How long CAN you let LO go without eating?

peelester429

At the ped a few weeks back the doc said she probably wouldn't let C go longer than 8ish hours without eating.  Sometimes (not always) C sleeps so well through the night that we have to wake her up to eat in order to follow this guideline.  She's now almost 7 weeks old... Do you think we still need to do this?  Sometimes I'll feed her at 8:00pm, then DH will give her a bath and do all of our nighttime rituals before putting her down... 8 hours later it would be 4:00am and obviously I'd love to not have to get up then if she's willing to keep on sleeping!

What are your thoughts?  Anyone know if there are hard and fast rules about this? 

jill&eric

i wouldnt wake her to feed unless you have weight gain issues but that is just my opinion. what is your secret? how much is your lo eating at a time? i swear i cant get mine to go more that 2 hours at almost 7 weeks during the day and 5 hours at night! i feel like she is eating way too much but its driving me nuts to feed her little bits so often!

ns1

So glad you asked this!  At LO's 2 week appt. I asked my pedi if I still needed to wake DD every 3 hours to eat, he laughed and said no, let her sleep.  Then he threw in some joke about...well, if she goes ____ hours then you may want to wake her <laughter>.  I really didn't think I'd have to worry about her sleeping too long so I never listened to how long he said or if he really meant it, but now my LO is sleeping for long stretches too!  (I know, I should be thankful!)  Sorry, I don't really have an answer, but I'm in the same boat.  As of now I'm not waking to feed at night.  I'm just making sure I get several feedings in during the day and enjoying the sleep while it lasts.  

happylady07

Wow!!  I have to admit I'm slightly jealous   My doula told me once he's gaining fine, as long as he's happy sleeping at night, let him, I've also heard it gets easier once they hit 10-12 lbs or 6ish weeks.  At this point I'm happy to get 4 straight hours of sleep! 

cantalopes24

Lo is sleeping 8 to 10 hours at night. Its more important the amount of ounces over the day they are eating than how often they feed. She is BF'd but when she does take a bottle she is getting between 3 and 5 oz and she eats 5 to 7 times a day. She usually eats at 7, 1030, between 1230 and 130, 430, and then sometime between 730 and 9. Ocassionally she will eat a second time between 730 and 10 and sometimes she skips the 1030 and eats twice between her 130 and 730 feed. She is probably getting between 25 and 30oz a day.

 

ns1

cantalopes24:

Lo is sleeping 8 to 10 hours at night. Its more important the amount of ounces over the day they are eating than how often they feed. She is BF'd but when she does take a bottle she is getting between 3 and 5 oz and she eats 5 to 7 times a day. She usually eats at 7, 1030, between 1230 and 130, 430, and then sometime between 730 and 9. Ocassionally she will eat a second time between 730 and 10 and sometimes she skips the 1030 and eats twice between her 130 and 730 feed. She is probably getting between 25 and 30oz a day.

 

This sounds exactly like my DD! 

peelester429

Ok... thanks for the input.  C is a big baby (was almost 10 lbs at birth) and is well over 12 lbs now, so that probably attributes to her decent sleeping habits.  She eats 5-7 times per day, and is BF'd so I'm not sure how much she's getting.  When she does take a bottle, she'll eat between 3 and 4 1/2 ounces.  I've actually been stressing about whether or not she's getting enough to eat while BFing b/c I've had to switch to using nipple shields - but I guess since she's producing enough diapers and sleeping well, I need to quit stressing.