How often to feed a newborn

wwsurf81

How often do you feed a newborn.  I have a one week old and the doctor said every 3 hours, but a lot of the time he doesn't seem hungry that often, especially when his last feeding was a long good one.  Should I still wake him up and make him eat or is it okay to let him keep sleeping and wait a 1/2 hour or hour longer?

ladysingstheblues

In order to establish my supply, I'm feeding him every 2 hours, no matter what.

josswhedon

I would maintain that 3 hour schedule. Newborns don't onften KNOW they are hungry and need to be woken up. We let our DD sleep up to 5 hours during the night before waking her, but only 3 during the day.

SapphyrEyes

To establish and maintain your supply you need to stick to a 2-3 hour schedule right now.

madhatter2003

2-3 hours at a minimum.

If they are sleepy, wake them up.  It sucks, but that's what you have to do.

noah-bear

2-3 hours until they tell you they are hungry and back up to their birth weight. Once your LO tells you, you feed on demand, not on a schedule.

bieanca

I agree with everyone else.  I would wake DS every 2-3 hours during the day and feed him.  At night I would let him sleep longer, but I still got up to pump between 2-3 hours.  This time will past quickly and hopefully your LO will still continue to sleep good.

caeliesmom

He should be getting 8-12 feedings in a 24 hour period, this early on you want it to be closer to 12 feedings. If you have him swaddled or in warm clotehs you might need to remove a layer to get him up.  At this age, they don't always know what they need and if they aren't getting enough calories they will just keep sleeping. Once he's up to his birthweight and waking on his own to eat you can let him go.