DD (7 months) eating more than me!

[IPlayBanjoOnMyFanjo]

DD was exclusively breastfed until 6 months, when I started weaning her on purees and now she mostly has finger food (except for breakfast) as she likes to feed herself.

She has REALLY taken to food. I am worried that she is eating too much, but can she be overfed when it is still essentially feeding on demand as she does literally demand it (i.e. bang her fist in frustration when not given food)?

She was not a large baby (7lb12) and has hovered between 50 and 75 centile since then.

If we take yesterday as an example, this is what she ate (note: the afternoon snack content is not normal, but we were at a party and she was screaming for it!)

Wake up - long breastfeed

Breakfast - 2 x weetabix with expressed milk

Morning snack - pear, 2 x ricecakes and breastfeeds

Lunch - whole chicken breast, 3 stalks of asparagus, half a cheese sandwich, half an apple, some cheese twists (like breadsticks), yoghurt, kiwi fruit

Afternoon snack - satsuma, cupcake (icing removed), breastfeeds

Dinner - 2 x small adult portions of pasta, slice of toast, fruit compote

Evening - long breastfeed

If I compare that to me during yesterday, I had 1 weetabix for breakfast, chicken & asparagus with yogurt for lunch, a cupcake and a small adult portion of pasta for dinner. So she is eating quite a bit more than me.

Should I be worried? Or is this normal?

That does sound like a lot but baby being between 50-75 centiles is fine.

I'm not sure she is still 50-75 centile yet as haven't had her weighed since she became such a food monster (though she was always a boob monster). She has certainly chunked up but is still not a chubby baby.

So I suppose it must be what she needs. It just astounds me though. She eats about as much as my DH!

well... what happens if you don't give her that much>

if you gave one weetabix for breakfast, and then a breastfeed what would happen?

are you giving it because she is crying for more, or are you giving it because she eats it

When my PFB was small I used a certain persons weaning books and they were saying 1 ice cube when he was eating 8. I felt so upset when people said he was big but really he wasn't and now is a skinny thing.

Fab - that is reassuring. Bu grr at certain person's book making you fell bad.

thisisyesterday - I am giving it because she asks for more. She has 3 stages of commanding more.
First she growls (e.g. if bowl is empty and she can see there is no more).
Then she bangs her fist on the highchair tray to demand more if I haven't given it to her.
And if I still try to hold back she then starts crying.

She is like this at nursery too - they say they have never seen anything like it!

tbh i would be feeding and then offering food, but aside from that then take her cues.

it does seem an awful lot of food, and yes, i guess i'd be worried that she was filling up on food and not having enough milk

that's good advice, thanks. I will swap so that I start with a breastfeed, and then give her food. Will see if that helps.

if she doesn't look heifferish, relax. My ds was a shocker pre-18mo, peeps would comment on how much he ate (4 fish fingers etc) and nursery would send home notes saying he'd had seconds he's perfectly normal now. its winter, she'll eat what she needs.

Thanks fo rthe reassurance MrsWarthog