REALLY Hungry Baby

Minus the anger... yeah... in my family. You teach manners surrounding asking for anything (just a part of parenting)... but just as an example, my son:

Avg of 20oz of breast milk every 2 hours (apx, fed on demand) as an infant... so around 150-200oz a day until 9-10mo

Avg of 64oz of formula per day from 10mo-18mo, solids started at 1 year... but he was growing too fast for table food, so we supplemented with formula for some time.

Right BEFORE a growth spurt (from infancy to age 9) he eats CONSTANTLY. Double what my husband eats (about 4,000-6,000 cal). He chubs up like the Stay-Puff-Marshmallow man. And then after about a month of gorging, his appetite stops on a dime and he eats about half of what I eat (about 1,000 cal). He shoots up 3 or 4 inches over the next 2 months, and then he's pure ribs and vertebre and little 8 pack and braided back. Which is just an odd look, but whatever. That's the pattern, though: Pudges out, shoots up.

That's just the normal growth pattern in my family. We get to reuse a LOT of clothes, because we buy "big" and roll cuffs. Pants start getting all tight around the middle... and then in a month, we're strapping them on with belts to keep them from falling off and the cuffs have been unrolled and they're "highwaters".

My family's scandavian, and we're usually at our full height by age 12/13. For girls that's 6', for boys that's 6'3-6'6.

Nearly everyone in my family is reeeeeeally active. For the athletes (practicing) we're talking 8,000-12,000 calorie diets as kids to keep up with both the extreme growth AND the physical demands placed on them. The boys (well, girls, too... but it's something more wanted on the boys side), strap on muscle like they're on anabolic steroids. At age 12/13 most of us look like we're in our early 20's.

Thank GOODNESS we've had the same pediatrician for years. Whenever we get a substitute the weight thing comes up. Either overweight or underweight, depending on where he's at in his growth cycle!!! I just smile and ask them to look at his charted height/weight in the past.

((My ped ditched American height/weight chart for my son shortly after his birth. At 10lbs & 23.5 inches at birth he was in the upper bit, but by 3mo he was off the chart and has stayed off ever since. So my Ped changed charts and downloaded a Swedish or Norweigan one (I kinda forget which). Which places my son at about 60th percentile for height/weight.))

Now... like I said... this is TOTALLY NORMAL for MY family. There can be medical conditions (worms, parasites of other kinds, disorders, diseases) which cause extreme hunger as well. Most commonly here, though, it just tends to be 'fast growers'.

Yup. In my grandson who needed it to grow really tall with. His mother can take him to the park to play on the swings and on the slide so he gets used to exercise.

Yes, in families where the parents allow the kid to shove food, so they don't have to say no. I have a friend like this. (I have distanced myself from her, so we are not close enough for me to comment.) It started from birth. Every time her child would squeak, she would give him the breast. Everything that kid made a noise, she shoved it in his mouth. He is almost 3, and she still does this. It's easier for her to keep feeding and feeding him, then to say no, or deal with the tantrum. I think that happens so often. I've seen it many times. The children who shove food constantly, are often then ones whose parents fed them every noise they made as an infant. I think it's usually a learned behavior. It sets them up for a lifetime of weight issues, and emotional issues regarding food.

Babies go through growth spurts all the time and so go through phases like this, which is normal to give them extra food. But parents who give into babies demanding food are not doing them any favors. This is how childhood obesity begins. They often think they want food, when they really want attention/comfort/throwing a tantrum... a huge emotional eating problem that is learned early and many adults still struggle with today. Parents need to learn to say no.

As an infant, my son nursed incessantly because he had a dietary intolerance that was giving him gas pains. He figured out at about 4 days old that warm milk in the tummy would sooth it, and it's like, he WOULD have been colicky, but he solved the problem by nursing instead.

So, a food intolerance is one possibility.

Another thought is Prader-Willi syndrome, a genetic condition in which people don't experience the feeling of satiation, so they're constantly hungry no matter how much they eat. People with Prader-Willi usually have distinctive facial features, in addition to being overweight, so you might want to google the condition and see if he shares those features.

I personally would have a hard time bringing up either possibility with the mom, though, unless I was asked, but that's just me.

yeah, a kid at my daughter's old daycare was like this. His first word was "snack". He's always looked like he should be a little football player.