Bottle feeding and 'excess' weight gain info request

[Countrygirl13]

Hiya,
I'm hoping to be pointed in the direction of information on the risks of bottle feeding- specifically overfeeding and possible links to obesity. Sounds cheerful!?! Sorry!

Basically, due to a tie, our little one couldn't breastfeed. I also struggled to express more than 5ml across three days in hospital with midwives squeezing and prodding around every few hours.
We started with cup feeding within a few hours of birth and hit bottles by day 2.
As pretty much every new mum ever, I was exhausted, overwhelmed and totally unsure what to do and how to cope with our new reality. Our midwives and health visitors were very supportive but did keep bringing up the point that we shouldn't overfeed our little one formula. That the risk of obesity was high apparently.
We fed every four hours based on an amount of formula calculated using some chart the midwife produced one day. Our little one was on the 75th centile at birth and went to the 97th after the tongue tie was eventually cut at 8 weeks.
She was starving, sucking bottles dry and crying for more. She would sob for an hour before our four hourly feeding slot came round. We weighed her repeatedly and celebrated every time she gained weight so the chart said we could give her another ounce.

We are TTCing again now and I am determined to NOT go through that again. Apart from the bottle feeding vs breastfeeding guilt we loaded ourselves up with, my OH and I really want to know the 'facts' this time so we can better meet the needs of our future baby. i.e. can we feed them when they are hungry or is overfeeding really a thing? Seriously? I am hoping that I won't be given the same government line about 'recommending breastfeeding to pregnant women' as I am not pregnant.

I wish you all the best with your little ones and hope that someone out there may recognise the message we were given and be able to point me in the direction of people who have told them this so I can find out more.

Thanks in advance!

 

[ClairAye]

Just my experience, I bottle fed my first from birth, he never followed the guide on the tubs and by 3 months old was on 9oz bottles every 3 hours and sometimes had 1oz-2oz extra. I fed him on demand just like I did my breastfed baby. He always weighed heavy but didn't look it. Well now he is 5.5 and so freaking skinny! Definitely not overweight or even close to it.

 

[blake12336]

My little boy weighed 10lb born, he's fed 4oz every 2 hours or So, but I feed him on demand and the midwife advised me to do this. At r weeks he weighs 12lb 1 and is on the 91st percentile. But they've said to continue doing what I'm doing

 

[Witchrose]

Hi. We formula fed from the start. The general rule of thumb is about 2.5 ounces of formula per pound of body weight within 24 hours. Of course, there may be days where a baby is more, or less hungry. It's just a guideline to follow within reason.

I think they worry about overfeeding because since it's relatively easy to give a baby a bottle, they worry that a parent will give one whenever a baby cries (even if they're not really hungry) just to hush them up. But formula, itself, isn't the problem, and you're not going to make your baby overweight by feeding them as they need it.

For what it's worth, my son is almost three now, and is a total string bean!

 

[MindUtopia]

Ditch the chart. You really can't overfeed a baby unless you're force feeding them. If they genuinely are hungry, feed them. The weight will even out eventually, except in a few very rare cases of particular medical complications. We did bf for the first few weeks, but when we switched to bottle feeding, we fed as often and as much as she wanted. I wouldn't stress about a schedule or amounts. The early days are hard enough.

 

[JessyG]

I always worried we overfed my DD. She seemed constantly hungry after the first few weeks and it was one of the only ways we could get her to sleep so had to time feeds with nap time. She was a chunky monkey her first year. The weight just dropped off her when she started being mobile around 12/13 months. She is 4.5 now quite tall and slim. My son is only 2.5 weels but eats more than my DD did but seems to have spread out his feeds to more or less every 3/4 hours but i generally just feed him when he seems hungry and am not worrying about his weight at all.

 

[Countrygirl13]

Thank you ever so much for your helpful and understanding replies.This has been playing on my mind so much! I am looking forward to being much more confident with bottle feeding if/when we do it again in the future.
Thank you!

 

[noon_child]

Responsive feeding is the key - four hourly feeding schedules aren't necessary unless that's what your baby wants. Little and often often suits babies better (especially in those early weeks). No-one is sure where the obesity link comes from but there are a few possibilities
1) babies feel full when a hormone called CSK is in their system at high levels. This hormone is produced by two things - in response to fat in the stomach and in response to sucking. If bottles are too easy to suck from, more food is ingested for fewer sucks leading to more food going in before the CSK reaches high levels.
2) four hourly schedules mean bigger feeds when they do happen which may stretch the stomach and make the brain learn to ignore the "I'm full" sensation and instead believe that an "overfull" feeling is normal
3) Bottle teats 'drip' milk in a way boobs don't so extra food is ingested while not actively sucking. It is also harder for a small baby to stop drinking from a dripping teat as they must swallow to avoid choking.

If you use paced feeding methods and respond to you baby's cues about when they are hungry and when they are finished, then overfeeding should not be an issue.

 

[Perplexed]

I highly doubt that childhood obesity is caused by "overfeeding formula". I hear so often that "formula fed babies are overweight" or whatever but lots of things go into what a child weighs, including genetics, build and diet at childhood years. I tended to go with my babies wanted with feeding in the early days. There was no reason to establish a feeding routine as every baby is different.

 

[Brightxeyes]

Wow, I never had anyone say that over feeding formula would make them obese!

I remember my son had bottles every 2-3 hours, I'm pretty sure the first few weeks he wouldn't go any longer than 3 hours without screaming the place down, so I probably wouldn't stretch it to 4 if they're crying for it! You'd probably be better feeding every 3 hours, and having an extra feed, but smaller feeds at a time? Like someone else said, don't let them be over full, just satisfied full.

My son would struggle with the newborn teats and vari flow worked great for him, if he wanted more, more would come, if he was being a little lazy and sucking lightly, less would come.
The newborn first flow teat was too slow and was winding him up even more, he'd fall asleep half way through exhausted so then he'd be wanting a bottle even sooner for his next one as he didn't finish the previous one.

 

[sherwood]

I definitely felt like the “formula will lead to overfeeding and obesity” message was rammed down my throat when I had to switch to formula at 8 weeks due to low supply.

My daughter has always made it very clear when she’s full and refuses to drink any more. There have been times where she’s had a growth spurt and drank more than the guideline on the tin for a few days, and she went to 7oz bottles at 4 months ... but she’s still pretty much on that now at 7 months. She’s grown on her curve at the 40th percentile for months now.

I must admit there’s a part of me that wonders if the risk is overinflated as part of the promotion of breastfeeding...

 

[bdb84]

Every baby is so different. I formula fed my first and he was a great eater but he WAS overweight as a baby. He was 30+lbs on his first birthday But he's a tall, thin 12 year old now without an extra inch of fat to grab on his lean frame. I remember he would have 8oz every 3-4 hours, but he STTN from the get go, so all of his formula intake came within a 12-14 hour window.

I nursed my second exclusively, but combo-fed my third. I kept her on newborn flow nipples for several months, though, because I didn't want her to begin to prefer bottles due to the ease in which the milk flowed out. Her intake was always much different than her older brother's. I don't think she ever took more than 5oz in a sitting and she, too, would go 3 hours between feeds. FWIW- we nursed in the mornings and early afternoons and used formula in late afternoons up until bedtime. She was a much smaller baby, but still had rolls for days.

 

[noon_child]

I forgot to mention in my previous post that one of the most recent ideas around the obesity link is around gut bacteria. The greater the number of different gut bacteria you have in your gut, the less likely you are to be obese (even if you eat the same amount of fat at someone else) due to how that bacteria process and interact with your food. Breastfeeding gives you immediately a high number of different and perfectly designed gut bacteria and the food to keep that bacteria thriving. This good start will go some way towards protecting against future poor diet (although its obviously not the only factor). Formula on the other hand can strip bacteria from the gut and doesn't have the same microbes or food for those microbes as breastmilk.

I think there are many factors that come together for obesity though, breastfeeding is just one part of it. the midwives in the OPs post seem a bit out of date, as leaving a baby screaming in order not to overfeed it is definitely not recommended practice now - responsive feeding is - and I'm not sure formula has ever been considered "very high risk" for obesity, just one of the risks.