Did You Wake Your Baby to Feed Them?

[bubie2.5]

I had to wake my DS up for his feedings. He had sever reflux, weight gaining issues, and was labeled "failure to thrive". He had many hospital stays as well. I had to feed him every 2 hours for about 7 months! We had to thicken his formula, add calories to it and keep him propped up after feedings.

Same here, except for the failure to thrive and hospital stays. I would say that about 80% of what he ate came out, it all suddenly stopped at about 7 months old, just like the doctor told us. He's almost 11 moths old now, and there's no need to wake him up to feed him, he naps in between meals.

 

[DMickey28]

NEVER at night. During the day I would not let him go past 3-4 hours without a feeding but that was once I learned his "style" a little bit more and knew that if he didn't eat enough during the day he'd be up every hour at night needing to eat.

However ... my tank ate A LOT. He'd take down a 12oz bottle at 3 months without giving me a chance to think about burping him. He was drinking full 9oz bottles by 6 weeks. He was on cereal at 8 weeks because he would drink constantly. I had to start supplementing with formula at 6 weeks because I physically could not keep up with his demand. I had the milk but was physically unable to nurse that much, literally 20/7.

Go figure, now at 2.5, some days he eats like a bird!

 

[kimmar067]

Sometimes there's a medical issue/reason for it. when my DD was first born she had a bad case of jaundice, not so bad that she needed to stay at the hospital under the billi lights but it was close. Our ped told us we needed to wake her up every 2-3 hours to feed her as the only way to get the jaundice out was to feed her so she'd have BM's and get it out. If we'd let her - she'd probably sleep through feeding after feeding, the jaundice makes them extremely sleepy. We had to get her blood taken every 3 days for a while, it was terrible.

At the 3 week mark she was all clear and we no longer had to wake her up to feed her BUT she was accustomed to eating every 3 hours at that point. I don't know if Julie Chen's baby has a medical issue of some sort but that's the only explanation I can think of for why you'd wake the baby to feed.

....aw-w-w-w-w, and just look how BEAUTIFUL she is now!

 

[Minnesota!]

Never! The baby will wake when they are hungry!

Although, my older son woke up every 2 hours ON THE DOT for the first 10 weeks or so - so its not like I would ever have the chance to wake him anyway

 

[cheerful chickadee]

....aw-w-w-w-w, and just look how BEAUTIFUL she is now!

awww thanks!!

 

[aprilgail2]

.

However ... my tank ate A LOT. He'd take down a 12oz bottle at 3 months without giving me a chance to think about burping him. He was drinking full 9oz bottles by 6 weeks. He was on cereal at 8 weeks because he would drink constantly. I had to start supplementing with formula at 6 weeks because I physically could not keep up with his demand. I had the milk but was physically unable to nurse that much, literally 20/7.

Go figure, now at 2.5, some days he eats like a bird!

That was the problem with my daughter-she would only take 2-3 ounces at a feeding until she was 4 months old so she was hungry every 2 hours! She just wouldn't take more in one shot--if she did it would come pouring out of her nose (which TOTALLY freaked me the first time that happened!)...so it was every 2-3 hours for months....after about 3 months of waking every 2-3 hours I just remember totally breaking down crying one night--I was working full time and then up a few times at night I was SO exhausted that I just lost it...

 

[JerseyJanice]

I don't recall ever having to wake mine up to be fed. Whenever he was hungry, he let me know!

 

[kimmar067]

...She just wouldn't take more in one shot--if she did it would come pouring out of her nose (which TOTALLY freaked me the first time that happened!)...so it was every 2-3 hours for months....after about 3 months of waking every 2-3 hours I just remember totally breaking down crying one night--I was working full time and then up a few times at night I was SO exhausted that I just lost it...

 

[4nana]

Having had a in short span of 5 yrs, rarely had to wake them . Seems during the day they'd wake every two hours on the button to nurse and poo .

Ahhhh, the memories!

 

[KAMKIM]

Heck no! I let them sleep.

 

[KAMKIM]

That was the problem with my daughter-she would only take 2-3 ounces at a feeding until she was 4 months old so she was hungry every 2 hours! She just wouldn't take more in one shot--if she did it would come pouring out of her nose (which TOTALLY freaked me the first time that happened!)...so it was every 2-3 hours for months....after about 3 months of waking every 2-3 hours I just remember totally breaking down crying one night--I was working full time and then up a few times at night I was SO exhausted that I just lost it...

I've been there having to get up early to go to work after not sleeping at all the night before for months on end. I cried alot too.

 

[disykat]

I can't believe all the people who say never.

I never woke mine, I didn't need to. However, if mine hadn't woken up and they were low enough weight that the dr. was recommending it I'd ABSOLUTELY wake them up to feed them.

 

[momrek06]

DS#2 slept all the time.....I mean he slept day and night. He was not a big baby nor was he a premie. Average 8 lb baby. Finally after quite sometime I called my ped and told him that Michael just sleeps and sleeps and sleeps, what should I do? He said to me (and I will never forget) "Mrs. R....if all my calls were like this one I would be out of business"...."let him sleep"!!! I realized after that call, it was probably a dumb question.

 

[Laura]

During the day while I was on maternity leave, sometimes I had to wake her up. I was breastfeeding and was going to explode otherwise. At night, heck no.

 

[MelanieC]

No way - only on demand when they were asking to be fed. When my babies slept, I let them sleep

 

[nmmom95]

DS6 was 6 weeks premature. We had to wake him every 2 hours for the first two weeks, until he reached about 7 pounds. He was 5lbs 8.75 oz. at birth. It took him like an hour and a half to drink a bottle, then we would start all over again!

 

[sbell111]

My wife and I took a 'new parents' class a few weeks ago. They told us to wake the baby up to feed her.

 

[KAMKIM]

My wife and I took a 'new parents' class a few weeks ago. They told us to wake the baby up to feed her.

they lied.

 

[KadysMom]

My DD was failure to thrive but we were not told to wake her, so we didnt. Then she would go 5 or 6 hours, and wouldnt wake up to feed. We had to start waking her. Turned out she didnt have the mechanism in her brain to signal hunger. Thats why she never woke up. Good thing we woke her up!

 

[sau418]

The first night home from the hospital with DD#2, she went to bed for the night around 10pm, I assumed she would wake sometime before 2am to eat, being exhausted I never woke until 4am and she was still asleep, I panicked that something was wrong, because DD#1 was up every 2 hours on the dot for the first 6 weeks. So I did get up to feed her, she ate about two ounces and as I laid her back down in the bassinet, she promptly spit it all (and yes I mean all, soaked bassinett, soaked mommy) right back up. After that I never woke her again. But that night had to be a fluke she was up once a night to eat everynight for the next 8 months.