Overfeeding baby?
Printed From: OHbaby!
Category: Have A Baby?
Forum Name: First baby? Second or more?
Forum Description: Want help? Need support? Want tips? Men and women share advice and tips in this supportive community
URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=37457
Printed Date: 16 May 2025 at 5:40pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Overfeeding baby?
Posted By: luckystar
Subject: Overfeeding baby?
Date Posted: 13 January 2011 at 9:06pm
|
Hi, I have a 6week old son who's been a dream from birth. Very content, just a little windy and spilly. Nothing unusual for a newborn. However as he's getting older and drinking more, his spilling just seems to be getting worse, to the point that I now wonder if he could just be overeating cos he likes sucking (I'm anti dummies though, so can't offer him that instead). It's the hardest thing with BFing, not knowing the volume your baby's actually drinking.
My plunket nurse said "you definitely cant overfeed a breastfed baby" which i have heard. But what actually IS the difference between breastfeeding and bottle-feeding in terms of the baby's ability to overfeed themselves??? I'm just starting to look for some ideas, as my son has projectile vomitted on me today, 3 times  Not good! ANy thoughts much appreciated.------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">   
|
Replies:
Posted By: Jaune
Date Posted: 13 January 2011 at 9:31pm
|
My son is coming up 15 weeks now and I asked my midwife and plunket exactly the same thing around the same time!
What I have noticed is that the spilling seems to come and go from week to week...some days are really bad, other days nothing. I was told that it was just to do with their immature stomach valves and not to worry about it if it's not bothering him. I have heard that boys are 'greedier' than girls, but also that they know what they need, they can't overeat and to just go with it... I just make sure I have bibs at the ready if it looks like a spilly day! I've also noticed that he seems worse the longer between feeds, ie: the emptier his stomach is, but not sure why that would be! ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
|
Posted By: kiwisj
Date Posted: 13 January 2011 at 9:47pm
|
I have also been given the advice that you can't overfeed a breastfed baby and that they will regulate their feeds themselves. I think that's good advice for the majority of babies.
However in my PERSONAL opinion, and for MY baby I have found that he DOES eat too much. Not all the time, not every feed but he did go through a phase when it was almost every feed but worse in the morning and before bed - mostly because I would just let him feed and feed and feed thinking he would stop when he was ready. The fact is, he's a sucky baby and he's a piglet. Plus I have a really fast letdown so he would just guzzle it all back and then puke everywhere and then gripe and moan and cry for an hour after a feed Against my lactation consultant's advice, I tried limiting the worst feeds to 10 minutes on each side. It helped immediately! He's still gaining weight at an amazing pace and thriving so that approach has worked for us.
That's just what happened here and what worked for us. I still feed D when he's hungry I just don't let him suck for comfort because the milk keeps coming and FAST so it upsets his tummy. If I know he's full I take him off the boob and if it's bedtime I will let him have a dummy and a cuddle. Just out of interest, how come you're against using a dummy? ------------- SJ Callum - Dec 2008 Daniel - Oct 2010 |
Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 13 January 2011 at 9:52pm
|
DD would feed 2 hourly day and night, but would feed for aaaagggeeess over night never as quick as during the day and she piled on the weight! Anyway I don't think they can over eat because as long as they are sucking they are getting something and it depends on if they are efficient suckers or not iygwim but DD was exactly the same and so long as they aren't in pain I believe it's ok? The doctors or mws or Plunket never seemed worried by it and like above poster, Lily's spilling came and went from week to week. Some days she'd do nothing and others she'd do a lil spill and once she did a huge projectile vomit over everything! ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
|
Posted By: busymum
Date Posted: 13 January 2011 at 10:40pm
|
You can definitely overfeed a baby. My DD2 was a reluxy baby, quite power-chucky and unsettled a lot of the time. Of course, being a young mum and wanting to help soothe the baby, I offered more and more feed and she just got worse. What I learned was:
- The first part of milk is watery and more likely to make them spilly than the hind milk. If they don't finish feeding on one side, offer that side first next time to help them get good feed and not just foremilk all the time. - Lying on a 30 degree angle helps them a lot. Tilt the cot mattress by putting a rolled up towel under the head end of the mattress. Spilly/unsettled babies seem to enjoy sleeping in carseats, bassinettes and strollers better than flat. This is because there is less stress on the esophagus when it is not pulled straight. An older baby with unsettled tummy often will roll over and happily sleep on his tummy for the same reason - less stress on the esophagus. - I didn't really like the idea of dummies either but some babies seem to find their thumb/fingers and others don't. It's not bad for their teeth and can help a particularly suckly baby settle. - If baby seems to be wanting a feed, put your finger/knuckle in their mouth for a bit and you'll be able to tell if they just want something to suckle on or if they're hungry. If they're hungry, they'll try it for a bit and then cry loudly! -------------  |
Posted By: 1st_Time_Preggies
Date Posted: 14 January 2011 at 7:26am
I agree with the above posts. I think you CAN overfeed a baby. They like to suckle on the boob but the milk they get can cause wind and spills. When my DS was young (he is now 11 months), I self diagnosed him with silent reflux because he would cry, arch his back etc and would NOT sleep during the day. Looking back I think that was actually because he had BAD wind and part of the reason for that was because every time he cried, I fed him! 
|
Posted By: Raspberryjam
Date Posted: 14 January 2011 at 8:43am
|
I had the same worry with my wee fattie, who was 4.05kg at birth. She is now a little lighter than most of her buddies, so their weight does even out
What I found was, three hourly feeding is better for them for a few reasons. It stopped her from over feeding. Babies who drink more often are more likely to have issues with wind and spilling - stretching her out fixed this - she was on losec til I did this It gives a better routine to build sleep times around. My girl is still very sucky - now 6 months and would love to feed to sleep but this stops her from falling to sleep by herself as she thinks she needs me to sleep - so it helps form better habits too I think its hard to figure out what your baby needs and the first thought, especially with booby babies, is feed her. Three hourly takes out the guess work. I found if my baby was tired she would want to feed , as this was her sleep association. Its hard when your a first time Mum, but as this is my second I found it hard to not think I well this is what worked for Milla, definately dosent always work for Portia, they are just so different. I do on occasions use a dummy, if she is very tired and wont settle , and that sucking action ususally drops her off to sleep. We dont use the dummy any other time, and it stays in her room Dummys are great (IMO) as babies have the urge to suck most of the time, Id rather not be a human pacifier, it is also said to lessen the risks of SIDS. I didnt want one with my big girl either, but the nurses at the hospital gave it her when I wasnt around and it helped her develop a good sucking action, when she couldnt feed due to surgery etc. Obviuosly I am generalising. But maybe this helps some of you Congrats on your little guy Luckystar - love the name Henry! I guess its harder when they are little as you have to consider growth spurts and increasing your supply etc, but somehow also stop snacking , Maybe you could try a bit of infacol before a feed to make sure he has no wind and its not little pockets of air causing him to throw up. ------------- http://lilypie.com] 
http://lilypie.com] 
http://lilypie.com] 
|
Posted By: mumtooboys
Date Posted: 14 January 2011 at 1:33pm
Comfort sucking at the breast is done differently to them sucking to get milk out so if they are ONLY comforting sucking they aren't actually getting any milk. I suspect that is where that comes from. Is he just projectile vomiting or does there seem to be pain associated with it? DS1 had a heap of tests done as a baby because they suspected he had something called pyloric stenosis...turns out he didn't but he was a HUGE spiller and he had horrible reflux so they wanted to rule it out. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
|
luckystar wrote:Posted By: snugglebug
Date Posted: 14 January 2011 at 2:49pm
|
Not much help but they can have reflux where they just spill a lot and it doesn't bother them? Could be something like that rather than overfeeding ------------- Me 28, DH 29 DS born 20 Nov 2010 (4 years old) #2 due October 7 http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow"> 
|
Posted By: Kalimirella
Date Posted: 14 January 2011 at 7:37pm
|
Ha, I also had a spilly baby, and like you I suspect that she always drank more than her tummy could hold. However we just coped using flat cloth nappies as spill cloths, and as "pillowcases".
It settled down by about 4-5 mths, and now at 9 mths is pretty much totally gone. She was never unhappy, so I never thought of it as reflux, but maybe she just had high pain tolerance, who knows... The main reason(s) bottle fed babies can overfeed, is a) the teat lets the milk come out "too fast" and they just keep swallowing because its suck swallow suck swallow etc. Btw this can happen for BF babies too, at least IMO it can if you have fast let down BUT BF babies have to work harder for it. b) the parents don't like leftovers and convince the baby they "have" to have the whole bottle. Sorry if that makes no sense, I'm sooo tired atm. ------------- Kiara is 3 and Teagan is 2, now we're expecting our long awaited 3rd! http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow"> 
|
Posted By: peachy
Date Posted: 14 January 2011 at 7:48pm
|
My DD was exactly the same and she was exclusively b/f. She was an extremely spilly baby but a perfectly content happy baby with it. I would have to change both her clothes and mine atleast 3 to 4 times per day because of power chucking. She eventually grew out of it, so I just went with the flow as it wasn't bothering her at all.
I figured if she was still gaining weight she was keeping enough milk down! ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
|
Posted By: caliandjack
Date Posted: 14 January 2011 at 9:20pm
|
This was one of the reasons I introduced a dummie as DD was using me for comfort and getting more milk than she needed and would spilling/vomitting cause she was over full which would then wake her up and undo my efforts to get her to sleep. ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">   [/url] Angel June 2012 |
Posted By: luckystar
Date Posted: 14 January 2011 at 9:32pm
|
Thanks everyone for all the replies! Great to hear that so many other people have had my very same question.
Kalimirella - I like your explanation about the boob vs bottle thing. It makes total sense that a baby could wolf down too much formula quickly, before realising they are full. kiwisj - I'm personally anti dummies because i have a dentist and an oral surgeon in the family, who are both very adamant that dummies do affect the development within the mouth. So even tough some people dispute that theory, I'm not willing to risk it. Also, I've watched supernanny and seen one too many bratty toddlers with dummy adictions. Guess I also just don't like the idea of them really. For me, I would prefer my babies learn to find peace and contentment in themselves at an early age. Obviously sucking is VERY comforting for them, but i would rather meet that need by BFing or using my pinky finger atm. But this is just me 
mummytooboys - Henry didnt seem to be in pain at all. Just sat there looking a bit put out by the experience. I was worried about him having a pyloric stenosis, so talked about that with the doctor today at the 6wk check. She reckons he's not projectile vomiting enough to indicate that (yet), but to keep an eye on how things develop from here. He has been putting on weight over the last week still, so thats also reassuring that we're not dealing with a pyloric stenosis. SO I think we're ok for now, and will just keep on doing what we're doing, as his vomits have stopped again today. So perhaps it was just a tummy bug or an especially greedy day yesterday! Would make sense if he was having a growth spurt i guess. Cheers all! ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">
|