Overfeeding when weaning?

[gottogetdressed]

Any advice/thoughts welcomed please!!!

My DS is five and a half months, and despite being 4.5 weeks premature, is firmly on the 91st percentile... he's a big lad!

Since about 4 months he has slept through the night (7pm to 7am-ish) and has never got on with a dream-feed (tried it when he was much younger but it made no difference, so we gave up).

He's been exclusively bf up until about 2 weeks ago when he started waking a few times a night and was having massive feeds, so we started weaning. I still bf before offering any solids, and he now has a couple of 'top ups' with purees/baby rice a day. And we are back to sleeping through the night - hoorah!!

However, even with the solids, he still wants feeding every 2-2.5 hours during the day - and they are all decent feeds not little snacks. To be honest I'd rather that and he sleeps to not eating and not sleeping, but am worried about quite how much he's eating, and also how to cut down the number of times a day he eats to a more managable number.

Any help appreciated, thanks!

Hi Gottoget
Didn't want this to go unanswered ...
First of all I'd speak with your health visitor about this as they know all the stats, portion sizes etc

But from me I'd say - is it just because he likes the taste? after all that blandness of the same food (breast milk - okay it's not that bland but you know what I mean) you are now giving him lots of interesting tastes and he just loves it.

Other thought - is he thirsty and doesn't know the difference between eating and drinking yet? Maybe try him with some water in a bottle or sucky cup in between meals as well as at meal times just on case.

good luck.

Thanks Bonzo!

Will try the sippy cup between meals as he's taking this pretty well at meal times now. Will see what health visitor can offer, but based on past experience I'm not convinced they'll offer me anything very helpful.

Ultimately he's a happy chap though so guess I'm being an over cautious mummy!

:-)

Well, purees will not have more calories than breast milk, so I don't see how that will make him gain too much weight. A bit of baby rice will not make him gain lots of weight.

I wouldn't worry too much and perhaps you could consider BLW, when you offer him foods and he eats what he wants. That way, provided you offer healthy food, he'll eat what he needs.

So well cooked carrot sticks and other veg, chunks of avocado, bread etc- only if he can sit well by himself in a highchair.

If you are only giving him simple fruit or veg purees and baby rice, along with bf, I don't think it is possible to overfeed.

Thanks for all your help. Will give the BLW a go too.