Why Newborns Who Sleep for Longer Stretches Should Be Awakened to Feed?

Babies grow and rapidly develop, thus, it's crucial they get enough sleep to sustain the energy needed for active play and good health. Further, having good sleep habits such as routine sleep times and ensuring a relaxed but safe sleep environment can surely help the baby to get the sleep they need; Sleep is also vital for both normal growth and development of an infant including emotional health and other important body functions.

Many views sleep as the time for rest but as a matter of fact, the brain is very active during sleep. Some infants may only sleep for 11 hours a day while others may sleep for up to 19 hours per day. In addition, babies may sleep more or less than usual especially when they are sick or when they encounter a disruption to their regular routine, making most newborns not sleep in one stretch.

The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) suggests newborns spend between 14 and 17 hours sleeping every day. Due to the need for feeding, sleep is commonly broken up into a number of shorter periods. While the bulk of total sleep occurs at night, it's very rare for babies to sleep through the night without waking up.

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"Babies shouldn't go without feeding for more than 4 hours"

Waking up your baby is a common practice especially for new parents to ensure that the baby is getting enough eat. This practice is also advised for breastfeeding moms so that the baby is at the breast often enough for the body to be aware to keep producing more milk.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests waking up your baby if they are due for a daytime or nighttime feed as babies shouldn't go without feeding for more than 4 hours. There would be times your baby will let you know when they are ready to eat but there would be also times they would not, thus, it's okay to wake them up if they snooze past the 4-hour mark.

Once the baby reaches 2 weeks old of age and weighs more than when she was born, you will no longer have to worry about waking them up for feeds as you can now relax and feed in response to your baby's cues. Hence, at the moment, newborns who sleep for longer stretches should be awakened to feed. Thus, wake your baby every 3-4 hours to eat until he or she displays good weight gain, which normally occurs within the first couple of weeks. Afterward, it's okay to allow your baby to sleep for longer periods of time at night, per Kids Health.

Waking up a sleeping baby for feeding

The AAP recommends starting with gentle methods such as stroking the baby's cheek or singing. Then if essential, you can shift to more rousing activities like diaper changing. You can try stripping your baby down to their diaper and laying them down on your bare chest as most newborns will begin to stir when they smell their mom's and feel her touch.

Flicking or lightly ticking the baby's feet may help. You can also try giving babies a back rub; Medicine Net says to watch out for movement in newborn's arms, legs, and face as this will determine if they will wake up or not. If their limbs are dangling limply then it only means that they will be particularly hard to wake up, thus, wait for when the newborn is in a less deep sleep before actually attempting to wake them up.

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