Do you wake your baby to eat?

[aprilgail2]

Kaseys pediatrician said to never wake her up, only feed her on demand or the babies tend to be overweight if you feed them when they are not even hungry.

 

[skuttle]

On demand. The only time I woke DS to feed him was in the hospital because I was trying to breastfeed.

 

[sap1227]

With DS#1 we woke up just fine on his own every 2 hours. With DS#2 I woke him up to eat for the first month. Even with waking him up every 3-4 hours he lost over 1 pound in the first week. He is such a great sleeper at night.

So, I say all kids are different, do what works for you and your kids

 

[Beth76]

OMG!!!! NEVER wake a baby!!! Unless there's some special medical reason to do so.

Did you see that Friends episode right after Emma was born? Rachel was looking at her and said, "She's so cute, I'm going to wake her up". I was yelling at the screen "NOOOOOOOOO". Then the baby was screaming and wouldn't stop. Ha ha!!!!!!

 

[mrsstats]

She's 5 months old. And they feed her on a strict schedule. She's normal in every way. I know my sister thinks it's crazy to wake a baby to feed it. Her kids are now 6 and 4

 

[LScot]

We didn't wake DD in the middle of the night when she was a newborn but we would wake her up about 10:00 or 11:00pm to "play" with her and feed her. She would then sleep all night. I learned it from my mom and DD slept through the night from 7 weeks on. During the day, I usually fed her every 4 hours.

When we first brought her home from the hospital she would sleep about 5 hours a night.

Of course, I fed her before I was supposed to and never rocked her to sleep either. Bad momma, good baby. Oh and at 10yo, she still isn't obese.

every baby is truly different and everyone has their own parenting styles.

 

[Nancy]

I never woke my babies. I was not able to nurse so they were bottle babies so I never had to worry about the every 2 hours until the milk supply comes in. Doctor said feed on demand. Mom said get them on a schedule right away. I listened to Mom. DD #1 was great, by 3 weeks she slept 5-6 hours a night, ate at 4 or 5 am and went right back to sleep for 4 hours. DD #2 comes along and she NEVER slept! (or at least it seemed that way) I think she was over 1 year old before she became a good sleeper. DD # 3 slept 6 hours per night by 5 weeks. We were very lucky. But every baby is different and every family has to do what's best for them. My younger sister is a very strict on schedule Mom....not so much now as they are getting older, but when they were babies she was.

 

[kadaten]

Originally posted by shortbun
My DS would have slept and not eaten. Instructions from Doc
were: Wake him up and get him to eat. He also had reflux which
meant he was at risk for failure to thrive. We didn't wake him
at night until 4 hours had gone by. During the day as a newborn,
every 2 hours. We had to tickle him. hold cold wash rags to his
feet, undress him or he would have slept instead of eaten.
All babies are different, all parents are different. There is no one
right way.

Ditto, except mine were jaundiced, which makes them VERY sleepy....so I had to wake them to eat as newborns. Also, I had milk issues so had to nurse on a somewhat regular schedule for a while....

The bath is their way of getting the baby awake and alert and ready to eat. My DD we just undressed down to her diaper and tickled feet She still fell asleep rather quickly while eating, thouggh.....which actually led to the milk issues and her not gaining any weight for 2 months!!! Sometimes it's medically necessary to wake the baby!!

After the "newborn" phase and after medical issues are cleared, then I would not wake the baby....

 

[MHopkins2]

Obviously, "special needs" situations are a different story. But every woman in my family lives by "NEVER wake a sleeping baby."

 

[pkasbohm]

heck no--never wake a sleeping baby!!!!

 

[Nutsy]

I never at any time woke my children to feed & bath them. They got fed & bathed when they were awake.