BF baby sleeping through. Should I be feeding him?

[ChristmasPud]

My DS (10 weeks) has slept through 2 nights without a feed. This sounds great but his weight gain has been slow and irratic so am wondering whether I should really be letting him go 12 hours without a feed.

He did this for 2 nights a couple of weeks ago and that week did not put on any weight. He does wake up in the night at about 3am but then goes back to sleep without asking for anything (though he does make sucking noises in his sleep!)

Part of me thinks I should feed him at this point. Part of me thinks I should leave him to decide if he wants anything. I suspect that he will go back to two night feeds again in a few days time anyway. Would like to let him do his own thing - but then it may look bad on his chart!

I'd be inclined to let him do his own thing, but as he isn't gaining weight have a chat with your HV (if she's approachable) or your GP. My DD slept through the night from seven weeks. Prior to this we had to set and alarm to wake her and us up to feed her as she was jaundiced and for the first month or so had to feed a set amount every four hours.

BF babies gain weight differently from ff babies. Most HV's use the ff charts for weight.
IMO if he was hungry he would be asking for food.
My bf dd slept 12 hours for a while, then went through a phase of wakening up through the night again.

Go with your own instincts and how you feel your ds is

How about compromised and waking him up to deed him at say 10pm and then again at 7am (or whenever he wakes up).

My ds was also sleeping thourgh at a very ealry age and becasue of his slow weight gain, I was necouraged by the bf specialists at the hopsital to wake him. he was only 2 or 3 weeks old at the time - by the time he was 10 week sold, I was compfrtable with the fact that slow weight gain was "his" growth chart and that extra deeds weren't making any difference!

He was on the 91st centile at birth, progressively slipped down the growth charts till he chuntered along just underneath them, eventulally creaping back in to them and stayed somewehre aaroun the 9th. Took c. 6 or 7 weeks to regain birthweight - but was happy, healthry and alert all the time.

BTW - I fed him for 13 months in the end, and he is now a happy, healthy, (slim) 6 year old! I think he is somewhere on the 50th centile, but don't kow, 'cos I don't check the charts any more!

my dd2 was very small when she was born and I was told that I HAD to feed her every six hours - something to do with their temperature dropping, I think - anyway, once she reached about 6 or 7lb, I was told that I didn't have to feed her that often, and could let her tell me when she was hungry.

As it happens, it was never an issue with dd2 as she wanted feeding every couple of hours, but that's what I was told.

I imagine if your lo is healthy, and is putting weight on (albeit irregularly) then I wouldn't worry, let him sleep.

Very early, small babies need feeding in the night even if they don't ask. This is also important to preserve the milk supply.

It's not so crucial for older babies (like yours, Christmas, at 10 weeks) but 12 hours is really very unusual, unless the baby is feeding very very often in the day....some babies are so placid they don't ask for a feed even if they need to. It's likely that if your baby was sleeping next to you in the bed, he'd be feeding when he woke at 3 am and possibly more often as well.

Charts are not a good guide to overall health (they are not 'formula feeding' charts, BTW, but based on a mix of babies who are not differentiated) and weight gain can be slow and erratic in perfectly healthy babies. So it's not really the chart that should drive you, but what you know about expected baby behaviour and what you know about your own baby.

Having said that, if you think there is an issue with growth, then of course the easiest and most convenient response is simply to give him more feeds

"deed" = "feed" of course!