Waking baby every 2 hours or feed on demand?

[Julieviola]

Baby is now 7 days old. He initially fed very well. My milk came through and since
then he seems not to want to do so well! He llatches on and suckles, but then it seems like he thinks about something else, is too lazy or looks at a light! So, he comes off and then gets frustrated, thrashes his arms about and cries!

I have tried many positions and it sometimes works better if I pump by boob to start him off. When he eventually starts to feed, he does well, although the length of time he feeds for is shorter now than a few days ago.

I have read that I should be feeding him every 2 hours - counted from the start of the previous feed - and I should be feeding 8 times a day.

But, he hates being woken (it is very hard to do anyway!) and won't feed. If I do on demand, he feeds well for 90 mins on average.

Has any one else had similar issues? Any advice? Are you feeding on demand or waking baby?

Well, 8 times a day is every 3 hours, for a start. I've never read every 2 hours as a recommendation, I think 3 is fairly standard though.

If he's weeing and pooing regularly, and is back to his birth weight, I think you can go to on-demand feeding. I never woke mine, but she woke every 3 hours like clockwork for the first 2-3 weeks, so it never really arose as an issue.

Certainly, though, every 2 hours is unnecessary unless you're worried about his weight.

Just let it happen naturally. I never woke DD, (15months old now) for a feed. She could sometimes feed for an hour and other times was distracted but I just let her sort it out. I wouldn't stress about the 2 hours feeding thing. Its a guideline, like much of the information you get as a new mother. Even now she can feed for 30 minutes sometimes although usually its only 10 minutes before she falls asleep. Let sleeping babies lie and try and sleep yourself. You're doing great.

i bottle fed, but imagine breast feed babies are much the same. with ds i woke him every 3 hours to fed like the midwife said. i was sure he would die of hunger otherwise.

once my family heard about this (and stopped laughing) they reassured me that once the baby was a reasonable weight, ds would let me know when he was hungery, and sure enough he did.

i have never woke dd to feed her. both my kids slept through the night from 3 weeks ( 6-7 hours)

i think that if you feed a child when its hungery it will feed until its full, if you feed a child by the clock it is only topping up. it will also make a baby insecure as it never knows when it will be lifted from a cozy sleep and expected to eat dinner. would you like it

relaxed parent = relaxed baby

Some newborns do need to be woken. Is your baby at all jaundiced?

A 90-minute feed is a long time - that may be an indication that his latch isn't quite right (anything over about 40 minutes is seen as notably long). The fussing, and bad feeding, could also indicate this.

What sort of local BF help do you have?

I'm interested to hear opinions about this too as I've also read about feeding every 2 hours in the day....on 'Kellymom' and other sites.

DC is coming on thursday bu c-section.....so want to do my best, but not get myself tied up into a ridiculous and unneccesary feeding pattern if i don't need too (especially with other DCs to look after!!!)

I know you have to feed, feed and feed in the early days....did this with DS and after 14 weeks he was still feeding (all be it badly) every 1 1/2 to 2 hours, day and night!!!!!!!....do not wish to repeat that!!!

The coming off could easily be trapped wind that is making it uncomfortable for the baby to continue feeding - perhaps try and help the baby deal with this and try to feed again? DS2 does just this.