XP: Eating question... It's long, sorry.

michelleb729

DS will be 8 weeks on Wednesday.  At his 6 week appointment I told the pediatrician that he is a big eater and gets very hungry at the two hour mark.  He is EFF and takes 4 oz. in a normal feeding.  He has never gone three hours without food unless he is napping or sleeping at night.  He sleeps pretty great at night usually, he'll give us a 6-7 hour stretch, and then another 2-3, and then maybe another 1-2.  I told the pediatrician that I was concerned about over feeding him, and wondered how I would know if that was happening.  The pedi told me that he should not be eating more than 32 oz. of formula in a 24 hour period.  I tracked the amount he ate for the next couple of days, and he did not go over that amount 29 one day and 32 the next day).  

 However, for the past few days he has been eating a ton.  Today, for example, he is hungry after only an hour, not two.  When he does this, I try to offer a smaller amount, such as 2-3 oz. since he is eating more often.

My concern is, now that I have this 32 oz. number in my head from the pedi, I am worried about him getting more than that so often.  There is no way I can prolong the time between feeding because he will scream.  

Should I just trust that he knows when he is hungry and what amount he needs to be full?  Is it possible for them to overeat at this age?  Is there such a thing as emotional eating in infants?  It seems that sometimes when he is very tired he gives me hunger cues and almost won't stop eating until he is able to fall asleep.  That seems like a comfort thing to me, but maybe he really is that hungry? I just don't know what to do and whether this should even be something I should stress about or if I should just feed on demand, even if it is every hour! 

Lex703

He might just be going through a growth spurt. As far as over feeding goes I'd say look for the cues that he isn't hungry anymore. My LO is a big eater too and I usually burp him halfway through his bottle. He will take 3 or 4 ounces a feeding. When he has about 3 oz I take the bottle from him. If he puts up a fuss or moves his lips like he wants more, I give it back. But if he doesn't I burp him. Hope this helps!

Mrs.Castaldi

I feed on demand however often for however long LO wants, but we also EBF, I was going to ask the pedi a similar question at his 6 weeks cause he seems to just like having the breast in his face handy sometimes

lkm2006

I'm no doctor but I would feed him larger amounts. It sounds like he is never getting full, which would create the frequent snacking.

My 9 week old is eating 6 oz every 3 to 4 hours during the day. Usually only 30ish oz a day but my pedi told me as long as he's eating and not spitting up, I'm not over feeding him.

guilletskichuk

I would give your LO what they need. I was in a similar situation a few weeks ago. When LO was 3 weeks old, I was still getting my csection incision dressing changed at my local hospital every evening. One night, while I was gone to get my dressing changed, DH texted me to tell me that LO ended up eating a total of 6 oz. at one feeding. I was concerned that was going to be a regular thing since he was usually eating between 3 and 4 ounces each feeding. I was afraid that we would end up over feeding him.

My family physician just happened to be the doctor on call at the hospital that night so I asked her what we should do. She told us that LO should be eating around 24 to 32 ounces per day at that point and that LO was being greedy if he wanted more than that. She suggested that we use other methods to soothe him if he was wanting to eat more than that. I was thinking that would be impossible though because LO cries bloody murder when he's hungry if we haven't caught his hunger cues in time or if he's still hungry.

I decided to get a second opinion so I contacted our public health nurse about what to do. She guided us through our prenatal classes and had done at home visits to check on LO's progress for the first few weeks after he was born. That's what she does with every pregnant woman and newborn in town. She also has two kids of her own while my family physician is fairly young and has no children. The public health nurse told me to give my LO what he wants and to feed on demand no matter how much he wants. This is the same thing the nurses told me when they discharged us from the hospital.

So we have been following the advice of the public health nurse instead of my family physician. We figure the nurse has more total experience with babies and specializes in their care. I was worried that my LO was going to start eating 6 oz at every feeding and gain TOO much weight for his age and size but that totally didn't happen. He's had the occasional large feeding but for the most part he is eating between 2 to 4 ounces every 1.5 to 3 hours. He is definitely going through a growth spurt as he is eating much more frequently but the amount he is eating has not gone up that drastically.