He sleeps to much to get 3 good meals in

oboechick7

and while I love that he sleeps so well, I worry about how much food he's eating.

For example yesterday he got up at 10:15 and ate breakfast. He ate a little lunch around 1 and then napped until 3:30 or so, but then wasn't hungry for dinner. He went to bed at 7, woke up for a bottle around 3 and is still asleep... its 10:30 here.

Can I assume if he were hungry he'd wake up, or do I try and stuff more snacks into him through out the day? I'll ask his doctor about this next week too

jennybeams

Damn that's a lot of sleep   So he's getting like 18 hours in a 24 hour period?  I'd call the dr sooner rather than later.  That's more than a newborn sleeps.

EMTX

Ditto Jenny, that sounds like more than a normal amount of sleep.

biochemgirl

I don't mean to be an alarmist, but, I would probably call my doctor.  That is A LOT of sleep if he's getting that much consistently-15 hours at night plus a nap-I think i would be concerned.

mom2be:)2008

I'd be a little concerned about how much he sleeps, from what you wrote, he is sleeping about 18 hours a day, that's alot, and with that limited of a window, it's hard to get enough food into him.  I'd start trying to wake him up earlier in the morning for  breakfast, maybe 9:00, then do a snack at 11, lunch at 1, nap at 1:30-3:30, dinner at 530 and a snack before bed or something similar to that. DD sleeps about 12 hours at night, and 2-3 for a nap and that's pretty much the schedule we follow.

Jordandice

Does he always get that much sleep or is this a new thing?  It could just be a growth spurt.  Eliana went through a phase about a month ago where she was sleeping sometimes more than 15 hrs at night and then taking a 3 hr nap and still acting exhausted by 6:30pm.  It lasted about a week or two and then she went back to sleeping 12ish hrs at night and her 2+ hr nap.  I wouldn't be concerned if it's something new.  Call your dr., but overall I wouldn't worry.  He will catch up on eating when he's done with the sleeping phase of the growth spurt.

Singingmama

My daughter will also sleep 16-18 hours a day. She sleeps from 6:30/7 PM till 6:30-8 AM (depending on the day) and then takes 2, 1.5-2 hour naps during the day. I give her an 8 oz bottle when she wakes up in the morning and then she gets breakfast right before her morning nap. On daycare days, she gets breakfast at 8 AM, but naps at 10 AM, since that's the daycare's schedule. When at home, she will typically sleep until 8 AM and then gets breakfast at 10 AM, and almost immediately goes down for a nap. She gets lunch at noon and then another nap after her 2 PM snack. Dinner at 5:30/6 PM, a bath and then bed by 6:30/7 PM.

In your situation, I think I'd start eliminating the 3 AM bottle. You could do this slowly by giving him an ounce less every day, or every other day, over the course of a couple weeks. Then, he probably won't sleep till 10 AM, because he'll be hungry and wake up. If he woke up around 8, then you could probably go to a two nap schedule during the day, which would allow him to get his needed sleep, but put you in a better place to get him to eat a meal.

The one meal that my daughter is least likely to eat, seems to be lunch. She's just too busy playing and not really hungry in the middle of the day. A lot of times, she gets a solid breakfast, snacks all day long (although I always at least put her in her high chair for lunch) and then a solid dinner.

.completely.amazing.love.

M sleeps 12-14 hours at night. She has 6oz of milk with cereal & a fruit for breakfast & goes down for her AM nap about 2 hours after waking. She'll sleep about 1.5 hr. She'll eat lunch (fruit or veggie, sandwich or meat) about half an hour after she wakes up from her nap & then nap again about 3 hours later. Then she'll eat dinner (main dish, side, veggie) when we do & has a 6oz bottle at bedtime. So basically this is her schedule:

9:30 wake up, breakfast

11:30am- nap

1pm- wake up

1:30pm- lunch

4pm- nap

6pm- wake up, dinner

8pm- bottle

8:30pm- bed

rinse & repeat.

She also has snacks (puffs, dried fruit, cereal, crackers) throughout the day. I'm not worried about her sleep or her eating & neither is her pedi so far. The kid just loves sleep. I've tried to skip a nap & she is ALWAYS cranky when that happens!

oboechick7

Thanks for the advice ladies. I put a call in for his pedi, and we have a well baby visit next week. I think I'll try getting him up a little earlier for breakfast. I would love to have him on a better schedule anyway

emberlee3

Dang, that's a lot of sleep.  But I wanted to mention that toddlers really do not need 3 *good* meals per day.  One good meal a day is quite normal.  DS is awake for plenty of time to get 3 good meals and 2 good snacks, but he still only eats 1 good meal, at best.  Just throwing that out there...