Should i wake baby for feeds

Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. How to Wake Your Baby. Normal Sleepiness in Newborns and Infants. When to Call the Doctor. Breastfeeding: On Demand or On a Schedule? Sleep Needs of Infants. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Sign Up. What are your concerns? Verywell Family uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Related Articles. Here are some tips to help them out to ensure they are alert enough to feed and get that tummy nice and full.

Undress them down to their diaper. The chill of the air is often enough to wake a baby enough to eat. You can put a blanket around them to keep them warm enough once they begin to feed. Use a cool washcloth on their face or body.

Similarly, the coolness of a wet washcloth provides a great little wake-up call. I always felt a bit guilty doing this with my babies though. Talk to your baby as you feed to keep them awake. Just a bit of sound might be all they need to wake. Switch sides or move your baby if they nod off. If you see your baby start to fall asleep, give them a break and put them upright to wake her up a bit. Then you can continue feeding again. Even though you need to wake your baby to feed them, most of the time they'll wake on their own.

Waking your baby every three hours to eat in the early weeks is imperative to help them grow and thrive. But there are many other reasons why you might decide to wake your baby:. Those early days with a newborn are tough, there is no denying that. Elizabeth LaFleur. Mayo Clinic, April 28 Delyth Purchase. Swansea University, July 6 Australian Breastfeeding Association, August Ovia Parenting Journey.

In addition, it can help to switch breasts each time your baby slows in his sucking and starts to doze off. Take him off, burp him and wake him again to start on the other side.

He can have each side more than once if he stays awake. It can also be helpful to use breast compressions — ie squeeze your breast while he is sucking at the breast but is not swallowing milk. Breast compressions increase the flow of breastmilk which helps encourage the baby to suck and swallow, and thus get more milk. Even if you have a sleepy newborn who needs waking for feeds in the early weeks, this will change. Soon enough you will be able to relax and let your baby set his own individual feeding pattern.

The information on this website does not replace advice from your health care providers. Do I need to wake my baby for feeds?