The point with Breastmilk is that your body KNOWS how much he is taking and it alters the calorie content accordingly - women who live in Africa have more watery milk than those who like in the Arctic circle because the African baby needs water to stay hydrated and thus drinks more, and the arctic baby needs the fat to keep warm... Formula is always the same.

Say for instance on a hot day your DS drinks an extra 600ml of breastmilk because he's thirsty - your body, in response to the heat, will be making more foremilk, and overall his calorie intake will be relatively unaffected by the extra milk. On formula he'll be taking in 600ml worth of extra calories.

Breastfeeding reduces the risk of obesity. Comfort eating is an inherant habit - EVERYONE gets an endorphin release when they eat. It's just that some people use that as a tool to control mood and others don't. At 7 months old the endorphin response to eating is still a machanism he needs to stay alive - if babies didn't eat when distressed most would die within 3 weeks of birth!

He is still a baby. He is eating as he needs to. You'll be amazed at how quickly chub turns to solid muscle once they start running about! He's also a very long baby, my DD is on the 96th %ile and she was 79cm at 14 months!

How were YOU set up for obesity? Do you remember when comfort eating became a real habit for you? My sister comfort eats and is very obese. She spent much of her early childhood off in a room on her own somewhere with a bar of chocolate or a packet of biscuits. My mum sent her off with food to keep her quiet and out of the way of her father's fists.

Bx