Premie Baby Home and....

[drk]

...Now we are on our own from the NICU. With that said, he has been a great eater ever since they started him on breast milk. He was a 32 weeker and when he left the hospital (Sat, Halloween) he was 37 weeks. Of all the problems he had, feeding was never one of them. Anyway, now that he's home some of the feedings he just cant get enough. We feed breast milk from the bottle (with some direct feeding) and he averages about 3 ozs. The problem is every now and then he wants 4 even 5- 5 1/2 ounces. Is this ok? He wont rest until he gets it (roots the whole time), but I dont want to overfeed him.

Essentially my question is can a 7lb baby overeat on breast milk? He has not vomited and barely even spits up.

Thank you and sorry for the long question.

[Nurseliz]

My encouragement for you would be to work at getting him on the breast exclusively. That way he can feed/empty what he needs and this will eliminate your worry.
But to answer your question about bottle feeding the expressed breastmilk: babies CAN overfeed while bottle feeding. But generally speaking they would vomit or be very irritable after overfeeding.
To ere on the side of caution, with him being a premie and many have issues with reflux, if you are going to continue bottle feedings, then I would run this issue by your neonatologist/pediatrician for clarification.

Liz
www.askthelactationconsultant.com
I will be back tonight to answer questions from 8-10pm CST. Just happened to come by and see this question.