Wake baby to feed or not?

Kimberly - posted on 12/03/2010

Absolutely wake the baby every 3 hours, but only for the first 2 weeks. My baby was full term, totally healthy and every medical professional in the field of pediatrics that I've ever spoken to about it recommends doing so. My baby actually never dropped any weight. If nothing else your breasts need to know how often to produce. A baby cannot be sleep trained in the first 2 weeks anyway. There's plenty of time for that. It really sucks for the first two weeks (my baby REFUSED to wake up and would have slept 24 hours and never eaten if I hadn't waked her), but the payoff is worth it. Good luck!

Amy - posted on 12/03/2010

It is critical to your baby in terms of health and brain development to feed your baby whenever s/he shows signs of hunger. Scheduled feedings during the first year of life are highly Ill advised.



http://www.parentingscience.com/infant-f...

Chantaye - posted on 12/03/2010

if your breast start to feel full then go ahead and pump and if your baby is on a schedule then yes wake the baby up and feed but if u just feed the baby wen the baby gets hungry then dont interupt the sleep

Stacey - posted on 12/03/2010

i breastfed and didnt wake the baby up at all i let him get his sleep and then fed him whenever he got up... this way i wasnt getting up every three hours to feed him for the next year!!! :) you dont dry up overnight but if you tend to be on the dryer end of the spectrum pump it if your up and hes not net.

Kat - posted on 12/03/2010

Nicole, you don't need to wake the baby. My daughter was full term and slept for 5 hours at a stretch at night. I just made sure to feed her 8-12 times for the first two weeks or so to increase my milk supply and then started feeding her on demand after that. As long as you're feeding a minimum of 5 times in a 24 hour period, your milk supply shouldn't take a hit. Not that your baby is going to let you feed it only 5 times! The rule of thumb is, you do 8-12 feedings or pumpings to increase your supply and 5-7 feedings or pumpings to maintain. Anything less than 5 might actually decrease your production. This applies in the first 6 or 12 months. Afterwards, the baby's stomach gets bigger and they will eat so much in a sitting that some moms feed them just in the morning and at night without seeing any decrease in milk. But in the beginning, their tummies are tiny and they eat relatively little so FREQUENCY is key. Good luck! Your little munchkin will help you and tell you when he or she needs to eat. :)

Ashley - posted on 12/03/2010

i never woke my daughter to fed her. There has never been any concern with her weight and she was a full term baby. She is a petite thing, but was growing just fine, so I never woke her to feed her. I fed her every 3-4 hours depending on her naps, but she always woke up when she was hungry and even at night she was going 4-5 hours between feedings from almost the very beginning! I was trying to breastfeed, it didn't work out to well, but I was still pumping and my husband would help with bottle feedings in the middle of the night, so he would feed her, I would pump. So I would still pump if you are able to, but if your baby is happy and heathly with no weight gaining issues, then I wouldn't wake him/her.

Sarah - posted on 12/03/2010

from experience, i would only feed the baby when he/she wakes up.....he/she will be sure to have a good feed, that way your baby will go through the night alot easier as he/she wont expect a feed and will be full up on the last feed

Stacey - posted on 12/03/2010

with my little girl i only feed here once a night she did not want more than that so i did not see any point in disturbing her. by 9 weeks she slept all night and she is 5 months old now and still sleeps well. the problem with midwifes and health visiters is that they dont know your child and think they do and they think every child is the same,when they are not. As long as you baby starts at a good weight YOU will know best what suits them and your family.

Elsabe - posted on 12/03/2010

Please, if there is one thing you can learn from me, a mother of 2 and 54 years old, pleas let your child sleep as long as he or she can. You will not dry up and it will give you also time to have a little bit of sleep.please please let them sleeeeeeeeppppppp

Barb - posted on 12/02/2010

Believe me, you wont dry up..if anything, you will be pacing waiting for him/her to wake up because you are gourged. With waking a child every 3 hours or at any interval, the baby wont get on their own schedule and will be longer before they sleep thru the night. Last but not least, if after reading all these answers, you are still confused, as your pediatrician. No matter what answer they give you, be sure to keep asking questions until you are confortable with the answer you get. Best of luck with #2.

Patti - posted on 12/02/2010

With my baby, one important rule I was told was not to wake a sleeping baby. He/she will wake up when they are hungry/wet etc. If you are getting full, then I recommend pumping and freezing. This will keep your milk flowing and allow you to use frozen breast milk when getting baby cereal ready. My sister dried up at 8 months but had pumped which resulted in being able to feed her baby breast milk until he was a year old. Best of luck :)

Anna - posted on 12/02/2010

i have twins on the way so if i want to feed ALL the time then at least one of them will need to be woken for a feed.

It all depends on you and getting the baby to fit into your life, with some changes of course.

Andrea - posted on 12/02/2010

i wouldn't wake a sleeping child unless you have to. if the baby needs to gain weight, for example. i would pump instead.

Kellie - posted on 12/02/2010

My doctor told me that as long as the baby is growin/gaining weight then you do not need to wake him/her at night to feed. They are getting enough during the day that they don't need it at night if they are not waking on there own to feed. My 1st was sleeping through the night form 9pm-5am at 2 weeks old! I was so lucky, my daughter was 2 months when she was sleeping through the night. I did not breast feed though so I don't know if that makes a difference. I would put a little cereal in there bed time bottle so they would stay fuller, and my son never took a pacifier. My daughter did and when she was 4 months old started waking at night for it, so I got rid of it and it only took a week for her to get used to not having it.

Nichole - posted on 12/02/2010

I think the first step will be to see if you go full term or early. All my babies were full-term so that is where my experience comes from. It is likely to be different if your baby arrives early. I didn't wake any of my four babies to feed them. They woke up on their own. The seem to come pre-programmed to want to eat.

Melody - posted on 12/02/2010

Wake baby to feed only at night time if the baby isnt gaining weight. Wake baby to feed daytime every 2- 3 hours. Do not pump, your milk is supply and demand, if you wake and pump, your body will think the baby is taking an extra feed, then you will have to pump every night. You wont dry up, your body will know your baby's schedule.;

Laurey - posted on 12/01/2010

you wont dry up! From what I've heard from friends, even after you stop feeding completely your milk takes weeks to dry up. You will just get hard and full. I did wake my newborn overnight for probably the first week. Simply because she would have a feed and fall back asleep again before she got the chance to fully wake up. 15 mins tops and I was back in bed. While she was still in our room, I would grab her the second she started to stir, before she fully woke. Give her a sleepy feed and she was straight back to sleep. We didnt have our first bad night until she started teething.

Keri - posted on 12/01/2010

I somewhat started a feeding schedule for solids when they got a little bit older, but I am still breast feeding my 21 month old on demand. She nurses when she wants to, not when I want her to.

Erika - posted on 12/01/2010

I have 8 children, and I breast fed. I never woke up my babies to eat. I believe they will wake themselves when hungry. You won't dry up through the night I promise. Besides- When they are very hungry, they feed well, and this helps with milk production-rather than waking them and having them lethargically suckle. I believe all babies-human, puppy , kitten are the same. They need to cuddle and have mom close by for security, eat when hungry, and sleep. Relax, and let nature lead. My children were fat and healthy . I say start a feeding schedule when they get a bit older-like 7 mo. Hope this helps.

Keri - posted on 12/01/2010

I would say feed on demand unless there is a health issue. All three of my children have been breast fed and I nursed when they woke up. Unless I had to go somewhere and I knew I would not be able to feed later I didn't wake them up to feed.

Margie - posted on 12/01/2010

I learned by experience, it is never good to wake a child, a baby knows when it is time for it to be fed, all children are different. They tend to get cranky if they don't get all the sleep their little bodies require. So play it by ear, not because you figure it is time to feed them, you can always pump out the milk to use at a later time.

Amanda - posted on 12/01/2010

I never woke my daughter. She's been a great sleeper since day 1! She did however eat about every two hours during the day. But, I'd rather have that than at night. (She was a big baby, which I think helps with the sleeping.) Your body will get used to when it needs to feed the baby. There shouldn't be a need to pump. Good luck!

Anna - posted on 12/01/2010

I would feed your baby on demand, for sure. I have studied a lot about pregnancy, delivery, as well as early childhood development (incIuding nursing) because I have wanted for a long time to be either an OB/GYN or a Midwife... I haven't been able to complete either of those goals for various reasons, but I do have 5 kids or my own and I've nursed them all. I never woke them up at night, and I never dried up, and I've never heard of that happening. You shouldn't have to worry about that.

Unless your baby is sleeping more than 4 to 5 hours without nursing, I wouldn't worry about waking them up. Let them sleep! I have read numerous arguments for both sides, but the one that makes the most sense to me, (ESPECIALLY as a mom of more than one child!!) is the one that says, in a nutshell: Unless your child is sleeping excessively, (4 to 5 hours) then there's no harm in actually getting some sleep yourself. They will wake up when they are hungry.

You may actually find (like I did with my 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th babies) that if you let them eat when they are hungry at night, they will sleep through the night sooner, they will sleep better, they will have a better appetite when they are older, and your milk will actually regulate faster so you're more comfortable, and so your baby gets better meals when he/she does eat.

I've read several study reports on this that say that kids that eat on demand at night are 87% less likely to be obese, or even overweight, as children. Also, since they're getting more sleep that's not interrupted at night, their brain/cognitive skills and motor skills tend to develop better, and a little faster (compared to babies who were woken up several times per night) and they were less hyper when they were older. Sleep plays such an important role in how kids act, learn, and develop - even as newborns. I thought all of that was pretty important, so I let my kids sleep.

I was super grateful for the sleep as well! I wasn't as grouchy, tired, and I had a better appetite, which in turn, was better for the baby, and I felt better. I also didn't have post-partum depression after my last 4, and I really think it's because I was getting more sleep.

All of this is assuming that there's no other issues, like colic, or indigestion, or something more serious that's genetic or whatever. My kids always ate more often because they have a metabolic disorder. It's genetic... I have it too...

Anyway... That's my advice to you. Trust me, having two kids is SOOOO different than having just one. Even if you wait for several years before having your second, it's kind of a shock. Make it easy on yourself and your husband and let the baby lead you. I've found that babies will kind of settle into their own schedule, and then I would adopt that schedule and make it own by adjusting it here and there to fit my schedule and my lifestyle.

Hope this helps! Feel free to email me with any questions you might have. :)

-Anna
gamergirlanna at gmail dot com

Joanne - posted on 12/01/2010

no let them sleep feed when they wake, sleep is as good as a feed trust me

Michele - posted on 12/01/2010

Your baby knows whether he is hungry or not...don't mess with their sleep! Pumping is necessary, though, to keep up your supply. Good luck & congrats!

Tracy - posted on 12/01/2010

I also highly recommend the Medela pump. I used mine through all three kids, and love it. I never got huge amounts until my third son. I was trying to put some aside and my LLL consultant said that I could pump one side while nursing on the other. First thing in the morning, I could nurse on one side and pump 5-6 ounces out of the other. Awesome pump!

Jessica - posted on 12/01/2010

I am still nursing my 6 month old. I never wake up my baby to nurse. Most babies nurse every 2-4 hours during the day. If yours will sleep longer at night, enjoy it! Most parents have to work for months to get their child to do that. If your baby does sleep for a longer period of time than usual, you can always pump. However, I wouldn't recommend pumping every night. Your body will produce the amount of milk your baby is drinking. So, if you're pumping a lot of milk while your baby sleeps, you may stay sore from producing too much milk (and get to where you have to pump to stay comfortable). If your baby is eating every 3 hours during the day and sleeping for longer periods, your body will adjust to that pattern. An exception to not waking your baby up to feed might be within the first few days, when you are still trying to establish a feeding pattern. Even then, as long as your baby is eating, I wouldn't wake it up to feed, since it's already worn out from the birthing process. I do recommend getting a good pump if you are definitely wanting to nurse for awhile. My husband and I purchased a modela pump, and it was so worth the money! It doesn't pump a miraculous amount, but it does a lot better than the cheap pump I was using. Hope this helps! Congratulations on you baby!

Connie - posted on 12/01/2010

It is not necessary to wake them up. Your body will keep up the production as long as your baby feeds when it is awake. The baby will eat when they are hungry. My 2nd child can sleep a minimum of 8 hours a night and eats often during the day and my body keeps up to her for most of it. I don't recommend waking a sleeping baby.

Tracy - posted on 12/01/2010

The baby will wake up when it's hungry. The nurses wanted me to do that with my first, too, but with my second and third, I knew better. If your baby is sleeping for extended periods of time, feel free to pump, but no, I wouldn't wake.

Chaya - posted on 12/01/2010

you should pump if you need to for any reason. I would not recommend waking the baby up to feed unless the baby is low birth weight or preemie. I had my daughter 3 1/2 months early, if that's the case, feed baby whenever they cry.

Maggie - posted on 11/30/2010

Once you know that they are gaining weight like they should it's for the best. It'll result in a baby that's rested and easier to feed since you'll be feeding when he's hungry not when his three hours are up. My son may be hungry after an hour or he may go five without eating, I would have hated to try and keep him on the 3 hour schedule for long.

Cindi - posted on 11/30/2010

No, let Baby sleep. You will actually be helping Baby to learn how to sleep through the night. Your body will also get used to the schedule. My son slept through the night and I still nursed him for a year. Read the book, "On Becoming Babywise.". It's good for both you and Baby to sleep properly. Best of luck!

Sharon - posted on 11/30/2010

I never woke my babes up. I fed them on demand, they were big full term babies. My first son was sleeping through the night at 3 weeks. Thank god!!!

Stacey - posted on 11/30/2010

Have you ever heard of "dream feeding"? We did this for our 2nd child and it worked wonders. We didn't wake her up to feed her -- we just picked her up out of her crib and offered her a bottle (in your case breast) and she took it, drank what she wanted and then we put her back in her crib all while she was still sleeping. She slept longer through the night because she would go to bed at 7:00PM, then we would dream feed her before we went to bed -- usually around 10:00/11:00. She would usually sleep then until 4 or 5AM which then we'd feed her and put her back down to sleep. She would then sleep until 7:00/8:00 and eat again and then be up for the day.

Our daughter is now 9 months and goes down still at 7:00AM but will sleep through the night until 4:00/5:00AM to eat about 4-5 ounces and then goes back to bed until 7:00AM.

Just try it and see how it goes?

Cynthia - posted on 11/30/2010

I just don't get this? The majority of breastfeed babies or at least my 5 over ten years, breast feed roughly every 2 hours from not long after birth until they were six or 7 months old, more frequently during growth spurts, my larger babies 8lbs and over became almost insatiable during those times and I started supplementing with basic solids sometime around three or four months. these children also slept longer between at night around four to six weeks going one stretch of 3 to 4 hours. I never the less woke leaking and went to check on them every half hour until they woke for that feed, until my milk supply adjusted over the course of a week.

Your not likely to dry up if your baby is only going an hour or two longer between feedings and all other feedings are at regular two to three hour intervals, and he/she is nursing for longer that five minutes a side.

If you are eating a healthy well balanced diet which accomodates your nutritonal needs including the necessary extra calories a nursing mother needs you shouldn't have any trouble with milk production.

If you are sitting comfortably with your drink to hand, and a light nutritional snack, are warm enough and don't have peering critical visitors, and have no hangups about the rightness and naturalness of breastfeeding you are unlikely to have problems with milk supply. In fact with a second child your breasts are likely to adjust much faster to nursing than the first time around as far as supply goes.

However no matter which number you baby is sometimes they have trouble mastering nursing! so review latch on procedures and be especially careful if you have a snub nose babe as these babes tend to find their nostril pressed right against the breast literally sucking the breast almost up their noses, and so care must be taken to gently press the breast back away from their noses so they can breathe freely.

If you are concerned with milk supply make sure the nurses aren't supplementing with water or formula unless there is some medical reason you cannot nurse normally in the day or two after you deliver, some pain meds can pass through into the colostrum and the breast milk when it comes in sometime between day two and day three, do some on line research on the pain control meds offered at your hospital so you are knowledgeble before you go in.

Sandra - posted on 11/30/2010

I breastfed for 14 months and for the first 3 months I woke him to feed during the day but let him sleep at night. However, I did not feed on demand. I fed every 2 1/2 hours and he would naturally wake to feed at that point. A lot of moms say feed on demand and that's fine if that's what you want to do but you have to remember that babies like to suck. It soothes them. I didn't want my son using me as a pacifier. However, my milk supply was abundant and he would empty my breast whenever he fed. I think there is a lot to consider and you have to decide what's best for you and your baby. As long as your baby continues to gain weight and seems satisfied after nursing, all is good.
Good luck and congrats on your second child.

Lyndsay - posted on 11/30/2010

When my son was born the hospital made me wake him up every 2 hours to feed, which was the schedule I took him with me. I gradually extended the feeds to 3 hours then 4 hours, but he started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks (he was feeding every 4 hours at this point) and I never woke him up to feed him. He was born 4 weeks premature and lost a bit of weight in the beginning so I had to wake him up to eat at first, but once he started sleeping through the night he was back to a normal weight and there were no concerns that way so I didn't bother. I did find that feeding at certain times throughout the day helped a lot with creating a schedule that both of us could live by.

Mary - posted on 11/30/2010

After the birth of my second child I did not dare wake up a sleeping baby. I bottle fed my daughters and they all slept a least five to six hours from the day that I brought them home from the hospital. I didn't have any problems with a fussy baby. They ate, were burped and then rocked and went back to their own bed and slept.

Kathy - posted on 11/30/2010

I nursed all 4 of mine. All were full-term, and all were back at their birth-weight within a medically normal time-frame. So, no unusual circumstances whatever. That said, I always went totally on a demand schedule. They ate when they needed to, slept when they needed to, and so on. My oldest was sleeping through the night at 2 weeks. The longest time we had before a baby slept the night was 3 months. It varied widely, but we never woke a sleeping baby for a feeding. However, best talk to your pedi and do what they say, since research is constantly updating. Congrats on the new baby! ♥

Barbara - posted on 11/30/2010

Full term - NEVER wake a sleeping baby! They will eat as much and as often as they need. My son was full term (into labor on my due date) and he nursed every two to three hours. Believe me - that's enough! My son gained a pound a week the first month.
But you listen to your doctor and the pediatrician. They know what's best for you and your baby.
Best of luck to you on #2.

Yvonne - posted on 11/30/2010

i never woke my babies they woke when they were hungry

Robin - posted on 11/30/2010

Feed on demand...don't demand feedings unless you have to. I have nursed twins and a singleton. It's better to let them sleep

Amy - posted on 11/30/2010

THe nurses in the hospital told us to wake him every 2 hours and feed him. The pediatrician said "No! No! No!" Your child will get used to that pattern and you will never get any sleep. I went with the Dr.s advice

Shari - posted on 11/30/2010

You won't dry up if you don't nurse or pump every three hours ... and baby's will let you know when they are hungry!! Let the darling sleep .... and you do the same when you get the opportunity!! Blessings ....

Anna - posted on 11/30/2010

NO WAY!!! I had twins first and then my daughter, and the nurse came in and woke me up and told me that I needed to wake up my daughter and feed her. I asked how many kids she had and none. I said "okay, thank you" and went back to sleep!
The reason they do that is left over from early last century when they thought that breast milk was inferior to formula and that the baby couldn't possibly get enough from it so they tried to "teach" ways to make it as inconvenient as possible to make women give it up, "for the good of the children".
If there are no medical reasons such as an early birth, or jaundice where they need to eat to clear out the bilirubin, then the baby will eat when it is hungry, and there will be less spit up. I fed my twins every 3 hours and they spit up continuously, it was awful. My daughter and my youngest I fed when they wanted it, and they spit up very rarely. We did deal with an early, jaundiced baby last time, and he would latch on an sleep, so I did have to feed him as often as he could. After he gained a little, he needed more milk less often.
You will not dry up. I fed my daughter 6 times during the day, and she slept through the night at 6 weeks old. I was about to bust every morning, and she couldn't empty them, and eventually it lessened a bit, and it was just right! I nursed her for 16 months and toward the end she slept 13 hours at night, and I still had milk when I weaned her. (I weaned her due to peer pressure that she was too old! I nurse my 20 month old now, and he sleeps 12 hours a night, every night.)

Norma - posted on 11/30/2010

when your baby is hungrey he or she will wake up no u wont dry up it takes more then three hours nto dry nup

Wendy - posted on 11/30/2010

It depends on how your baby is when they are born. I have an eight month old and we never wake her. She wakes up cranky if she is woken before she is ready.
The only time we woke her was because she slept for nearly 5 hours. They will generally wake when they are hungry. Your milk shouldn't dry up. I have been back at work since my daughter was 4 months old and I feed her in the morning before I go to work and then again at night and only express once during the day. Usually around the 1 or 2 o'clock mark and I'm still going. If you're resting well and eating properly your milk should continue to flow.

Michelle - posted on 11/30/2010

i breast fed my son till he was 8 months i would feed him when he asked otherwise you might end up with to much milk.

Terra - posted on 11/30/2010

Do what you think is best. My second child slept 5 hours so I never woke him. Just go with the flow

Liz - posted on 11/30/2010

My son was born full term but he would sleep a lot and I was told to feed him on demand, so I let him go more than 2-3 hours without feeding if he was sleeping. My milk did dry up, I think at least partially because of that, and so now he is formula fed. He is just a sleeper, he slept through the night from about 2 weeks on.