do you wake a sleeping baby?

Question

I have gotten mixed things here. My son is a week old and sleeping pretty well through the night. He doesn’t always wake up when he has hit the 3-4 hour mark for feeding. 
Do you wake him and feed? Or do you let him sleep until he decides to wake up?

Answer

I'd baby is back at birth weigh and gaining weight steadily - don't wake baby. But if not - wake up.

Answer

Ask the doctor. A medical opinion is better than a normal opinion any day. Especially when it comes to things such as these.

Answer

Personally I would wake him up. We were told at the hospital sometimes when they’re not eating enough they’re too lethargic to wake themselves up from their sleep, bc they don’t have the calories to sustain good energy.

Answer

Depends how old the baby is. I was told at the beginning at least first month I have to wake him for feeding.

Answer

I would I did until 2 months because my baby was born early!

Answer

I was told by the nurses in the hospital and my daughter's pediatrician that the first couple of weeks you need to wake them up every 4 or 5 hours at night to eat. I would set an alarm on my phone at 4 hours and feed her and then put her back in the bassinet. She never had issues falling back to sleep, hell she barely woke up for them fully. I'd rather wake my child and feed her, than risk her not waking and slowly starve. I read an article that a mom unknowingly let her baby starve to death - a combination of her milk not coming in and baby not waking to eat. How truthful it is I have no idea mind you, but I'm a "better safe than sorry" kind of person. 🤷‍♀️

Answer

If baby is gaining weight and has gotten back to birth weight then there's no real need to wake him. If baby is hungry he WILL wake up.
Conversely if you wanted to try and get him to sleep a little longer you could try dream feeding.  As the name suggests you don't actually wake the baby to do this. I'll explain how I do this with my son who is now 24 weeks but we've done it since he was around 5 weeks.
He goes to bed after a bath and bottle at 8pm. If I were to leave him from this point he would probably wake at around 1am for another feed. So around 11-11.30pm I lift him out of his cot real gentle, lay him on our bed and change him and then give him a feed - he doesn't wake, usually takes around 6-7oz now. Back to bed for 11.45 latest and he then sleeps through until 7.30am

Answer

Do not ever wake a sleeping baby.... he will start getting used to being woken up to eat. Let him sleep and enjoy his rest, trust me when a baby is hungry you will know!

Answer

Agree with other post. Wake up and feed. Also this stage may not last forever. Sometimes it take them a couple of weeks to be more alert.

Answer

It’s all down to personal preference. Some doctors and nurses will tell you to wake a baby. But others will tell you to leave a sleeping baby and they will tell you when they are hungry. 
I personally never woke up my daughter for a feed. She is perfectly healthy and managed to get into her own routine. 
You’ve got to do what is right for you x￼￼￼￼￼￼

do you wake a sleeping baby?

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