How Much Can One Baby Eat?

I was going to title this post, "can a baby explode?", but that sounded a tad extreme. Tonight, however, I was truly astonished at how much little Elizabeth seemed to "pack away".

I can tell you that she ate the better portion of an entire package of brown rice--which was really intended for Marty (opps), along with 4 ounces of sweet potatoes, 4 ounces of apple and mixed grain baby food, 2 ounces of cheese and 4 slices of turkey. No joke here. On top of all that she polished off a full bottle of soy milk before going to sleep about an hour after dinner.

Can a baby eat that much? I guess so. I think tonight may be record for quantity eaten. I calcuate the calorie count for her dinner to be about 650-700 calories!!! The rice really adds up and I figure she ate about a cup and a half of rice.

For those who are concerned that she might be eating too much, I can assure you that the doctor says that her BMI (body mass index) is on target and that she is just a big baby! Besides that-- all the nutrition books say that babies have an inate sense of when they have eaten too much and as long as you feed them healthy foods--their bodies will do the rest. Also, it is critical at this age (for brain development especially) that she gets a good amount of fat and carbohydrate--pretty much the opposite of what a dieting adult would eat!

Besides that--for the last couple of nights I experimented with telling her when she was done (or when I thought she had enough) for dinner. What we got out of that experiment was a baby waking up at 3 a.m. making the sign for "bottle" and crying until she got one! So much for that.

If we notice her getting pudgy, we may have to adjust her intake, but for now she gets to revel in being a baby and eating anything she darn well pleases--and as much of it as she wants.

Lucky girl, eh?