Infants Forum - Is My Son Eating Too Much?

mtwwade wrote:

I read that a 2 month old should have about 4 ounces every 4 hours. My son never goes 4 hours. He has a 4 ounces bottle about every 2-2 1/2 hours. Sometimes he could eat it before 2 hours. I do my best to make him wait. Although sometimes at night he will go up to 3 hours until he wakes up to eat. He weighed 7 lbs. 3 ozs. at birth. At 3 weeks old he weight 9 lbs. 5 ozs. I couldn't believe it. I don't want to overfeed or make him have weight problems in the future. I have considered giving him baby food, but not sure that he's old enough. Also some days he will sleep alot and some days he won't hardly sleep at all. He will doze off and wake up doze off and wake up. Late in the afternoon he will go 5 and 6 hours without sleeping. When bedtime does come he dosen't want to go to sleep. When he finally goes to sleep and we lay him down he usually wakes up, we have to do this several times before he will stay asleep. He is very fussy in the evenings, we thought it might be the colic, but he doesn't seem to be in pain. I am very concerned about this. I don't know what is wrong with him. Please help!

Babies will eat every 2-4 hours. Don't feed him more often than that unless he's spat up almost everything and seems hungry a little earlier than usual. If he is crying and fussy before 2 hours are up, it's probably not hunger. He may just need some attention: a clean diaper, a back rub, a gas bubble out.....or he may just need some sleep.

Don't give your baby baby food until after 4 months. He won't be able to swallow it very easily and whatever he is getting in the formula is enough right now. Don't worry about weight problems. This happens from a bad lifestyle and poor food choices, and you can't do that with formula (and when he gets older...baby veggies and fruit.) Babies are not like adults in that they will eat when they are hungry and won't when they are full.

If you make a chart of his habits, you will see that his eating schedule as well as his sleep habits will have a pattern, just not one that you would be able to see on a daily basis. But writing it down for a week and comparing it with the next week will show you that the sleep his is getting is very much like the first week. Babies have their own schedules and they don't have concept of time...forget about the schedule and let yours become his own. You will do much better that way. When he is older and adjusts more to what you are doing, you can start to incorporate a little more of your old life into his.