we dont seem to hav a HV to ask... can you feed a baby too much?

[michelle89]

hey mumsnet

i have a 23week old ds, hes always been a very attention seeking baby, wanting your attention every minute of the day, if he doesnt get it he shrieks and screams until you give him attention.

our health visitor hasnt been to see us since our midwife signed us off, i only saw the HV when she did the intro. i dont think its my place to chase her down, they have a duty of care, we dont exactly need a HV.

anyway as our ds is always crying, we do not no when hes hungry, this has always been a challenge as midwife and people say feed on demand, my mum said when ever he cries give him a bottle, well in that case he'd have a bottle 24/7 lol!

we are weaning our son as he didnt sleep for long at night, when we first gave him food he slept for 8hours straight, now its gone back to 6hours.. im guessing hes more hungry.. hes on 3 meals a day and 3 milks a day, his feed times are

when he wakes up: milk
10am: food
2pm: milk
5pm food
9pm food
12am milk

when hes having food he has cow and gate 125g food. he usually has half a pot of food and half a pot of pudding at a time. hes been on hungry baby milk since about a month old..

iv started to give him baby rice with his milk (using a spoon and bowl not actually in his milk) and a full bottle of milk when its his milk times, is this feeding him too much? hes taking it so im guessing hes hungry?

Is there not a drop in baby clinic you could go to and ask? No HV ever came to see me unless I asked to see her.

HVs are an accessible service so you access them as you need them, they won't visit you at home necessarily unless you have a need for them. They should have given you details of their clinics which are usually drop in clinics that you can attend for weighing, advice etc.

As for feeding don't assume that because he's crying he's hungry. He could be thirsty, hot, cold, bored, tired, uncomfortable, wet, dirty, in pain, or simply just communicating with you! Babies are complicated little things

I'm no expert but I wonder if you have too long gaps between feeds? 4 hours seems a long time to wait for such a young baby. When I started weaning properly my DD went back to wanting food or milk every couple of hours for a while until we got naturally into a more normal routine. But they are all different!

he doesnt seem to be having many milk feeds for a baby who is less then 6 months old. At that age ds had just started weaning and still had 5 milk feeds alongside any solids he had. I gave solids in between milk so he didnt drop his milk intake too quickly. A typical day from 6 months was this:

7am - milk
8am - breakfast
11am - milk
12pm - lunch
2.30/3pm - milk
5pm - dinner
7.15pm - milk
in the night till 8 months - milk

I would personally offer more milk feeds during the day as milk is still more important than soilds at this stage. I dont think you are overfeeding, I think he needs feeding more often.