Do I need to wake up a baby for feeding

A newborn baby spends more than 20 hours a day sleeping in the first month of its life, and the rest of the time - getting food. Often times, the baby will fall asleep while feeding, or sleep too deeply and for too long, shifting the meal schedule. How to properly organize sleep and feeding for a newborn baby?

Many pediatricians (especially the older generation) recommend feeding your baby every 2-3 hours. When it comes to night feedings, doctors often insist that a young mother wake her baby up when he sleeps for a long time. Although in fact, not everything is so simple.

Do I need to wake up a newborn to feed

It is generally accepted that a long sleep of a newborn is right and good. The sleeping baby gives the mother the opportunity to do household chores, take time for herself, just relax.

But a newborn, according to WHO pediatricians, cannot sleep for more than five hours: a child's sleep lasting more than five hours in a row can be as harmful as his absence. This is especially true for premature babies or children who are poorly gaining weight. To gain sufficient body weight, your child must eat well. A strict sleep and feeding regime is not suitable for all babies, but an individual (mixed) feeding schedule will be comfortable for both mother and baby. Such a regimen, with breaks between feedings of no more than 3.5-4 hours, will help to establish lactation in the mother and ensure satiety for the baby. Frequent latching of the baby to the breast will ensure sufficient milk flow and will also prevent mastitis.

Just a few years ago, pediatricians advised mothers to feed their children strictly at regular intervals. The time span was 2-3 hours. After conducting research, scientists have established that newborns should be fed on demand. But many parents have learned from their own experience that it is better to use a mixed mode for feeding. It consists in feeding the baby on demand, but the interval between feedings should not exceed 4 hours.

Long breaks between breastfeeding feedings can negatively affect both the baby and his mother:

In newborns, long intervals between meals can cause dehydration and a drop in blood sugar;
In the mother, a break can cause milk stagnation and a decrease in lactation.

There are several factors you should consider when deciding whether to wake your baby up for breastfeeding.

Age

If a newborn sleeps for more than 3 hours, this is a reason to think about it and contact a pediatrician. In the meantime, it is better to wake him up so that the baby can eat, because in the first month of life, a long break between meals will almost certainly negatively affect the condition of the baby.

In older children, the interval between feedings increases and is 4 hours. If the infant "sleeps" a little while feeding on demand, do not worry. The kid will wake up on his own when his body needs it.

For babies on IV and children who are gradually transferred to the clock mode, such temporary disruptions in the schedule require correction. If the feeding time has come, and the baby is sleeping, you should wait 10-15 minutes, and then gently wake the baby up.

Starting from 2 months of age, the crumbs can not worry if he wakes up during the night feeding and the mode shifts slightly. The older the baby gets, the less often he will wake up in the dark.

The weight

When deciding whether to wake your baby, you will also need to consider the baby's weight.

Premature babies and babies who are poorly gaining weight must be woken up for feeding, as long intervals can further weaken them and worsen the condition.
If your baby is gaining weight well, then sometimes you can give the baby the opportunity to sleep longer. The child will wake up on his own when his body rests, or he feels hungry.

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Health status

If the baby was born prematurely and is very weak, you will need to wake up at the first time by an alarm clock and feed the baby by the hour. Newborns need to be refreshed every three hours. This mode will be temporary until the child gets stronger and gets used to this schedule. Gradually, with an increase in the volume of milk drunk, the intervals between feedings will increase.
A baby with a cold who has a fever should be given the opportunity to sleep a little, because it is known that sleep heals. All the body's forces are now aimed at fighting infection, so it is better not to disturb the child when he is resting.

When to wake a newborn

During the examination by a patronage nurse or doctor - every mother should be prepared for such mandatory wake-ups;
To comply with the feeding regime: between meals should not be allowed breaks lasting more than four hours;
If the mother has to be absent for a long time, then it is better to wake the child up and feed him before leaving;
If the family has a trip, then the baby should be woken up in advance, fed and normally prepared for a future trip;
Often, the baby's sleepiness is a reaction to the medications taken by the mother - such a baby's sleep should be interrupted for mandatory feeding, so as not to disrupt sleep and wakefulness;
If the baby sleeps for an unusually long time and misses the prescribed feedings, you need to take a closer look at him: check the temperature and breathing.

How to wake up

Parents should use gentle but effective ways to wake up a newborn baby. If you do the manipulation incorrectly, then there is a risk of scaring the baby. The baby should move from the sleep phase to the wakefulness phase comfortably so that his nervous system does not suffer from unsuccessful actions of adults.

Dim lighting is considered the most suitable for waking up. Bright light can scare your baby and make him cry.
Pediatricians advise waking the baby when he is in the active phase of sleep. It can be determined by the characteristic motor activity - the baby twitches slightly with his arms and legs, smiles in a dream, his eyelids and lips twitch. This period of sleep is superficial, so it is much easier for a child to get out of it than from a deep sleep phase. If the baby is sleeping soundly, and when you lift his handle up, he does not react in any way, then his sleep is in a deep phase. It is not recommended to wake up the baby at such a moment. In order not to scare the baby, it is better to wait a little. The deep phase lasts no longer than 20-30 minutes.
Call your baby by name in a quiet, calm voice, without changing intonation. The calmness of the mother is transferred to the baby.
Tactile contact also promotes soft awakening: the child can be stroked on the arms, head and body, gently tickled the heel, slightly wiggle the arms and legs. You can speed up the process by taking the baby in your arms: contact with the mother will not let the baby get scared, but a change in position and the closeness of a loved one will drive sleep.
The sleeping child wrapped or swaddled must be freed from blankets, diapers and the outer layer of clothing: lowering the temperature will also help the baby move as easily as possible into the waking stage.
After waking up, it is important not to let the baby close his eyes again, distracting him from sleepiness by talking, gentle stroking, and habitual actions (for example, changing a diaper).

Within a month after birth, the baby and his mother find their own individual regimen, which makes the processes of feeding, sleeping and waking up as comfortable as possible for both parties. Make sure that the baby is fully awake before latching on to your breast. Talk to the newborn, change him, change the diaper, play with him. Often the baby near the breast begins to fall asleep, because the closeness of the mother and the warmth of the breast for the baby is an island of stability. You can distract a newborn from sleep by active actions: stroke him on the head and cheeks, talk to him, hold hands.

Should I wake my baby up for night feeding?

The maximum allowable break between feedings should not exceed four hours, so all parents have to wake up the baby for feeding at night. Night feeds are essential to improve the digestive process, since regular food intake for newborns ensures normal bowel and stomach function.

It is night milk (produced by a young mother from 3 am to 8 am) that is considered the most nutritious for the baby. Feeding a newborn at night is important for the full development of his body. This is especially true for premature or weakly gaining weight children. Even if the baby does not wake up to feed at night on its own, which often happens to premature babies (weak or premature babies may not wake up at night, because their hunger is a little weaker. Such babies need to be woken up) or babies sleeping separately from their mother, then they should be woken up and apply to the chest. Latching the baby to the breast at night stimulates lactation, maintaining the amount of milk the baby needs.

A healthy baby up to six months needs several night meals. As the baby grows up, the number of feedings will decrease.

The baby fell asleep while feeding: the actions of the parents

Which of the young mothers did not have a baby who did not fall asleep during feeding? Inexperienced parents can upset the baby's daily routine by being afraid to wake him up or waking him up too abruptly. So that the mother does not need to wake up the baby who is asleep while eating, pediatricians advise to follow these recommendations:

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talk to your baby in a soft, calm voice while feeding to keep him awake;
so that the baby does not fall asleep, he should not be wrapped or dressed in several layers of clothing: a light undershirt and sliders, a "little man" or a body without blankets and diapers is the best option for eating;
if the baby starts to fall asleep, stroking the baby's forehead above the eyebrows will help keep him awake;
An equally effective way to combat falling asleep is to change the position of the body or change the breast during feeding: if the baby is held by the arms, he will be distracted from sleep.

Breast change can be a problem for a mother: as a rule, milk from one breast is enough for the baby to saturate. In this case, he will drink only fore milk and poorly dissolve the seals in the mammary gland. To avoid stagnation and the appearance of seals, the mother needs to monitor the condition of the mammary glands.

Pediatricians note that the sleep mode and frequency of feeding correctly selected for a particular baby guarantee not only physical health, but also the calmness of the child.

Feeding a newborn: where to start?

For a newborn baby, feeding is the most important process that lays the foundation for future health, which guarantees active growth and development. This is why parents have to ensure that their meals are regular. What steps should be taken to make feeding as natural and comfortable as possible for both baby and mother?

Hands and breasts of a nursing mother should be washed with simple laundry soap, bottles and nipples (in the case of artificial feeding) should be disinfected: this will reduce the risk of thrush in the baby's mouth.
If you are lying down, take care of a fresh diaper on the bed - cleanliness is a guarantee of health.
A comfortable position will make the whole process easier and more comfortable for both parties. Each mother is free to choose a position on her own, taking into account her needs and the wishes of the baby. Among the most preferred are the classic options - sitting and lying down (breastfeeding positions).
Correct grip of the nipple by the baby guarantees active and productive sucking, which is not a problem for either mother or baby. If the nipple is not seized correctly, the baby eats with difficulty, making additional efforts, quickly gets tired and begins to be capricious. In this case, the mother's breast suffers even more: cracks are likely, as well as milk stagnation due to inactive sucking. The basics of latching a baby to the breast should be taught to a young mother in a maternity hospital (a midwife or a doctor), since the success of all breastfeeding depends on the first steps (how to breastfeed correctly).
If your baby falls asleep a few minutes after starting feeding, try waking him up to continue eating. If the child immediately fell asleep soundly, then feeding can be postponed.

Output

A premature or debilitated baby. When a newborn is born prematurely and / or is rather low in weight, he may not wake up to feed due to lack of strength. In this case, it is really necessary to wake up the baby, it is even possible to do it more often than once every 2-3 hours. Otherwise, he will gain weight very slowly.
In the case of a healthy, strong child, things are different. Here mom is better off guided by her flair and intuition than by the advice of others. Every child is different. Someone regularly wakes up every two hours to eat. And someone from the very birth sleeps at night for 6-8 hours. You should not wake up your baby for feeding if: he is gaining weight well, his mother has enough milk. There is no need to worry if these two conditions are met. Here you can only be glad that the young mother has the opportunity to sleep and recover from childbirth. This is much more important than adhering to a formal rule of feeding the baby every 2-3 hours.
The baby's weight gain must be assessed not by his subjective feelings (“he eats little and does not grow at all”), but by objective parameters - how many grams the child has added, how many centimeters he has grown (table: height - weight of a child up to a year) In this case, you need to evaluate a fairly long period of time - a month or at least a week. If the child really does not change much in weight over time and at the same time practically does not eat at night, you can try to wake him up. However, you should not go to extremes: if you regularly wake up the baby, and he still does not take the breast and falls asleep again, you do not need to forcefully bother him. A hungry child will definitely eat. Otherwise, you simply run the risk of knocking down the child's natural sleep and wakefulness.
When a young mother does not have enough milk, breastfeeding experts recommend increasing the frequency of breastfeeding. It is especially important to latch the baby to the breast at night. It is in the dark when the baby sucks the breast in the mother's body that a hormone is produced that affects the amount of breast milk that is formed the next day. Therefore, if you have difficulties with lactation, and the baby sleeps all night without waking up, it is worth waking him up and applying to the breast as often as possible.

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Mom's opinion: sleep or food

Do I need to wake up the baby for feeding? No, it doesn `t need! Believe me, the first thing you know is that the child is hungry. Now all leading pediatricians are inclined to believe that it is not necessary to wake up a child for feeding. That when he gets hungry he will wake up and demand food.