Babies: 0 - 3 Months

Should I wake my baby to eat ?

she will be 6 weeks on Saturday. She last ate at 8 pm after some cluster feeding. I put her down to sleep at 9 pm. She will sleep until about 3-4 AM when I will wake her to eat again and then she will sleep until 7-9AM. She grunts and makes feeding cues throughout the night but will never fully wake up on her own.  She is EBF , gaining weight and has plenty of wet and poopy diapers throughout the day. During the day she feeds every 2-3 hours and sometimes every hour. 

Thoughts? Should I wake her to eat again at 11-12 or just let her sleep? 

Re: Should I wake my baby to eat ?

  • Let her sleep
  • let her sleep.
    image
    Elizabeth 5yrs old Jane 3yrs old
    image


  • Loading the player...
  • I wouldn't wake her, but if she's grunting and making feeding cues, then you could try a dream feed. 
  • Since she's gaining fine, I'd let her sleep for sure.
  • The best person to ask about this is your pediatrician. I stopped waking her after 4 weeks when we had sufficient weight gain and output. Currently I do a lot of dream feeding at night as DD will wake me up with hunger cues before she wakes herself up. We bed share so it makes it much easier to dream feed because I don't have to move her at all.
  • Let that baby sleep. If she's gaining weight and there are no health concerns, a 6 week old can go a decent amount without eating. She will tell you when she's hungry. Sounds like she's doing great!




  • Let her sleep.  I was told that it was ok to do that at my 2 week appointment, once DD was back at birth weight.  She was always a decent sleeper at night too.  If you're breastfeeding though, and trying to build up a freezer stash, you can pump during the long first stretch of sleep.  That's how i got my stash started before going back to work.
  • Let her sleep!  If she's gaining weight and having normal diaper output, no need to wake her.  My LO has been sleeping 6+ hours at night since about 4 weeks, and now sleeps 8-9 hrs.  She is EBF and has been gaining normally since birth. Enjoy the extra sleep while you can!
  • My pedi had me wake LO to eat at 6 weeks but that's because she wasn't gaining. Now that she is, I let her sleep. If your LO is gaining fine then let her sleep. 
  • Let her sleep if she is gaining weight ok
    DD#1 born 12/30/2015
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
    DS#1 born 02/19/2013
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker

  • Let her sleep, feed her on demand. As long as she is healthy and active you don't need to worry about anything.
  • I just had my baby's 2 week check-up yesterday.  He's 9oz over his birth weight.  The pedi told me that I still need to feed him every 3-4 hours each night to keep him gaining weight.  However, the way he eats during the day, my husband and I decided that we will let him sleep and feed on demand.  Last night was the first night we tried that, and he woke up after 2 hours, 4 hours, and 3.5 hours.  It was much nicer letting baby call the shots instead of having to wake him :)
Sign In or Register to comment.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"