Overfeeding and diarrhea??? Help!

[sunshynbaby]

The doctor says the reason for our two month old son's diarrhea and frequent urination is overfeeding. I feed him when he requests food, every one to three hours. The doctor said to refrain from feeding him and only feed him every 3-4 hours. She said to offer a pacifier instead if it is too soon to feed and he is fussing. This just doesn't seem right to me. Has anyone heard of overfeeding being a cause for diarrhea???

More info:

He has been having watery and mucusy stool for the past 48 hours. The water It ranges in color from green to yellow. He doesn't have a fever and is otherwise acting fine (except when he is pushing out that diarrhea). He was 9 pounds 1 ounce at birth and now is 14 pounds at two months. He doesn't seem pudgy in any way. I breast feed him. I just went back to work on Friday, so my husband is giving him bottles of breast milk and bringing him to my job to breastfeed at lunchtime. He is fine with taking a bottle. I would say he averages eating every two hours, with an occasional three hour interval due to a nap/sleep and one hour intervals when he is awake (and three hours when he is home with my husband alone). I do think it is diarrhea or some kind of change because of how watery it is and how he is getting all red in the face to push it out. Both of those things are unusual for him. He will urinate up to 5 times in a waking hour, but he will also go for a 2-3 hour nap without urinating. I figured it evened out and the frequent waking urination wasn't cause for concern.


Yes, I posted this on another site, so if you are over there, this is not deja-vu

[PatioGardener]

You can't over feed a breastfed baby! Your doc is giving advice completely against most medical associations, which say to feed on cue (just like you are doing!) Keep following your Mama insticts!

Here is a nice info sheet on bottle feeding a breastfed baby that may be useful: http://www.kellymom.com/store/freeha...le_feeding.pdf

As for diarrhoea, it's so hard to tell in breastfed babies because they have watery stool normally... but diarrhoea usually smells really bad.

Some causes of mucous in stool: viruses (cold/respiratory viruses as well as GI viruses), allergies/sensitivities, teething.

Some causes of greenish stool: variation of normal, viruses, allergies/sensitivities, lactose overoad/ foremilk/hindmilk imbalace/ overactive letdown.

I hope it's just a cold and baby is back to normal (nursing on cue with no need for a pacifier!) soon

[Ruthla]

So it sounds like the stool changes started when you went back to work?

Did DH feed him milk you freshly pumped, or some milk from the freezer that you pumped a while ago? Were you dealing with oversupply when you pumped it? It's quite possible that the pumped milk was higher in foremilk (and lower in the fatty hindmilk) than the milk he's getting from the breasts directly (and the newer pumped milk), so he could be having a little bit of a hindmilk/foremilk imbalance from that. If so, this is temporary, and should ease up once you're giving him mostly milk you pumped recently and are only using 1-2 bottles of frozen milk a week.

[sunshynbaby]

Thanks for the link and encouragment, Patio. The foremilk thing makes a lot of sense, Ruthla. On Friday he got a full bottle of milk from when he was 2 weeks old.

[foreverinbluejeans]

You can overfeed a breastfed baby, by breast or bottle. If the baby is overfeeding by breast then nurse only one breast a feeding as often as the baby wants to nurse rather than making the baby wait.

It's very easy to over feed by bottle. Babies have sucking needs and don't know how to regulate their intake by bottle.

I would disagree with the pacifier except you are a working mom. Your baby can meet the sucking needs with the pacifier.

[Heba]

Foreverinbluejeans, I am interested in your saying that it is possible to overfeed a (directly) breastfed baby. Would you have any references or further info you could point me towards? I have never heard of this - bottlefed, yes, but from the breast no - so would really appreciate more info. Thanks!

[rivkah]

from my experience, DD has green mucousy stools every now and again. Both the ped and midwife have said it is nothing to worry about, and is probably just something I ate or a mild virus. Since it is only intermittent, I have not done anything to address it, and DD seems to be fine. She gets those stools progressively less often (she is now 4 months). Since baby seems to be OK, I woudl just assume he'll outgrow it.

I think when DD was teeny, she did sort of overeat--in that she wanted to suck more than her stomach could hold. I think she just auto-adjusted though. She had huge spit-ups. Again, huge spit-ups are less frequent now that her stomach has expanded.

I would agree that a pacifier can be a useful tool for a WOHM. I work full-time, and I only wish dd would take one!