Eating Alot

I think it is perfectly fine for a 4 month old. My second daughter was the same way. However, I would start giving him cereal, 4 mos is the perfect age! Try everyday mixed with formula or water and spoon it too him. Even if they spit it out you are teaching him how to eat solid foods.

3 bottles all day isn't a lot when that is all you are eating.If he ate on demand during the day and right before bed- he may sleep better. Boys are not like girls who seem to 'graze'.
My son got up for a feeding in the middle of the night until he was a year old.He didn't want to play- he just wanted to eat and would fall straight back to sleep.
Cereal is empty calories and has little nutritional value.
Formula has everything they need. Babies will only eat when hungry. They don't naturally over eat at 6 months old.
Good Luck!

He should be having at least 4-6 bottles at daycare. And should be increasing the amount that they are giving him. That is probably why he is eating so much for you because he is going into starve mode and will try and eat as much as he can with you. baby this age should probably eat about 6to8 ounces every 3-4 hours. This varies with each infant.

What was the reasoning your ped gave you for not giving him cereal yet? That's crazy!!! Kids with reflux sometimes start it even earlier than that! Unless your son has some health issue as to why he shouldn't have cereal yet, start cereal in his bottles. That's not fair to your son, he's hungry!! Would your ped like to go without as much food when he's hungry? To be honest I've never heard of a ped (mine or friends) not telling them to start cereal around this age. You'll have a much happier baby and more sleep when you do. Also, this isn't helping him develop good sleep habits either getting up so much. Hate to "rant and rave" about this, but it just really gets under my skin that your doc would say not to do something that will help when he's obviously hungry. Goodluck

Hi,
My daughter was like this at his age and my ped said to give her rice cereal (mixed with formula, you know) to help with hunger. I know you probably don't want to go against your ped's advice, but the little guy is hungry and forumula isn't keeping him satisfied.

Best of luck,
L.

M.-at 4 mos our son was eating 50-60 oz of breastmilk and/or formula a day. Now granted, he was, and still is, a big boy. That is when our pediatrician recommended that we start him on cereal once a day, especially as he was getting a little too chubby. We kept it kind of thin at first, but he took right to it. It really helped us cut back on the formula and his weight gain.
The recommendation from the Academy of Pediatrics is not start any kind of solids until 6 months. However, I believe that is more of a guideline than a rule. As every mother always hears.... Every child is different and they all develop at different rates. Your son may be ready for solids, but I would do whatever you feel is best for your son.

I'm not sure about formula, but I know you can't over-feed a breastfed baby. I guess I would assume that's true for a formula fed baby as well. Don't give more at a time or you will just stretch his stomach out and he'll want more and more. They go through a growth spurt at 4 months, so it may change next week anyhow:)
And your pedi is right, you should wait until 6 months to start any solids.

As long as he is gaining and growing I wouldn't be concerned. My situation was little different because I nursed but my little girl was a big "drinker" she consumed a lot of milk. She was exclusive to this until she was 7 months old and is doing fantastic at 15 months. So unles he is not gaining I would say you are fine without cereal yet.

It sounds like he may not be eating enough at school, so he's trying to make up for it at home. Only eating 2-3 times during a 10-hour school day is not that much at all. All my kids (who were still exclusively breastfed at 4 months), still ate around every 2-4 hours when they were 4 months old. Their bottles of pumped milk were 6 or 7 ounces and they had them every 3 hours or so at day care. They are all fine and normal healthy height and weight now, but were chunkers when they were babies (because of all that breastmilk, I think).
Don't worry. Let your baby eat :) Good luck!

Hi M., I don't think your four month old would over eat if he wasn't hungry. Beings you have had one baby and your have her cereal I don't think it would hurt your new baby to have some cereal. Like you said make it thin and he should be fine. Our son and his wife went by 'the book' with their first one and the second one they went by how the baby reacted. Good luck and you sound like a wonderful mom. Hang in there and do what you think not what anyone else tells you.

Well, I have a 6 month old that eats every 2 hours yet, but he is breastfed, so that is a little more typical. And my kiddo does not sleep through the night either, I feel your pain. it is so hard. Anyway, I think if you wanted you could start solids. My pediatrician actually suggests starting at 4 months for formula fed babies. At least try rice cereal or oatmeal in the evenings and see if that helps. It sounds like he is ready. Good luck!

A.

my son is 5 and a half months now and because he was always hungry for more i asked my ped. abot it at his 4 month visit, and he said go ahead and try rice cereal with him. if he's ready he'll take it, if he's not ready you'll know! so about a week or so later we gave him the cereal and he loved it! he's now eating veggies too and is sleeping through the night, so i say if he's that hungry, then he's trying to tell you he may be ready! good luck! :)

He's drinking so much formula because he's not getting "full". I had the same problem with my son. At 4 months we started cereal. His pediatrician said it would be fine. He did great. He only had cereal in his bottle a couple times. I fed him cereal with a spoon at 4 months because he was always hungry. I was careful not to make it too thick, kept it very runny for a while until his body got used to it. He's never been constipated. By 5 1/2 months he was eating baby food. He's 13 months old now and doing great. He's right in the 50th percentile for his weight and a little over that in length. He's healthy and happy. Good luck with your little one.

Hi M.,
I think a part of Motherhood is knowing your baby and knowing what they need. The doctor told me not to put my daughter on cereal until she was 6 months. She was always little and by 3 months she was in the 29 % for weight. I decided to give her cereal. I put it in her bottle at night and fed it to her in the morning. By the time we went to her 4 month check up the doctor told me I should go ahead and give her cereal. I told her I've been giving to her for a few weeks. Now my daughter is 2 1/2 and she's still in the lower percentile for weight but healthy. I am saying all of this to say go with your gut. If you feel he needs cereal and will be ok then go for it. You know to just give him rice cereal for right now. Try spoon feeding and bottle feeding. Good luck.

All babies go through this at one point. The formula and breastmilk is quicker to digest than baby cereal. Thus, they cannot go as long without another meal. To help baby go longer between meals, you can add a bit of cereal to the bottles... even if they do not have GERD. I did this with my first son because he had acid reflux and the flap on his tummy was not fully developed yet. I ended up doing the same thing with my second son because he has a super high metabolism. He eats like crazy... still.

I think every child has different needs, and I think mother has to gauge what their child needs. My second son was eating table food at 6 months and was fully on table food by 8 months. There was no way to satisfy his hunger with a bottle. He would eat 12 oz bottle and be hungry again in about an hour.

I also would give him cereal at night or more cereal in the bottle at night to help my boys sleep though the night... and not wake up hungry.

I think around 4 months you can start to transition to cereals anyways. Between 4-6 months I think you can try mushy foods. I used to smash up bananas, or carrots, or sweet potatoes. Sometimes I would add a bit a bit of those items to the cereal, or feed it to them alone. Sometimes I would also add it to yogurt. You can even puree items in the blender. I used to keep old baby food jars to put puree items into since I usually made enough for several meals in the blender. It was was much cheaper than baby food too. You can easily put the refilled baby food jars in the freezer and thaw out overnight, remove the lid and heat in the microwave, send to daycare-babysitter's, or leave in the fridge for a meal within the next day or two.

I have a 4 month old daughter who is doing the opposite of your son. She eats 6 ounce bottles every 2 - 2 1/2 hours during the morning, but during the afternoon she'll go 3 or 4 before she eats again. Is your son sleeping a lot at night yet? My daughter is starting to sleep 8-9 hours a night and my theory is she's eating so often in the a.m. to catch up after all those hours sleeping. Maybe your son just likes to stock up before he goes to sleep. Anyhow, I too, fell like I'm constantly sticking a bottle in her mouth and asked the doc about it. She said that as long as she's growing steadily, it's fine. She said that some kids at this age still need to eat often. So, I don't think that there is anything wrong with how often he's eating. We're starting cereal after our next doc visit on Tuesday and I think that will probably help to even things out. Good luck.