Is is possible for a baby to sleep too long?

[Praguemum]

DD is now 2 and was breastfed on demand. She was a good enough sleeper when she was tiny, but nothing out of the ordinary. DS is now 10 weeks and due to unresolved tongue tie and various other nightmares is on the bottle. He eats at around 7pm, falls asleep properly at 10ish and then generally goes through until 6am (sometimes we even have to wake him up).

We live in the Czech Republic and the doctor freaked me out by saying that I mustn't let him sleep so long as his sugar levels would drop too low. He was also asking me if he came around easily when we had to wake him and has really frightened me that he is in danger if we don't wake him up (SIDS paranoia!!)

Has anyone else been told this by their doctor? This guy was a peadiatrician, but I've never come across this before in the UK. We are currently waking him at 4am for food, but most of the time he doesn't really want it and can't be bothered to burp, so he gets wind for the rest of the day. Is it common for formula fed babies to sleep longer?

Ah what a horrible thing to hear!

I don't think it sounds like a massive sleep.

Consider whether he is putting on weight - happy/alert when awake?

I would say that if your DS is a good weight and happy to sleep through at night, I would let him. I certainly wouldn't be rousing him for a feed, especially since you say he isn't too bothered about it.

My DS did sleep through when we moved him onto formula at around 5 months although I'm not sure if that's because he was a bit bigger/ older by that point.

Btw I did have to feed my DS at least every 3 hours religiously but only because he was extremely premature and desperately needed the calories. As soon as he attained a 'normal' weight I started letting him sleep longer between feeds if he wanted to. Luckily he was and is a fantastic sleeper and slept through from an early age. I NEVER woke him unless I had to beyond the v.early days.

Both my DS slept through at very early ages, ds1 at 5 days and ds2 at three weeks. Both slept for over 10 hours in one go. Both are fine and put weight on with no problems. Both were ebf.

An 8 hour sleep in a 10 week old doesn't sound outrageous - lots of babies sleep through the night at that age! My breastfed ds was sleeping 8 hours at 8 weeks.

My dd was sleeping that length of time when she was a similar age. HV told me that as long as she was gaining weight and ate enough during the day it was fine. As she had a lot of milk during the day, she wasn't hungry at night. Never heard or read anything about having to wake a healthy baby to feed to ensure their blood sugar doesn't drop. Dd then went to 8pm - 7 am from about 4 months, and just got all her feeds closer together during the day.

Oh that's such a relief! Thanks everyone. Waking him often wakes my DD (2) and she won't sleep again, so it would be great to let him go until 6 or 7 then she won't be so cranky. He's a big lad (6kg already) and he stuffs his face all day long, so it sounds like it is normal after all.

What a ridiculous thing to say! Babies will wake if they are hungry. That sort of advice is relevant for a prem or poorly baby but plenty of healthy babies sleep through in the first couple of months. Please dont worry, just enjoy it! :)