Can a baby be over-fed?

[herbaceous]

Hello

My 8mo DS is suddenly the largest in 'his' circle of friends, despite being the youngest, and is developing a big old belly.

I've been doing BLW, with porridge in the morning on loaded spoons. He'll eat a huge bowl of it, and still cry when it's finished and have room for some fruit or a yoghurt. He doesn't get more than about 40% of his lunch or dinner actually into him, and gets bored more quickly with those two meals. He also gets more than 20oz of milk.

Schedule roughly:
6.30am BF
9am Porridge
11am 4oz-ish formula
1pm lunch
3pm 5-6 oz formula/BF
5.30pm dinner
7pm 7oz or so formula
11pm dreamfeed - 5-6oz

My HV suggested I drop the dreamfeed, but he often wakes up for it so feel he must need it.

He's only on the 75th percentile, which was his birth position, but is rising rapidly! He's also yet to crawl, so I'm wondering if he'll burn more calories off when he gets moving.

Obviously it's not a huge worry, and better than being underweight, but I just wondered if he's not very good at regulating his appetite and whether I should do it for him...

My brothers 4 children were all a little chubby until they started to walk and then it all dropped off.

Ignore HV. Give dream feed until they don't want it anymore IMO, it worked ok with my two kids.

As for food, I didn't think at this age they did over eat. I could be wrong though, I'm no expert. My daughter always eats more at breakfast and then less as the day goes on too and she's 2 and a half years old but has always done this. You sound like you're doing everything right to me tbh and you're worrying for no reason. Is his daddy big/ tall? Try to compare him by family members than other peoples kids.

My boy is 14 months and on 98th centile and is very strong and healthy and way bigger than other kids his age but my whole family has very tall men in it.

Boys do have healthy appetites (sorry to generlise) often. Did he weigh more at birth than others? Are they all girls, you're comparing to as well?

Sorry lots of questions but trying to give you food for thought. I honestly think it sounds normal what you're doing. He's happy, healthy and eating well x

Thanks T&C!

Oddly, neither me nor his father are tall. Well, I'm 5'8", but so's DP. We're both carrying a little extra, but not sure that's hereditary!

He was only 8lb 1oz when born, 10 days late, so wasn't a big baby.

And his pals are mostly boys who he's outstripping.

Oh well. I won't worry, then. I suppose eating a big breakfast makes sense, as it's the longest without food of all the meals...

Yeah I don't think a big bowl of porridge is a bad thing at all! It's slow releasing energy and good for him.

You're doing great IMO, ignore everybody else and try not to compare (easily said, rather than done) as every baby is different.

Maybe another mumsnetter will have a few thoughts for you today..

I know... before I had him I always said I wouldn't compare him to other babies, as they're all different, etc, but it's very hard isn't it!

It's like when other mothers say 'I put him down for his second 2hr nap...' WHAT? 2hrs? Second? I'm lucky if he'll sleep one hour in the day. But they're all different...

But today I did limit his breakfast to one Weetabix, plus milk, and some pear, rather than the 1.5 Weetabix plus adult yoghurt he had the other day!

herby glad to hear it's all going so well still (I was a fellow knicker checker!)
Sounds to me like you're doing fine. DS1 always ate loads at breakfast and still does. Lunch is sometimes less then but sometimes not. If your DS isn't sleeping much during the day then I'd say he's burning the calories off as he's so alert.
Just you wait, he'll be on the move soon and then weight will start to drop off him and you'll worry he's losing too much!