It is common knowledge that to have a healthy baby, both breastfed babies and bottle-fed babies need to get proper nutrition and have enough to eat.
What many parents don’t consider, however, is how small the stomach of a newborn baby is and just how easy it can be to overfeed a baby.
In this article, we’ll discuss how too much milk can affect a baby, whether your baby drinks breast milk or formula.
Your baby’s milk intake level is vital in maintaining a healthy baby.
Although most parents worry that their little ones aren’t getting enough milk, you can just as easily overdo it when bottle feeding or nursing.
Can you overfeed a newborn?
Whether your baby eats breast milk or joins bottle-fed babies in the feeding method, your little one can be overfed.
Many parents assume that only fat babies are overfed, but that’s a myth.
Babies of all shapes and sizes can be overfed, leading to health problems, fussiness, and an upset stomach.
Due to your baby’s sucking reflex, it’s easy to overfeed it.
You offer more milk because your baby responds to the nipple with that active sucking reflex that makes you think your baby’s hunger is still active. However, that’s not always the case.
How does overfeeding a baby occur?
Some assume that overfeeding your baby only occurs when you give them too much at once, resulting in a tight stomach, crying, and, eventually, your baby spitting up.
While this is one way to overfeed your baby, it’s not the only way.
Forcing a baby to consume more milk before they are ready to eat can result in an overfed baby. You can offer the recommended amount of breast milk or formula, but doing so too often can also result in an overfed baby.
So if your baby cries, even after you have fed them a lot or have fed them often, don’t assume that they don’t like the formula, are just tired or are still hungry.
The issue may be that you are overfeeding the baby.
What age is most at risk of being overfed?
It is strongly recommended that parents offer breast milk, formula, or a combination of the two, for the entirety of their child’s infancy.
The technical age of infancy is a child aged 0, or newborn, to twelve months.
Overfeeding a baby is most common in babies aged newborn to three months of age.
This is for a few different reasons.
If you have a newborn or young infant and think that perhaps you are offering too much bottle feeding or bottles that are too large, consider the following factors and see if you have fallen victim to the tendency to overfeed a baby in this age bracket.
1. Parents worry about weight gain
Overfeeding a baby is easy when many parents focus on gaining weight in the first few months of the baby’s life. This is especially true of babies born a little early or with low birth weight.
It’s perfectly normal for parents to worry about healthy growth in their little ones. Sometimes, with the best of intentions, parents worry so much about the growth and weight of their baby that they almost force-feed their little ones, which can result in overfed babies.
2. No set feeding patterns
Most babies who are very young don’t have set feeding habits or patterns yet.
They fall asleep when tired, cry when they feel like it, and eat when hungry. How much milk you should be giving can be hard to pinpoint because there seems to be very little rhyme or reason for when or why your newborn does what it does.
So when your baby starts to fuss, you offer the bottle because you just assume. And that can lead to a parent overfeeding the baby.
This can be incredibly confusing to parents if the baby is breastfeeding and starts to cluster feed when they hit a growth spurt.
3. Trouble understanding hunger cues
This ties into not understanding patterns of eating in newborns and small infants.
Baby’s cues for hunger can be difficult to interpret. This, in turn, can lead parents to assume that the baby is hungry, even if that’s not the case.
For example, if your baby turns towards your chest when you cradle them, it can be easy to assume that they want to eat.
In reality, they may be turning their head to listen to your heartbeat for comfort or simply because you spoke, and they are turning toward the most familiar voice they know.
4. Size of baby’s stomach
New parents and even veteran parents can be confused about how much milk a baby’s stomach can hold comfortably. We tend to think in adult terms because it’s what we know.
The following are ideas and comparisons based on the age of small babies to give you an idea of how tiny their little tummies are.
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One Day Old
On the first day of life, a newborn’s stomach is the size of a cherry. It won’t hold much, and if you give more food than their stomach can handle, it can further complicate a baby’s ability to self-regulate their hunger and cues.
A newborn who is overfed from birth may have a limited ability to know when they are actually full or what fullness cues mean.
One Week Old
At the age of one week, your baby’s stomach has grown quite a bit, but it’s still quite small. At this point, it’s the size of a small apricot.
Getting enough nutrients shouldn’t be difficult, but keeping a formula-fed or breastfed baby from being overfed is a common issue.
One Month Old
At one month of age, an infant has a stomach that is the size of a small egg. Self-regulating may be near impossible if you overfeed a baby, and you may notice that your child tends to produce gas that can appear painful at times.
Overfed baby symptoms
Feeding a baby the correct amount can be difficult, especially for first-time parents.
If you’re unsure whether you are overfeeding your baby, the following signs may help you determine if you need to put less effort into weight gain and avoid overfeeding.
1. Longer pauses between sucking
The sucking reflex is vital in small babies, but if you notice that your little one is taking breaks while feeding or tends to stop sucking at points during feeding, this is most likely one of the fullness cues they give you.
Fullness cues indicate that your child has had enough to eat.
2. Pulling away from the breast or bottle
If, during feeding, your infant stops sucking and pulls away from the bottle or the breast; they may be trying to let you know they are full.
This is one of the telltale signs of overfeeding that can be an easier one to spot.
3. Other signs of overfeeding a baby
A baby will usually suck at a nipple, a bottle, or a breast, whether hungry or not. Overfeeding is easy to do, so the following are signs to look for if you think you may be overfeeding:
- Crying and fussiness
- Lots of gas and large burps
- Spitting up in large amounts or frequently, often while food is undigested
- Sleep disturbances, such as waking suddenly
- Stomach pain, such as cramping or constipation, or runny diarrhea
How much-pumped milk should I feed my baby?
How much you should be feeding your baby depends mainly upon the age of your baby. It is easier to track how much your baby eats if you feed pumped milk or formula because you can measure it.
The following are the actual amounts you should be feeding based on the age of a newborn or young infant.
One Week Old
At one week old, your baby has a tiny stomach.
At most, your child should be consuming about two ounces of pumped breastmilk or formula at each feeding. If this amount seems to leave your little one still hungry, speak to your pediatrician to see if they recommend an increase in intake.
One Month Old
At this point, your pediatrician is probably the best source of information regarding how much you should feed babies.
The amount of food recommended varies with the size of your baby, the feeding method of your baby, the health of your baby, and more.
However, it is generally safe for your little one to eat between 2.5 and 5 ounces of milk at each feeding.
How many ounces of breast milk for a newborn?
When breastfeeding by nursing, it can be challenging to tell just how much your little one consumes.
Rather than being able to measure out an actual quantity, you will most likely have to look for signs of fullness from your baby or for indicators that your child is well-fed.
The following are signs that your child is getting enough milk when nursing.
1. Good muscle tone
If your child is gaining the ability to hold up their head, turn their face toward something, and they’re gaining control of the arms and legs, it means that they have good muscle tone, which means that they are getting enough nutrition in their diet without being overfed.
2. Happy and cheerful
Your baby’s mood and demeanor go a long way in letting you know that the level of nutrition they are getting is healthy. A happy attitude and curious demeanor are signs that your child is getting enough to eat.
3. Good skin tone and condition
Signs that your child is getting enough nutrition also extend to skin health. A pale or jaundiced pallor indicates your child isn’t eating well.
A healthy skin tone and clear skin can mean that you offer healthy food when breastfeeding or bottle feeding.
Conclusion
While you should always consult with your pediatrician, it’s essential to know that you can overfeed a baby, especially if they are a newborn or young infant.
Hopefully, this article has given you some ideas of signs that your child is happy and is getting proper nutrition and signs that your little one is being overfed.