Is my 2 month old eating too much?

Question

My son eats every 2 to 3 hours and has 6 ounces at a time. His doctor said that he is obese. He weighs 16.3 pounds and is 24 inches long. Any input would be helpful. The doctor suggested diluting his bottles, but I tried that and it just made him hungrier. The nurse said that he needs to be eating every 4 hours at the earliest.

ive tried the pacifier. he adamantly refuses it most of the time. once in a while i can get him to take it. he is formula fed. i would like to state that giving him a bottle is the last of my options that i try when he cries. i try everything else first. sometimes he doesnt finish the whole bottle. sometimes he leaves an ounce or two behind. he does spit the bottle out when hes had enough.

i was a big baby growing up, and am still a big woman. im 5'8" and 210 lbs. bear in mind i had a baby two months ago. before i got pregnant i was at about 185, so im not fat or anything. i come from a long line of big people. were german. im thinking maybe he is taking after my side of the family. our other son is thin like his father, but not too thin. hes just about perfect.

he does sleep pretty well. not quite all night, but close. last night for example, he went to bed around 8pm. he didnt get up until 5am. i figure that he will eventually even out weight wise. we are a fairly active family, and we spend alot of time outside. he has been spending small stretches of time outside already. when he is old enough to walk and the run, he will be outside even more.

i tried to dilute his formula. giving him 2 scoops of formula in a 6 ounce bottle. that just made him hungrier. the doctors never said anything about my older son eating a 6 ounce bottle every three hours, but i guess he fit the "average". he is now 2 1/2 and very active. hes not chubby at all. jackson, the baby in question here, is a chubby baby, but not what i would call huge. if you would like to see pictures of my boys, go to www.therodgersgang.zoomshare.com

Answer 1

When my son was about that age till 2 yrs, he was also very overweight...yes, the doctor said so.... he was 22kg when he's ard 18 mths....!!! He was a big eater and loves his milk and don't like pacifier either.

Please do not dilute your child milk..bear in mind that his only sorce of food is milk at this age...A lot of ppls might not agree to what I am about to say..but heck... My advice, let him eat or drink whatever he wants (not sweets, chocolate,titbits or sweet drinks)...when his full, he wont ask... Eventually, when he's at the toddlers stage, he will slim down automatically. My son is 3 yrs now, attending preschool and he slims down a lot.....
Every time, u go for his check up, ask the gyne to check his health.... just to ensure that he's healthy.

Answer 2

How is he sleeping? The reason I ask is that the whole 4 hour thing assumes that you're still feeding a couple of times at night, and he's only sleeping maybe 5 hours at a time. But your son, being bigger, probably has a bigger capacity tummy that allows him to eat enough to get him longer stretches of sleep. If you are getting two or more 5 hour stretches of sleep at this age, then the 2-3 hour eating during the day is perfect.

My son slept through the night at 12-13 weeks, but he stayed on a 3, maybe 3.5 hour eating schedule until we started him on solids at 6 months. Like yours, he's just a big baby that liked to eat. As long as he's tall as well as heavy, then you are doing fine. Don't worry, things balance out.

If he's not spitting his food up, then he's not over-eating. But he might be grazing, as another poster said. But I would suggest that grazing usually occurs at the 1-2 hour mark, so if you consistently make it to 3, I think you're doing okay.

Remember that people are giving you averages. Although average babies eat every four hours, that means there are some who eat more and some who eat less frequently. If they tell you 2-3 ounces per pound of body weight, that means some eat 1.5 ounces, some eat 4.

Anyhow, let me know about the sleep thing. I had a big baby, who was a big eater, too, so I might have other suggestions if the sleep doesn't answer it.

Answer 3

I think it would be a good idea if you take your son to see another doctor. A second opinion certainly won't hurt. If your baby is truly hungry and eating that much, it may be that there's something else going on. My son has had a few doctors who really let us down with the wrong diagnosis (in fact, he almost died when he was two months old because a doctor brushed something off as a "virus" when it absolutely wasn't) I am a big believer in second and third ...and even fourth opinions if the problem isn't being tackled properly. Your doctor gave you a really simple solution to dilute your baby's bottles, but he/she didn't look further into the problem to see why your little guy's so hungry. Did he do any blood work? Did he order an abdominal CT scan? Anything? There's a reason why he's so hungry and you need to find out why in order to treat him appropriately. Please take me seriously. As I sit here typing this out to you, I'm looking also at my son, who is hooked up to an IV because he can't absorb any food now. If my son had been treated properly, he wouldn't be dragging a pump and big IV bag around behind him. I realize this isn't about me and my son's problems, but I think others could benefit from our misfortune. This might be one of those cases. Don't let one doctor just dismiss your problem - go see another doctor and get to the bottom of this. He may need to see an endocrinologist....

Answer 4

Quite frankly, its very hard to believe a 2 month old could be obese. At that age, wow. Ok, I agree with the person about trying a pacifier. He could be wanting to suck more than eat. Have you tried to stretch him out some, to 3-4 hours instead of 2? Every 2 hours makes me think he is grazing instead of eating. How big was he when he was born? Were there other larger babies in your family? My 9. 5 1/2 at birth son was a big baby and outgrew it around the age of 2-3. He's now average in weight and height. He also liked to eat every 2-3 hours, but I slowly managed to push it back to 3-4. Have you tried getting a second opinion?

Answer 5

The doctor told you the baby is obese. That means you need to cut back on the meals, or other calorie adding foods or drinks. Cut out the sweet snack except for one per day. Do not give the sweet snack within two hours of bedtime. The best time for snacks is just before playtime. Water bottles, with filtered water, are fine for between meal snacks. Read the ingredients on the baby food to make sure that sugar is not high on the list. Get this overeating controlled now so that your baby avoids the mental health problems from teasers and the physical ailments from being obese.

Good luck!

Will D
Enterprise AL
http://www.notagz.com

Answer 6

Babys this young cannot overeat. They dont know how. When they are full they stop eating, they have no taste preferance at the moment. If you are breastfeeding then the weight for your baby is not horrible, although it is above average,around the 20percent tile.

The only thing that might help is to cut down on what YOUR eating...as far as sweets and fattining foods, as some of this is passed on to baby, but i wouldnt worry TOO much about it...make sure doctor does a COMPLETE physical exam tho, to make sure there are no hidden problems.

Answer 7

Definitely get a second opinion..my sons doctor said even though he eats a lot (6oz) every 2 to 3 hrs...that he is not overweight because of the simple fact that he is growing proportionate to his weigh, so as long as he stretches out and his weight is within the limits eating his 6 oz is fine, but he did suggest to try feeding him just 5 oz and to try to push it to at least every 3 hours..but more for precautions...just in case

Answer 8

he isn't hungry he just likes to suck...if you keep feeding him on his stomach will expand and he will just eat more and keep gaining weight...i can't believe a doctor ave you this advice...diluting his bottles just makes him digest it faster and he will just end up feeding more....with doctors giving advice like that no wonder so many children are over weight...however the nurse is right at this age 4 hrs or more is good

i don't like pacifiers but in your case it is needed to prevent more serious issues like heart problems later on....if he doesn't like the pacifier use your finger...wash your hand first but i'm sure you new that....he has a good weight so he will be ok.....i don't reccomend you making him loose weight just not gaining too much so eventually he weight will even out...genetically he might still be on the big side but their is a difference between big and obease

if you don't like what your doctor says just get an other doctor opinion

Answer 9

Don't worry. I have a BIG baby too. One thing you must always remember if a baby sucks his/her fists or dummy veraciously, it doesn't mean that he/she is hungry. Sucking is a normal thing for a baby. Try to feed your baby every 4 hours and let him suck is fists or what ever. If that doesn't work try giving him cooled down boiled water two hours after feeding. Only give 1 ounce. This should give him the same "full" feeling that the milk does.

Good luck

Answer 10

do you know it's 6oz b/c he's formula fed?? the books i have been reading say that formula fed babies do only need to eat every 4 hours whereas breastfed babies eat slightly more often at 2.5-3 hours. definitely try something like the pacifier. i don't know that you should need to give him water but if the doctor said it's okay, then try it. i saw a study that said that 10% of babies are overweight. scarey stuff. good luck!