Help!! Baby Boy Eats TOO Much!!

[jess_cecchini]

hello, any advise would be great...I have a beautiful baby boy at home who was born 8 pounds 7 oz. and LOVES to eat! he is always hungry! He is now almost three months and drinks 8oz every 4 hours, except at night because he sleeps all night. The ped. says he is being overfed, and that i should cut his milk down to 6 oz every 4 hours. i feel horrible, he cries and screams with hunger. he wont take a pacifier and didnt sleep well last night for the first time since coming home because his bottle was smaller...im sure he was hungry. I dont want him crying like that ever again and want him (and me) to be able to sleep through the night. what can i do? ped says water is out of the question? do i need a new ped. or just a new method?

[Angelsrose12]

My ped recommended no more than 32 oz formula at this age to my DD who was born at 8.1oz. My DD was also a big eater and wanted more than the average baby! She ate between 32 and 34 oz a day at about 3-4 mo. She was not sleeping through the night, however! How long is sleeping though the night for you? 6 hours? 8 hours? 12? It will make a difference in how much he is getting. If he is sleeping 8 hours then really he is only getting 32 oz which is on the higher end of how much they get, but not unreasonable! My ped said that instead of giving water, I could water down the formula. I wouldn't do it 2 oz worth, but watering it down just a little (1/2-1 oz) was oked by them. Also, would it be possible to give him a bigger feeding right before bed? One more thing, if you are feeding breastmilk, it is different. I know that my DD always wanted more breastmilk (when I was pumping) than formula. The ped said that they get more of a sense of fullness from the formula.

[jess_cecchini]

Thank you for your reply! : ) Hes sleeps from about 10:30 at night to about 6 am. and hes only formula fed now since im back to work. i like the water down option , my ped didnt say anything about it but it might work, at night before he sleeps he takes a full 8 oz. bottle.

[mommy42boys]

I do not believe that babies can be overfed. If he is hungry, he is hungry and he will eat until he is full. Babies do not gorge themselves the way that adults do. I could understand if he was older trying to cut down on how much he eats but the boy is only 3 months old! My son ate that way when he was a baby and is now a short and skinny three year old. He trimmed down when he started being more active and his appetite has decreased. My pedi never thought he was eating too much and he was in the 95th percentile for his weight. If you feel it is necessary, get a second opinion from another pedi. But above all else, listen to those mommy instincts, they don't kick in for nothing.

[Newmom!]

I would speak to another pediatrician. Unless your baby seriously jumped the growth curve in weight and height isn't keeping up I can't imagine that he is actually eating too much. As mommy42boys said, babies (and young children) can self regulate - with the rare exception. In addition to seeking a second opinion, I would personally keep feeding my baby what he wants, being diligent for signs of fullness so I don't accidentally make him overeat, and then see what weight and height do at the 6 month mark. Birth to 3 months is not really a good indicator. On growth charts, my baby was around the 50% at birth, but has stayed around the 90% since.

So, your baby is getting 5 bottles, 8 oz each? According to a chart my pediatrician gave to me, a 2-3 month old should have 4-7 bottles of 4-7oz each of formula. A 3-4 month old should have 4-6 bottles of 6-8oz each of formula. Sounds like your baby is right in the middle of this.

[Newmom!]

Another thought, make sure your baby has a pacifier. He may be wanting to suckle more, but not really need all the milk. Make sure he has several minutes with a pacifier prior to giving him the bottle, this will help to satiate his suckling needs - then if that was the reason, he shouldn't finish the bottle. If he still finishes the bottle, then maybe he is just that hungry.

[I Need A Time Out]

My oldest son was a voracious eater. He wasn't very big at birth, 7lbs, 3oz, but by the time he was 4 months old, he was 17lbs, 4oz. Even though most people say not to, we put cereal in his night bottle by 4 weeks, and he would still only sleep maybe three hours before he was up looking for more. It was always average for him to drink 8oz of formula at a time. He also was almost off the growth chart for height and weight. Now, at 5 years old, he is still at the top of the chart, but is skinny, skinny, skinny! If your baby is hungry, feed him! As we all know, if baby ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! It won't last forever!

[underink]

Get a new pediatrician. Babies are beings of necessity. Until they're cognitive enough to over-eat, they won't. If a baby is hungry, it's hungry, ESPECIALLY that young, and you shouldn't restrict it because a pediatrician tells you to. ALL BABIES ARE DIFFERENT! They're people, after all. My fiance can eat 8 twinkies a day and never gain a pound. Want to try and see me eat just one and not become a whale? We're different.

My daughter drinks probably around 5 eight ounce bottles a day. Yes, 5. Am I going to cut out a whole bottle because a doctor says so? No. If she's howling uncontrollably and it isn't a diaper, she isn't sick, she doesn't need a bath, she's gotten enough sleep, et cetera, et cetera. . . and the bottle is the only way to quell her anxiety. . . why wouldn't I give her a bottle? She eats 4 during the day, and an extra in the middle of the night, because I don't care what they told me to try (letting her cry it out and fall back asleep), she won't. She'll cry for an hour or more if I just let her cry in the middle of the night, or she'll be up permanently. If I give her her bottle, she goes back to sleep, and usually finishes the whole thing or half of it before she goes limp again and I take it away. She sleeps for 8-12 hours depending on how many naps during the day she gets. Last night it was 12 hours.

All in all, babies are hungry when they're hungry. If it feels -right- for you to feed them, FEED THEM. Unless they start gaining an uncontrollable amount of weight, there's NOTHING wrong with it! My daughter, eating that nearly-5 bottles a day (PLUS solid foods three times a day), only weighs 14.4 pounds and is 27 inches long at 7 months (was 8lbs 1.4oz at birth and 20 inches long). She's in the 20th percentile for her weight and 90th for her height, she certainly isn't fat. So I wouldn't listen to a pediatrician that told me to 'not feed her as much'. Why? Please.

Ugh.

[accent2010]

She just always wants to eat. Is there anything wrong with her？

[diaperdad]

If you are not feeding your child highly processed foods, foods with added sugar, or foods that are high in fat, then your child is probably not over eating. Verify that your child's height and weight are within the 'normal' range and inline with birth heights and weights.

My son was 10lbs and 22.5 inches long at birth. At 3 years old he now eats more than other kids (usually) and 2T shorts/pants are almost to big for him. BTW, my son is taller than many 4 year olds, even though he wears 2T pants his weight is within the 'normal' range.

Unless your child is overweight I wouldn't worry about it.