Eating too much?

[pegpie]

Hi!

My DS is 9 weeks old but was a preemie so he is 3.5 weeks developmentally. Since we brought him home from the hospital he's been a big eater and he is now almost 11 lbs. Right now he takes a little over 4 oz. per feeding and we are feeding him about 8-9 times a day. From the FAQs it seemed like he should be feeding only about 7-8 times a day if he's taking 4 oz. at a time. When I look at the sample EASYs, it seems like most babies are getting fed 7 times a day.

Is he eating too much? He has never not finished a bottle. Sometimes he'll slow down a bit but will start up again after burping.

[Lolly]

Is he keeping the milk down? Could he be catching up as it were from an early start? What size bottles are you offering him now? What is your EASY like? Can you post it in terms of

E - times and amounts
A - how long
S - when and for how long?

Sorry for all the questions!

Laura

[pegpie]

He's keeping the milk down, has some spit up but that has decreased even in the past couple of weeks. He also eats really fast even with the slowest flow nipples we found, usually finished by 15 minutes unless we stretch it out to 20 minutes purposefully. If he finishes a bottle really fast, he will still act hungry and be very grouchy. We've been giving him about 120-125 ml per feeding.

This is what it looked like yesterday, and he happened to have a bad night's sleep. I rounded the times a little.

E:800
A:820
S:900 (2 hrs)

E:1100
A:1120
S:1230 (1.5 hrs)

E:200
A:230
S:300 (1.5 hrs)

E:430
A:500
S:505 (very sleepy, he couldn't stay awake, 1.5 hrs)

E:630 (cluster feed)
A:700
S:730 (1 hr)

E: 830 (cluster feed, stayed mostly asleep)

E: 1030 (DF)

E: 300 AM

E: 545 AM

Thanks for your help!

[Lolly]

If he is drinking all of his bottle I would up the amount in the bottle. UK advice is to increase the bottles by 1oz (30ml) when they are draining them so they can finish because they are full rather than because the bottle is empty. He is doing well though, he is going 3 hours between some feeds and seems to be napping well and giving you a stretch of sleep at night.

I think you are probably better sticking to the slower teat for now as you don't want him drinking too fast! I would be guided by him though, if he is draining those bottles increase them a bit and see what happens. Are you burping him mid feed? I assume you are but if not that would slow him down a bit too. Really if he is keeping feeds down don't worry - babies are generally good at self regulating and you should find that as he starts to take bigger feeds he won't need the clusters.

Laura