wake to feed?

[Fizzysherbet22]

Do you wake your baby for feeding throughout the night or wait for them to wake up to want a feed?

How old is baby? X

@username09643

How old is baby? X

5 weeks old

My DD was prem and jaundice so I was waking her for feed every 4ish hours if she didn't wake me before. X

Very tiny, go with the flow and feed when they need it. But...When mine started occasionally sleeping through at about 4-5 months her weight gain dropped off slightly. The health visitor said that we had to wake her up to feed her in the night. Absolute worst bloody advice we were given. We did as suggested, and of course then she wouldn't sleep through at all and she was impossible to get to go down at bedtime and she was still waking several times a night when she was 2.

If you have a kid that's sleeping through the night, then thank your lucky stars, and don't wake them up!

We were advised to wake to feed every 2 hours by a few different midwives.
This was mainly because DD had lost alot of weight in the first week following birth and needed to regain it.
Once she had exceeded her birth weight we were advised to allow her to wake when she needed to.

She seemed to wake every couple of hours anyway so it wasnt really any different.
She is now sleeping mostly through the night (occasional feed mid way through).

If they're not yet back to their birth weight then ideally you should wake them up to feed.

If they're back to their birth weight and not having an issues with feeding and/or putting on weight then I would never wake a sleeping baby.

Personally I think if they're hungry, they'll wake

As PP said I was lead to believe once they had exceed their birth weight you don't need to wake them. Obviously at 5 weeks if it went 6-7 hours you might consider it but i doubt they'd go anymore than 4-4.5!

I wouldn't unless there was a particular worry like prematurity or poor weight gain. My second baby slept long stretches from birth (till 6 months!!). She was breastfed and still regained her birth weight in the first week.