Would you wake a sleeping baby to feed them?

[ohnelly]

Hi I have two DS's - one age 5yrs and the other 9weeks. I bottle feed the 9wk old roughly every 4 hrs during the day and usually get up once in the night to feed him - basically on demand as I think when they are really small you cant really get into a routine ( I will eventually!)
For example last night he had a bottle at 8pm, went to sleep about 10pm, and woke for bottle at about 3.30am, then slept again and had bottle at 7.30am - he does seem to feed more during the day if had long sleep and is gaining weight so I have no problems with that.
I went to see a friend who has just had her DD (2weeks) and she says she wakes her - even at night to feed her if she goes more than 4 hrs without a feed! I think she is mad!! Fair enough if the baby wasnt gaining weight or something but why if there is no problem? She says she doesnt like her to drain the bottle as it makes her sick & she is better having a few ounces at a time and keep topping her up. Is she mad? maybe she is being sick because she is waking her up to feed before she is ready for it? What do you think? I know little babies need to feed little & often but surely they will let you know when they want it?

no i agree with you, full term babies with no health problems can sleep as long as they want at 9 weeks
not that i've ever had that problem
congratulations btw

At 2 weeks, however, you might wake them for a feed, depending on weight issues etc. Apparently it's better for a baby's digestion to have little-and-often food rather than large-ish amounts at more spaced out intervals - mimics the way babies evolved to feed, more or less constantly attached to their mothers' breasts.

I had to wake my DD every 2.5 hours to feed - but she was tiny and did have weight issues to begin with. It was tough.

Now I wish she would sleep that long between feeds and didn't wake ME up so often!!!

If there are no weight issues she shouldn't need to wake her to feed, as long as she doesn't sleep ridiculously long like 10 hours.

My DS lost 15% of his birth weight and this was the advice I was given by HV. He gained the weight back no probs.