Weight gain in breastfed babies V formula fed babies

[andrea]

Hi,

I am breastfeeding Kamron now 5 weeks old today.
He gained a pound each week for 3 weeks running, he was nursing almost
non-stop!
Today I found out he gained 13 ozs, which surprised me, as he has started to
sleep for 6 hours a night in his cot, and has started to space out the day
feedings. He cluster feeds last thing at night before his big sleep, then
cluster feeds in the morning.
Kam weighed 7 lbs 9 and a half at birth, born on the 25th percentile, and
now weighs 12 lbs and is on the 91st!

Do formula fed babes gain weight as well as breastfed babies? .

I am just curious! :o)

--
Andrea mom of -
Peter 7, Ellie 5, Alden 3, Joseph 21 mths & little munchie man Kamron 4
weeks!
Married to David since 2000.

[Naomi Pardue]

>Do formula fed babes gain weight as well as breastfed babies? .
>
>I am just curious! :o)
>

Different babies gain at different rates.
On average, bf babies tend to gain a little faster than ff babies during the
first few months. They then gain a little slower after about 3 months, and the
two groups are usually about equal by the end of the first year.
But there are individual differences too.
Shaina was bf and has always been tiny for her age. (17 pound at one year,
about 65 pounds at 11 years.) She has two cousins who were born about two days
apart. One was bf and one was ff. Both were, and are, HUGE. They are 18 months
younger than Shaina, but I could no longer give my SIL any hand-me-downs by the
time the one cousin was 2 months old, because her baby (the ff one) was already
as big as Shaina by that age!). Now, Shaina gets hand-me-downs from her. (And
again, her more distant bf cousin of exactly the same age is similarly huge.
Genetics? Luck? Feeding style? Who knows.)

(On an historical note, in the early part of the 20th century, ff babies were
usually expected to gain weight much more slowly than bf babies, because, in
order to be digestable, the formula had to be made so dilute that the babies
simply didn't get enough calories in the early months.)


Naomi
CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator

(either remove spamblock or change address to to e-mail
reply.)

[Chookie]

In article >,
(Naomi Pardue) wrote:

> >Do formula fed babes gain weight as well as breastfed babies? .
> >
> >I am just curious! :o)
> >
>
> Different babies gain at different rates.
> On average, bf babies tend to gain a little faster than ff babies during the
> first few months. They then gain a little slower after about 3 months, and
> the two groups are usually about equal by the end of the first year.

I ave also heard that ff babies tend to put on weight in a linear fashion,
whereas bf babies tend to go spurt-plateau-spurt-plateau.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"...children should continue to be breastfed... for up to two years of age
or beyond." -- Innocenti Declaration, Florence, 1 August 1990

[Deb]

My SIL has been formula feeding her son since birth (long story and many
complications). He was 7lb 6oz when born and as at 4 weeks old he was 10lb
1oz. He is gaining roughly 1lb per week. He has just been change onto the
hungrier baby formula too so we will have to wait and see if this makes any
great difference too.

Debbie
EDD 31/7/03
"andrea" > wrote in message
...
> Hi,
>
> I am breastfeeding Kamron now 5 weeks old today.
> He gained a pound each week for 3 weeks running, he was nursing almost
> non-stop!
> Today I found out he gained 13 ozs, which surprised me, as he has started
to
> sleep for 6 hours a night in his cot, and has started to space out the day
> feedings. He cluster feeds last thing at night before his big sleep, then
> cluster feeds in the morning.
> Kam weighed 7 lbs 9 and a half at birth, born on the 25th percentile, and
> now weighs 12 lbs and is on the 91st!
>
> Do formula fed babes gain weight as well as breastfed babies? .
>
> I am just curious! :o)
>
> --
> Andrea mom of -
> Peter 7, Ellie 5, Alden 3, Joseph 21 mths & little munchie man Kamron 4
> weeks!
> Married to David since 2000.
>
>

[Meredith Edwards-Cornwall]

In > Deb wrote:
> My SIL has been formula feeding her son since birth (long story and
> many complications). He was 7lb 6oz when born and as at 4 weeks old he
> was 10lb 1oz. He is gaining roughly 1lb per week. He has just been
> change onto the hungrier baby formula too so we will have to wait and
> see if this makes any great difference too.


What is "hungrier baby formula?" This sounds kind of scary.

Meredith

[Naomi Pardue]

>Shaina was bf and has always been tiny for her age

BTW, just wanted to add that she seems to take after me. *I* was tiny for my
age as a child, always the shortest in my class, and very thin. (And I was
formula fed -- the only one among my siblings to be, because my weight gain was
so poor that the doc had my mother wean me from the breast after a couple of
weeks.)
DH was also a scrawny kid. He was FF, and had tons of health problems (asthma,
allergies -- he had to be fed on special formulas because he couldn't tolerate
any of the standard ones available at the time.)



Naomi
CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator

(either remove spamblock or change address to to e-mail
reply.)

[H Schinske]

Meredith writes:

>What is "hungrier baby formula?" This sounds kind of scary.

Does it eat more babies for breakfast? ;-)

--Helen

[andrea]

"Chookie" wrote in message

> > Different babies gain at different rates.
> > On average, bf babies tend to gain a little faster than ff babies during
the
> > first few months. They then gain a little slower after about 3 months,
and
> > the two groups are usually about equal by the end of the first year.
>
> I ave also heard that ff babies tend to put on weight in a linear fashion,
> whereas bf babies tend to go spurt-plateau-spurt-plateau.
>
> --
> Chookie -- Sydney, Australia


That makes sense to me, as Kamron was born on the 25th centile, then jumped
up to the 91st, and he is now 5 weeks old.
He was 7 lbs 9 and a half at birth, and is now 12 pounds. He is already in
3-6 months clothing.
--
Andrea mom of -
Peter 7, Ellie 5, Alden 3, Joseph 21 mths & little munchie man Kamron 4
weeks!
Married to David since 2000.

[Iuil]

"Meredith Edwards-Cornwall" wrote
>
>
> What is "hungrier baby formula?" This sounds kind of scary.
>

I posted about it a couple of months ago. It's casein based formula, rather
than whey based, so all it does is sit in the baby's stomach for longer
while it "digests". But baby goes for longer between feeds and takes less
at a time, so that's OK.

Jean


--
"And he said:
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of
Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and
though they are with you, yet they belong not to you." Khalil Gibran

Return address is unread. Replies to <firstnamelastname> @eircom.net.

[Meredith Edwards-Cornwall]

In > H Schinske wrote:
> Meredith writes:
>
>>What is "hungrier baby formula?" This sounds kind of scary.
>
> Does it eat more babies for breakfast? ;-)
>
> --Helen
>

LOL! That's what I was thinking! Yikes!

Meredith

[Meredith Edwards-Cornwall]

In > Iuil wrote:
>
> "Meredith Edwards-Cornwall" wrote
>>
>>
>> What is "hungrier baby formula?" This sounds kind of scary.
>>
>
> I posted about it a couple of months ago. It's casein based formula,
> rather than whey based, so all it does is sit in the baby's stomach
> for longer while it "digests". But baby goes for longer between feeds
> and takes less at a time, so that's OK.
>
> Jean


Very interesting! I didn't know there was so much variations in formula.
It makes sense, of course, but I've never thought about it.

Thanks!
Meredith