Do I wake my 3 nearly 4 week old for feeding?

[Babygray2020]

Ftm and I exclusively breastfeed my baby boy. He feeds really well during the day, he’s on me pretty much constant. He wees and poo’s a lot & is gaining weight. Do I need to wake him during the night for feeds? I’m unsure if I should let him sleep and wake alone ? Thank you

Never wake a sleeping baby. They'll wake up when they're hungry, I promise! Xx

I disagree strongly. "Never wake a sleeping baby" is a harmful myth in my opinion.

My son had jaundice and was very sleepy. He still needed feeding through the night and would not wake up by himself.

Newborns should not go more than 4 hours without feeding.

Yes, you should wake him to feed. My son would even take a feed in his sleep at that age!

As long as everything is going "well" I would let him sleep for a maximum of about 4 hour. Guidance says to time the 4 hours from start of feed to start of feed, but use common sense - if he cluster fed for 3 hours then don't wake him 4 hours from the start of that!

"Doing well" is a horrible phrase that doesn't really describe anything. Signs that everything is ok include;

• weight gain along a centile line
• wet and dirty nappies incl at least 2 poos per day
• 8+ feeds of 10 mins plus per day
• mustard yellow poo in a breastfed baby

Enjoy the cuddles!

My ex scbu baby needed me to set an alarm and feed every four hours. I’d be wary of letting a newborn go much longer tbh. Past 6 weeks I would relax a little more. Unless they had previous issues w jaundice etc.

Should have said, I'd start to relax the 4 hour maximum from 4-6 weeks and relax it gradually rather than letting him go 8 hours straight at 4 weeks and one day!

I’m with the others here, you need to wake baby for a feed. I think once you’re at 6 weeks and if baby still wants to sleep through, then let them.

If your baby is sleeping through at 6 weeks you will be one of the lucky ones!

At that age wake them. My little girl was 11 days old and I found it hard to wake her for feeds after 4 hours. It was the strongest sign something was wrong. She wasn't getting enough oxygen. We called 111 who called an ambulance. They said she was probably fine but if we wanted reassurance take her to A&E. There she was resuscitated, stayed on high dependency for 24 hours on a drip and oxygen then moved to the ward for a couple of days.

Yes I'd wake them - with ds I used to dream feed.. I couldn't with dd because she had severe reflux .

Ds was my first and my health visitor told me never to wake him to feed. I didn't for the first week or so and he became dehydrated! It sounds like your wee one is doing ok though so just keep going and wake him regularly if needed.

Re poos - ds never pooed a lot (eg the two a day mentioned above) even when feeding fine.

If he's wearing and pooing,gaining weight and feeding all day then let him be.He'll probably wake more in the night naturally as he grows.All babies are different.