Baby Who Eats A Lot! I Think?

Greetings All, my glorious son was born exactly 7 weeks ago and he is
thriving :) At birth he was 8lbs 3oz and since then he has grown to
about 14lbs! When we take him in for his 8 weeks visit to the
pediatricion I am guessing that he will weigh close to double his birth
weight! At his last visit to the ped he was measured and he is in the
97th percentile for both weight and height. He is currently eating
about 8 times/day with an average meal size of 4 oz (breast milk 50% of
time, Formula the other 50%). He is averaging anywhere from 32 to 38
ounces per day. Do you think we should ask our ped if we can start
slipping him cereal at night to help him sleep longer (he averages
about 3-4 hours between feeding 24x7) and to help him not feel so
hungry all the time? Any input/experience would be greatly
appreciated.

Ericka Kammerer...

Absolutely not. Studies have shown no evidence to
support the old wives' tale that cereal makes them sleep
longer. It is less nutritionally sound than breastmilk or
formula. His body is likely not ready to digest it yet.
Studies have associated early solids with increased
chance of illnesses and allergies. He sounds perfectly
normal to me. He's gaining less than 2 oz/day, which
is above average but hardly anything to worry about.
My first gained on about that track. My second averaged
a whopping 4 oz/day over a similar time period. I didn't
figure it out for my third, but I don't think she grew as
fast. Both boys were exclusively breastfed and were and
are perfectly healthy and normal sized at 11 and almost
9 years of age.

Best wishes,
Ericka

dragonlady...

There really is no evidence that adding cereal helps a baby sleep
longer; I know it is a commonly believed thing, but the studies have
shown that it's one of those bits of "common wisdom" that's wrong.

He's hungry exactly as much as he's supposed to be hungry! Many kids go
through spurts where they seem to want to nurse non-stop -- there's
nothing wrong, and he'll be fine. (I remember distinctly when my twins
were about your son's age drawing a picture of a woman strapped to a
chair by her nipples, because I felt like all I did 24/7 was nurse
hungry babies.)