 8 weeks when breastfeeding got going (we'd been bottle feeding him mostly with expressed milk up to that point as he'd had a near complete tongue tie & then associated muscle tightness affecting his latch). Since then he's been putting on about a lb every two weeks and is a really chubby thing. My back was not ready for this speed of weight gain but I'm reassured that it'll drop off him when he starts to move properly. My DH was similar and then only put on 4lbs in his 2nd year.

The centile charts must be skewed towards formula fed babies or something 🤷

DD was 4th centile and went up to 65th in about 4 weeks, GP thought the health visitor had made a mistake! But definitely don’t worry about over feeding. You could try feeding her a bit more on a schedule, maybe try 2 hours at first during the day and 3-4 at night. DD adjusted very quickly to this, fed a bit more at slightly less frequent feedings and soon stretched to 3 hours during the day and 8-10 at night. If they are gaining weight well, health visitor advised it was fine to feed on a bit more of a schedule.

It might not work but we found by DH cuddling her first often meant she went back to sleep on her own and actually didn’t need feeding every hour. Also found moving her to his side of the bed helped her sleep longer. They change so quickly so even if she needs feeding every hour this week, she might not by next week!

Should also say DD never wanted the second boob either when she was small.

I agree that it sounds like she was born a little small and is finding her centile. Ours went from below the 0.4th at delivery (due to an issue with my placenta) and made her way to between the 25th and 50th, which lines up with her measurements at the twenty week scan. She then stayed there so that was clearly where she was meant to be.

You definitely can't over-feed a breast fed baby. Both of mine were milk machines, I think DD gained a lb a week for 6 weeks in a row at one stage. But I found it very reassuring. It's exhausting but gets a lot easier around the 6-8 week mark. Both my DC now tall for their age and just seem to grow vertically! Good luck

DD was like this - she fed constantly, put on 1lb a week on a normal week and 2 during a growth spurt and was super-chubby, on the 98th centile for height and weight. She stayed fat until she started walking and has been tall and slim ever since.

Thanks everyone! I'm happy because she's gaining weight and has lots of wet and dirty nappies.
Feeding every hour is difficult though... it's not quite as bad at night, I think she's starting to learn the difference between night and day. She sometimes does a 3 hour stint then 2 hours/ 1 hour after that... the other night she slept nearly 4 hours! Was happy with that!
@2tired2function how do I feed on a schedule if she's crying and rooting? During the night might be hard, would feel bad waking my partner as he's back at work now.
Xx

@eskimod the advice we got was to slowly stretch it - if baby seems a bit hungry then first try stretching for 15 minutes, by distracting, bouncing, singing, take for a walk etc. and slowly lengthen from there. It will probably help if you can make yourself scarce during this time, so your partner can be the one trying to distract. It feels like a long time ago already so I might be remembering wrong but I think I also fed DD before she was rooting or sleepy so she didn't fall asleep as quickly and had a bigger feed. I didn't feed to sleep at all really, tried to feed on a feed/wake/sleep cycle, rather than a wake/feed/sleep cycle if that makes sense.

Another piece of advice I got that was really helpful was to really observe why baby was crying/making noises - the temptation is just to feed quickly because that gives comfort immediately, but it may not actually be meeting the real need, which could just be tiredness or boredom. I think this advice really helped us to distinguish when she was tired versus hungry (she made what we called dino noises, which sounded like she was upset, but truly was just because she was tired and that was how she fell to sleep). Because I tried to feed at the beginning of the feed/wake/sleep cycle she didn't often actually get to being upset because she was hungry so when she was hungry, it was really obvious. There is also some good research showing that parents over estimate how much their child is crying & how upset they are, it always feels much worse to you in the moment than it really is!

Even now, DD 18 months, will sometimes cry what sounds to me very very loud and upset when she is frustrated, but when I compare that to when she's actually hurt herself from falling or bumping something, even a little, it is clearly a very different cry and I suspect that also would be very different from if she ACTUALLY did something that really hurt! Not suggesting you should ignore your child AT ALL, but taking a deep breath, counting to 30 and really watching them can help put it in perspective.

Once your baby reaches her natural weight centile, her rate of feeding will be less intense. Feeding 8-12 times in 24 hours is normal. No matter how chubby she gets, breastfed babies are less likely to become obese. Now she is a month old you could introduce a dummy if you think it might help.