Should you wake a sleeping newborn to BF??

[olien]

My sister has a 1.5 wk old & was told to not let him go longer that 2 - 3 hrs betw feedings.

Last night he slept for 5hrs & she finally woke him to feed him. Is this the right thing to do? He ate well when she woke him.

She is afraid he is not getting enough milk if he goes that long at night betw feedings. Also I also mentioned that she doesnt want her supply to start dropping when it is just starting to get established.

Of course it was suggested that she supplements with formula (by her ped or the hosp - I forget which.) to make sure her LO was getting enough nourishment. I told her this was def the wrong thing to do!!!

I am going to send her a link to this post so please reply! she needs advice from you knowledgable mamas out there. I never had this prob with my Lo, so I didnt know how to help her. Thanks!!!

Oh yeah. I dont know if this matters, but her Lo was 4wks early. Also the hosp had her suppliment with formula one day - 20oz. I forgot the reason & it made him constipated. the following day he wasnt bfing much.

[lmk1]

Same thing was recommended to me (as far as waking ds to bf) by the hospital, by my doula, and by the L.C. I had a pretty sleepy baby, and I would tickle his feet, undress him, etc... to wake him up. I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do or not...
Ds was on the small side, 6lb 6oz when he was born, so I think it would somewhat depend on the size of the baby. Maybe with a bigger baby, I wouldn't be so concerned about it...as long as he had enough wet and poopy diapers. I definitely would NOT supplement with formula for "just in case". That's a great way to mess up your supply! I didn't even give ds any bm in bottles for the first 3 weeks to avoid nipple confusion.

[DCMama01]

DD is 12 weeks today and 5 hrs is the longest she's slept ever (once)! Tell ur sis I'm jealous!

That said, I would agree with waking him up to feed. I suggest trying a dream feed if it's night time when he's marathon sleeping. She can lie next to him and wake him just enough to latch on every 2-3 hrs to eat and then fall back asleep. My DD fed every 1 to 1.5 hrs from birth and I think that's why I have such an abundant (over) supply today.

[Sharlla]

I would definitely nurse nurse nurse a preemie to get that babies weight up. She's lucky that she can BF at all, most people who had babies early (myself included) often don't do well with BFing.

[PatioGardener]

I would wake a new born (especially a 36 weeker) every 3 hours to feed until they are back to birth weight or for the first 2 weeks, whichever comes later.

After that I would continue to offer a 36 weeker to feed every 2 hours during the day and every 4-5 hours at night depending on weight gain and wet diapers until they reach 4 weeks (or what would have been term).

35-37 weekers are notorious for having breastfeeding issues, while "looking fine" so I would be extra cautious.

And I would avoid formula unless baby was dehydrated etc, and no donor milk was available. Giving formula not only puts baby at increased risk for illness, it undermines mother's supply.

[Bokonon]

Originally Posted by olien

My sister has a 1.5 wk old & was told to not let him go longer that 2 - 3 hrs betw feedings.

Last night he slept for 5hrs & she finally woke him to feed him. Is this the right thing to do? He ate well when she woke him.

She is afraid he is not getting enough milk if he goes that long at night betw feedings. Also I also mentioned that she doesnt want her supply to start dropping when it is just starting to get established.

Of course it was suggested that she supplements with formula (by her ped or the hosp - I forget which.) to make sure her LO was getting enough nourishment. I told her this was def the wrong thing to do!!!

I am going to send her a link to this post so please reply! she needs advice from you knowledgable mamas out there. I never had this prob with my Lo, so I didnt know how to help her. Thanks!!!

Oh yeah. I dont know if this matters, but her Lo was 4wks early. Also the hosp had her suppliment with formula one day - 20oz. I forgot the reason & it made him constipated. the following day he wasnt bfing much.

They had her SUPPLEMENT with 20 oz. of formula???? His stomach is the size of a marble! Of course he didn't eat much the next day.

[olien]

Originally Posted by Sharlla

I would definitely nurse nurse nurse a preemie to get that babies weight up. She's lucky that she can BF at all, most people who had babies early (myself included) often don't do well with BFing.

Honestly his weight is good. He was born at 7.5lbs and left the hosp at 6lbs 9oz.

Originally Posted by Bokonon

They had her SUPPLEMENT with 20 oz. of formula???? His stomach is the size of a marble! Of course he didn't eat much the next day.

I dont know if the 20oz was all at once or over the course of a period of time.

[Bokonon]

Originally Posted by olien

Honestly his weight is good. He was born at 7.5lbs and left the hosp at 6lbs 9oz.



I dont know if the 20oz was all at once or over the course of a period of time.

No, not all at once, but even if it was a whole day, that is a huge amount of food for a newborn, especially a preemie.

[JessicaS]

I would wake him to feed him at first.

My own ds had gaining issues due to a heart condition and I woke him every two-three hours. It was rough because I had to keep it up for awhile because the problems persisted but it was very much worth it.

[savyjoel]

I would wake baby at least every 3hr. I think when baby is about 8 weeks or so then let them sleep until they wake on their own. I'm no expert--just my 2 cents.

[pumpkin]

I would wake to feed.
I don't remember exactly what age it was, but there came a point where instead of being a sleepy nurser when we woke her at 3 hours, DD just wasn't hungry. It was a pretty obvious difference. At that point we started letting it stretch longer. Maybe around 4 or 5 weeks?

[*Aimee*]

All of my boys have been 36 weekers and they've all needed to be woke to fed. They will just sleep and then get weaker and too weak to nurse because at that gestational age they just are soooo sleepy. We had to lay cold towels on the first two to get them to wake up at all.

[NSmomtobe]

I was told to do this in the first week until he was back up to his birth weight. It might be necessary to do it longer for premature babies, but I don't know.

[mambera]

I agree with wake to feed.

I had a very sleepy baby and I did wake to feed but it was really difficult, she would fall back asleep as soon as her lips hit the boob. Eventually she got better but by that time my supply had taken an unfixable hit and I ended up stuck with supplementation for the long term. Those first couple of weeks are really important.

I was told every 2 h during the day and every 3 h at night. I think you are actually supposed to count from the start of the feed - I counted from the end of the feed which I think was a mistake, so in practice it ended up closer to every 3 h instead of every 2.

[ShwarmaQueen]

I would, especially with the early delivery.

I had to wake DD because she was jaundiced and would go for 6 hours without eating and that was just bad. I would tickle her lips, tickle her feet, rub her, take her clothes off and if those didn't work, a wet washcloth on her head would usally wake her. With DS, who had a tonguetie and had a small period of no-weight gain, I was told by an LC that sometimes babies who sleep long periods might actually be not getting enough nutrition and the longer sleeping period is their bodies way of conserving calories.

[dollyanna]

I had to do this for a month or so with my full-term baby because she was not gaining weight (I had very low supply).

I also remember getting the same advice as PP, feedings during the day every 2 hrs, every 3 hrs at night, counting from the BEGINNING of the feed. So if you go to bed at 11pm you set the alarm for 2am, 5am, 8am.

I think if/when the baby starts gaining well, you can relax on this. If that doesn't happen, then you need to look at ways to increase your supply (see the "breastfeeding challenges" forum sticky) & think about supplementing.

And yes, 20 oz is a LOT of "supplement"!!! If I recall, a newborn normally needs 14-21 oz a day TOTAL. I had to supplement my newborn, and was told to give one ounce each time I breastfed - so like 9 ounces - and that was after she lost over 20% of her body weight!

[DocsNemesis]

I'd say some babies actually do feed differently and will simply go for longer stretches but eat more at a time, but theres two things here. One, he was early so that means he's probably sleepier than a typical newborn. I've had a preemie and now a 37 weeker and both were/are very sleepy. If I didn't wake them up every couple of hours, they'd easily just sleep through multiple feedings and not make up for it.

The other thing with newborns is that they have very tiny stomachs and also need to eat a lot to help prevent jaundice. Jaundice causes a viscous cycle of sleepiness resulting in not eating enough, resulting in more jaundice and more sleepiness.

Anyway, I DON'T think that letting him sleep a longer stretch at night will hurt him though. He'll probably just make up for it during the next feed or feeds. If it were something happening constantly, that'd be very different from once a night. And I'm sure mama appreciates the extra sleep

[artgoddess]

I agree, a baby that young needs to eat often. When he is a couple months and has shown to be gaining steadily she can enjoy the 5 hours rests with glee. But for now, wake him to feed him.

[MeepyCat]

Originally Posted by Bokonon

They had her SUPPLEMENT with 20 oz. of formula???? His stomach is the size of a marble! Of course he didn't eat much the next day.

20 oz. isn't "supplementing." That's overfeeding.

I'd base my decision on when and whether to wake the baby on how well the baby is doing generally and how much/often he ate during the day. If (since he's a preemie) he's gotten to a fairly normal newborn weight (say, 7-8 lbs.), and is nursing enthusiastically while awake, go ahead and let him sleep. If not, wake him.

There's a big difference between a chowhound who conks out after a marathon nursing session and a baby who sucked a little and then slept a long time.

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by MeepyCat

There's a big difference between a chowhound who conks out after a marathon nursing session and a baby who sucked a little and then slept a long time.

This is so true! If Mama is experienced with breastfeeding and knows the difference between sucking and swallowing, and can tell that baby is taking in good quantities of milk it is a very different picture than if Mama isn't experienced and equates time at breast to milk transferred. I think that's why Moms are told to wake their babies - to catch those sleepy ones who would otherwise lose wright and get dehydrated.