Too much food with BLW?

[mamaladd]

Is it possible our lo's will overfeed themselves?

My little guy is 6 months...we just started BLW.  He's had a couple bites of avocado, sucked on a hunk of steak, some bites of butternut squash...he seems to LOVE to eat.  But, last night we gave him banana....he couldn't get enough!  He must have actually swallowed more than half the banana.  Then..last night, he was really fussy, didn't sleep well, and has been fussy most the day today.  Is it possible I let him eat too much?  I thought one of the main tenants of BLW was that they wouldn't over feed themselves. Perhaps he was just fussy for other reasons (very likely).  (I've spent 6 months trying figure out why he's fussy when he is, with no luck.) I did help with the banana...meaning the banana was on my hand/in my fingers, and he brought my fingers to his mouth to eat. But I think that still qualifies as him feeding himself, right?

[lebrbria]

With BLW your baby is less likely to be overfed.  It's along the same concept of breastfeeding, where the baby stops when they are full, rather than just eating because a spoon/bottle is in their face.  Could he be constipated?  Bananas are on the list of food that could cause constipation.  

[SeattleRain]

I feel like it could totally be possible. Some people are just overeaters, so I can imagine that there is something like that which exists in children to some extent. Like maybe he likes the act of eating and doesn't want to stop but its giving him a tummy ache. My LO is only 4 months and he just LOVES to put things in his mouth, so maybe your LO is loving putting the food in his mouth too! Maybe try giving him small bits at a time and letting him eat and then rest and then eat more. Maybe that will help his tummy settle and send the message to his brain that he's getting fuller so he doesn't stuff himself.

Also, I seem to remember my ped telling me that they should eat AFTER having a good "liquid" feeding so that they really fill up on bm and then eat a little bit of the food.

[mamaladd]

lebrbria....I didn't even think about the banana simply being constipating...he did have a pretty big poop later in the day than normal...i just wrote it off to his system changing.  thanks for that reminder...perhaps banana just needs to be given in smaller doses!

seattle rain...we did nurse first, but i do think you are right...he just likes to eat..it's a fun activity for him, particularly as he gets restless after his afternoon nap.  I gave him softened apple last night at dinner, and it took him much longer to get any down.  His entertainment/ingestion ratio seemed much better!  we didn't have any problems after that.  

Thanks!

[Peace+Hope]

not that it's bad to help your baby eat, but he may have lost interest in actually eating the banana earlier if he was having to manage it on his own...  i know there have been times where my guy is clearly finished eating, but if someone else holds food for him, he'll chomp on it just as if it was a toy, but he's gonna get some down, kwim?

[mum5]

I guess we do blw. We pretty much give the baby chunks of food, and he feeds himself, and plays with it, but our little guy really does have a ferocious appetite sometimes. Actually all my kids did. They all nursed really well, for long periods of time , and ate really well too, right off the bat. I am defiantely watching to make sure that ds doesnot over feed himself,  but he can chomp up a whole banan or pear really easily, at 8 months old, that's quite a feat!