Advice for a young mother: should you feed your newborn at night?

The baby's sleeping and feeding schedule constantly shifts slightly under the influence of various factors: it can be a protracted process of falling asleep, a very active period of wakefulness that precedes rest, cloudy weather, or the child's malaise.

We all know about the importance of routine for the proper development of the baby, but is it necessary to wake up the child? After all, it seems that since he is sleeping, it means he is not hungry. But sometimes waking up your baby is simply necessary because it’s time to eat, bathe, or you need to go to the doctor’s appointment.

Pediatricians recommend making a decision about whether to wake a child for feeding based on the type of feeding, the age of the baby and his well-being.

Little love is bad, but too much love is even worse!

From the first days, you should not take custody of the child so much as to blow away dust particles and react to any rustle while the baby is sleeping. Rather, such behavior will lead to stress for the parents themselves. You can't turn off the world while you sleep. Extraneous sounds should not be strong, but their absence is also useless.

The proper limit for acceptable noise is light music in mid-tones, a calm voice. The TV on, the telephone or doorbell ringing are also slightly muffled, without the need to turn it off. Everything should be within human earshot. Everything should resemble normal life, but a little moderate.

Parents of the baby should understand that what is acceptable for them during sleep is also quite acceptable for the child.

. The only exceptions are those people who, before pregnancy, could throw noisy parties, listen to loud music or watch TV. But even with such parents, the child gets used to this rhythm and noise, although he experiences stress at high volumes. But if parents don't understand the need to turn down the sounds of life a little, then they may be thinking about having children too early. After all, the birth of a baby often requires organization and meaningful actions. Parents become more mature and wiser with childbirth.

But on the issue of infants and awakening

The fact is that every time an infant closes his eyes, he wakes up a little different.

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Every hour and day, during sleep, complex processes of growth and development occur without stopping. Sleep is a period when the baby’s brain is active, but the organs are slightly inhibited. They work, but not as much as during the day, but the brain works even harder. Its task is the full development of mental abilities. The division of brain cells, control of the functioning of all organs and systems, without failures, is also his responsibility. For a baby, sleep is his future health in all areas. You can't just go ahead and disrupt internal processes
.

Disturbed sleep and abrupt awakening bring a lot of stress to an adult’s body, and the same happens to a child. Therefore, if he is strong enough, eats well, goes to the toilet, then there is no risk that spending most of the day sleeping, he will not receive sufficient nutrition. Often children, without waking up, can suck milk from the breast or from a bottle; do not disturb it. You just need to place it correctly to avoid milk getting into your respiratory tract.

Healthy sleep for a little person

Human sleep consists of certain phases, with their own stages, competently formed by nature. There are stages of REM and NREM sleep

, their violation provokes various failures of organs and systems. After all, in a dream, a person restores strength, calms the psyche, fights all kinds of viruses and bacteria, strengthens the immune system, and establishes the proper functioning of the whole body after a hard day. The same happens to any living creature. And if an adult has to train his formed brain through the outside world, then a small child needs to grow this same brain, and precisely during sleep.

How the brain grows, develops, and works will determine what kind of psyche the future person and personality will have. Will the baby be in good health?

You can't neglect your health!

Adults often notice that a sudden awakening often brings various disorders - headaches, dizziness, and often a person experiences even greater fatigue than before sleep. The mood can easily deteriorate and the person becomes easily excitable. This causes a lot of trouble. And this is directly related to interrupted sleep.

The work of restoring the body is interrupted, all systems seem to be paralyzed for a moment, a person at the moment of awakening can himself be paralyzed, not understanding what is happening around him. His brain has to, without finishing its work, start working again during a period of vigor. But it doesn’t look like cheerfulness at all. The person seems devastated and wants to lie down and sleep again. The same processes occur with children.

Schedule of operating moments - table

Inverted mode: ways to solve the problem

Expert opinion

Svetlana Terekhova

A certified psychologist with 10 years of work experience and a huge amount of experience.

Some babies begin to stay awake at night and sleep during the day. This phenomenon is called “inverted regime”. A baby wandering around at night causes problems. Despite his helplessness, the baby manipulates the family on an unconscious level. The situation needs to be corrected.

Hear and understand your baby

If someone says that an infant does not hear anything and does not care when he is woken up and how this happens, then this is a great misconception. It doesn’t matter for what good purpose this is happening - to feed, change, wash, or play. You shouldn’t try too hard to retrain your child’s body to sleep at night.

, and not during the day, if the time is confused by the baby. But it’s not his fault; most likely, during pregnancy, mommy allowed herself to deviate from her sleep schedule - she went to bed later than usual, or slept a lot during the day. Of course, she is not always to blame for this. Pregnancy restructures a woman for a new life, but the expectant mother must take care to go to bed on time. There are many ways to do this - herbs, music, activity during the day.

You should consult your doctor about this

, which will give recommendations on how to cope with insomnia at night and drowsiness during the day.

An interesting fact is that when born, little people can also be both larks and owls.

It is difficult to change natural clocks at once at will. If the baby walks at night and sleeps during the day, you should carefully shift his sleep by minutes, and not immediately try to put him to bed whenever the parent wants. Gradually, every day put the child to bed 10-15 minutes later or earlier

. Over the course of several weeks, the regime can be shifted without disturbing the harmony of natural mechanisms.

Teach the expectant mother to sleep on time

During pregnancy, if the baby starts beating in the stomach at night, it does not always mean that he is up and ready to frolic, perhaps he is sleeping, and his legs and arms twitch reflexively in his sleep. Once mommy waits a little, the baby will sleep peacefully again.

Getting a pregnant woman out of bed quickly can interrupt the baby's sleep. And then you will have to sit with a jumping stomach for more than one hour. At this time, the expectant mother may want to eat or watch TV, which will also completely wake up the baby. And after childbirth, this time may be perceived by the child’s physiology as acceptable. Therefore, in order for the baby to sleep properly after childbirth and be healthy, parents need to organize sleep during pregnancy, and not suffer and torment the child after his birth.

Should I or should I not wake up my baby for feeding if he is sleeping peacefully? More than one generation of pediatricians and parents have been trying to find a universal answer to this question. Let's think about this important topic today: what is more important, feeding a newborn - or his peaceful sleep?

We all know that a person spends almost a third of his life sleeping. Eight hours of healthy sleep is the minimum an adult needs to rest and recuperate. Sleep occupies an even greater place in a child's life: a newborn baby sleeps on average 18 hours a day, and a child at the age of one year sleeps about 13 hours.

During sleep, many very important processes occur in the child’s body that are necessary for the growth and development of his body. Adequate sleep is one of the most important components of a child’s health and growth, his mental and physical development. Research by scientists from the University of Helsinki and employees of the National Health of Finland has proven that lack of sleep increases the risk of behavioral problems, the development of attention deficit disorder, and hyperactivity. Adequate sleep and a properly formed physiological rhythm of sleep and wakefulness have a positive effect on the development of the child’s brain and his cognitive activity. On the contrary, inadequate, insufficient sleep has a negative impact on the development of a child’s brain, especially in the early stages of its development.

On the other hand, it is impossible to underestimate the importance of good nutrition for the development of the baby. It is very important that from the first days of life a newborn baby receives all the elements necessary for his life and development. Proper and timely feeding of a newborn lays the foundation for a full life for the child, ensures his growth, physical and mental development in accordance with age standards. It is very important that the child receives the nutrition he needs regularly, constantly replenishing the deficiency of certain substances in the body. This is especially important for weak, premature, and underweight children.

Approximate daily routine for an infant

Morning

In accordance with biorhythms, babies wake up differently. It could be five or seven in the morning.

• The morning begins with the first feeding, which takes about twenty minutes.
• Hygiene procedures. The baby is washed, his nose and ears are cleaned, and his nails are cut.
• Carrying out gymnastics, massage, air baths for five minutes.
• Games with rattles.
• Dream.
• Second feeding.
• Gymnastics, games.
• Walk outside, sleep. It is necessary to accustom your baby to the street gradually, starting from ten minutes. You can make it up to two hours in the summer; in winter, walks can be shorter. The child must be dry and warm; it is recommended to use diapers.

Dinner

• Eating.
• Educational games with the baby.
• Dream. Walk in the fresh air.

Evening

• Feeding.
• Entertaining games with rattles, reading fairy tales, communicating with babies.
• Dream.
• Bathing.

The procedure is organized in a calm atmosphere. Water temperature is 36-37 degrees. It is recommended to bathe newborns in boiled water until the umbilical cord heals; you can add a decoction of string and chamomile.

Tap water has been used since a month. The baby is wrapped in a bathing diaper to gradually penetrate the water to the skin. Detergents are used twice a week, hypoallergenic. The procedure takes about fifteen minutes.

• The child eats at night and falls asleep.

Night

At night the baby sleeps and wakes up once or twice to eat. Sleep may be disturbed if the baby is wet; it is recommended to use diapers at night.

For a newborn, the basis of development is food and sleep. During sleep, growth hormone is activated, the nervous system relaxes, and preparation for further activity occurs.

Lack of sleep causes more harm to babies than malnutrition. Leads to physical and nervous exhaustion and developmental delays. Newborns sleep up to twenty hours a day, from one month to six months - fifteen, sleeping three times a day. After six months, you can sleep twice during the day, fourteen hours a day.

The time has come to feed the newborn - and he is sleeping. What to do?

Many new mothers feel sorry for waking up their baby, and they let the baby sleep until he wakes up. But breastfeeding (BF), like feeding with artificial formula, as we have already found out, should occur at regular intervals, nutrients should enter the child’s body evenly, regularly, in equal portions. Yes, now you will feel sorry for the baby, you will not wake him up for feeding, but what next? He will oversleep, wake up overly hungry, irritable, eat more than he needs - and possibly get digestive problems. The next feeding will also have to be postponed - or the baby will eat less than usual, because he will not have time to get hungry. At the same time, his brain and the entire body as a whole will not receive enough of the necessary nutrients, or if they receive an excess of them late, they will not absorb them at all. And so time after time...

Is it necessary to wake up a child with enuresis at night (video):

Therefore, it is best to adhere to a certain feeding regimen for the newborn from the very first days and, of course, wake up the baby if he begins to “oversleep.” This is especially true for premature babies and children with insufficient body weight.

Age

If a newborn sleeps for more than 3 hours, this is a reason to think about it and contact a pediatrician. In the meantime, it’s better to wake him up so that the baby can eat, because in the first month of life, a long break between meals will almost certainly negatively affect the baby’s condition.

In older children, the interval between feedings increases and is 4-4.5 hours. If the baby, when feeding on demand, “sleeps” a little during mealtimes, there is no need to worry. The baby will wake up on his own when his body needs it.

In children on IV and children who are gradually transferred to the clock-by-hour schedule, such temporary disruptions in the schedule require correction. If feeding time has come and the baby is sleeping, you should wait 10-15 minutes and then gently wake the baby.

Starting from the 2nd month of a baby’s life, you don’t have to worry if he wakes up during night feeding and the routine shifts slightly. The older the baby gets, the less often he will wake up in the dark.

In what cases can a child be allowed to sleep?

You should not wake up your baby for feeding if he is unwell, has a fever, or is too exhausted from travel or other reasons. A healthy, tired baby will quickly catch up after sleep: but at the same time, make sure that further feedings take place exactly as scheduled.

If the infant is sleeping. Should I wake him up?

A sick baby should also not be woken up for feeding - it is during sleep that his body fights infection and the immune system works at full capacity. After some time, you will not need to wake up the baby; he will wake up on his own and demand food.

Weight

When deciding whether to wake your baby, you will need to consider the baby's weight.

1. Premature babies and children who are not gaining weight well should always be woken up for feeding, since long intervals can further weaken them and worsen their condition.
2. If your baby is gaining weight well, then sometimes you can give the baby the opportunity to sleep longer. The child will wake up on his own when his body is rested or he feels hungry.

Health status

1. If the baby was born premature and very weak, you will need to wake up with an alarm clock at first and feed the baby according to the clock. Newborns need food every three hours. This regime will be temporary until the child gets stronger and gets used to this schedule. Gradually, with an increase in the volume of milk consumed, the intervals between feedings will increase.
2. A child with a cold and fever should be given the opportunity to sleep a little, because it is known that sleep heals. All the body's forces are now aimed at fighting the infection, so it is better not to disturb the child when he is resting.

Increased lactation

If your milk supply is low, you may need to wake your baby for a while to feed. Regular frequent applications enhance lactation and increase its volume. You should wake up your newborn every 2.5-3 hours, following the recommendations of the visiting nurse and pediatrician, and feed him. Over time, when the volume of lactation becomes optimal and the baby gets used to the established feeding regimen, you can wait for the baby to wake up on his own.

When should I wake my newborn for feeding?

The time after which you wake up your baby to feed directly depends on his age. Pediatric doctors and healthy nutrition experts recommend feeding a newborn in the first month of life at intervals of two hours, from a month to three to three and a half hours. Such babies usually sleep between meals and spend a minimum of energy - not like active four-month-old toddlers. From three to four weeks, the baby sleeps less and spends some time exploring the world around him. He spends energy on new impressions and movements and needs “recharging” more often. Therefore, start waking up a two-month-old baby after three hours of sleep.

Further, from three to twelve months, the interval between daily feedings can be maintained at four hours. In general, a four-hour interval between meals is considered optimal throughout life.

The best feeding regimen for a newborn (video):

The question remains: is it worth waking up the baby for feeding at night? Here you can leave the decision to yourself. When breastfeeding, many mothers leave the baby in their bed for the first months - and then during night feeding the baby does not really wake up: he smacks his lips, grunts, receives the mother’s breast, eats and falls off to sleep. But during the daytime, both the breastfed baby and the “artificial” baby equally need to adhere to the regime.

But if you leave the baby in your bed for the first time, do this until three months, and then transfer the baby to a separate crib. If you feed your three-month-old baby well in the evening at 11-12 o'clock, he will sleep peacefully for six hours without waking up, providing himself and you with a good night's rest.

How to wake a newborn for feeding?

This is also a very important question. Because a sleeping child should not be disturbed or frightened by harsh light, sounds and movements. A frightened, suddenly awakened baby will be nervous, sulk, cry and may even refuse to eat. Therefore, you should wake up your baby to feed very carefully and delicately. This warning especially applies.

Therefore, try to wake up the newborn for feeding with soft, gentle strokes on the forehead, cheeks, and arms. Sometimes it is enough to simply remove the blanket from the baby or begin to carefully remove the baby’s clothes and change them. Changing the temperature and familiar actions will allow you to quickly wake up your baby without any problems or hassle.

Do I need to wake up my baby to feed? — Doctor Komarovsky (video):

Dear mothers! Remember that good and timely nutrition, as well as strong, complete sleep and properly distributed sleep throughout the day, are the main conditions for the good development of a child of any age. But observing the diet and sleep regime for babies in the first months of life is especially important: after all, the smaller the baby, the more his health, well-being and activity depend on whether he is fed in a timely manner and whether he sleeps well. So don’t hesitate, wake up your kids at the right time - and in a few weeks your efforts will pay off handsomely. This will be confirmed to you by scales and a stadiometer, which will record the excellent and harmonious development of your child! We wish you and your children good health and every success!

Feeding a newborn is carried out after 3 hours according to the recommendations of pediatricians. Doctors do not have a clear answer to the question ““.

The baby may sleep for a long time, and this causes concern for his mother because the feeding pattern is disrupted.

Nature has arranged it in such a way that children wake up on their own when they feel hungry. But there are several factors that influence how long babies sleep:

• Medicines used during childbirth
  can inhibit the awakening of a newborn during the hours prescribed for eating.
• Sleep also takes longer if the baby sleeps separately from the mother
  .
• A newborn born prematurely
  is weakened and often does not wake up at the right time.

In these situations, maternity hospital workers will tell you whether the infant needs to be woken up for feeding.

As a rule, he is awakened every 3 hours.

How to restore the correct daily routine?

• Consult your pediatrician or visiting nurse. If necessary, baby soothing teas and safe drops can be prescribed for infants.
• Look for the cause of nighttime overstimulation. Perhaps the child is worried about his tummy - the gastrointestinal system of a newborn is different from that of adults. At birth, the stomach is located horizontally, the muscles of the esophagus are poorly developed, the entrance to the stomach is closed by a muscle roller, which limits the rapid flow of milk. Therefore, the baby swallows air during feeding and burps. In babies after six months, teething problems are more common as a cause. It is necessary to exclude colds - consult your doctor.
• Set up your baby's crib. Provide comfortable underwear, pajamas, and check for wrinkles.
• Regularly ventilate the room in which the baby sleeps and carry out wet cleaning. One of the causes of nighttime restlessness is heat, dust, and dry air.
• If your child moves actively during sleep, lightly swaddle his arms to prevent him from frightening himself. Tight swaddling is not required so as not to restrict blood circulation.
• Strictly follow the routine schedule. Get rid of excess sleep during the daytime.
• At night, tell your baby stories, sing calm songs and lullabies. It helps you relax.
• Give your baby the last feeding around midnight, this will allow your baby to sleep longer.

A newborn born into the world requires attention, care, and love. But this does not mean that the family should adapt to the baby; the child himself will adapt to the family and new habitat.

The adaptive capabilities of young children are much higher than those of adults. Patiently accustoming a child to a routine allows not only to reduce the burden on parents, but also to lay the foundation for the future education of a growing little person.

How to wake up a baby for feeding: procedure

Some children wake up faster, others take longer. To wake up the baby, some effort is made on the part of the adult.

A child's sleep consists of two phases: deep and active.

During the active phase, involuntary movements of the legs and arms, twitching of the eyelids, sucking on the lips and smiling are observed. A newborn in the deep phase is calm and does not respond to touches or sounds. You need to wake up an infant for feeding during the active phase of sleep.

There is a certain procedure that allows you to do this without harming the baby:

1. Remove the blanket, revealing the baby.
   Take him in your arms and walk around the room. When the baby smells the milk, he will wake up.
2. A newborn may wake up from the usual manipulations. Changing his diaper
   will perk him up.
3. Hold the child in an upright position
   .
4. Talking
   to your baby will attract his attention and make him wake up.
5. Wipe your palms, feet and face with a wet handkerchief.
   This action will excite the nerve endings and interrupt sleep.

To wake up a sleeping baby for feeding, change his diaper

The baby may fall asleep again while eating without being full. To avoid this, gently run your finger over the skin. Touch the nose, cheeks, arms and legs, while talking to the baby until he eats.

To avoid frightening the newborn during a forced awakening, do not turn on the TV or lights. His eyes are very sensitive to bright light.

Are there cases in which it is not necessary to wake up an infant for feeding?

A strong and healthy baby requires a different approach. In order for the child to eat, there is no need to disturb him. The baby is monitored during the first weeks of life. If the nutrition is sufficient and weight is gained according to plan, the baby is allowed to sleep a few extra hours.

The mother's recovery after childbirth in such a situation occurs faster.

You need to monitor the baby's reaction.

Some people benefit from eating according to the clock, while others feel good on their own schedule.

Night sleep

The tiniest ones are fed throughout the day - both day and night, but this lasts until the baby grows a little. Then night feeding comes down to 1 - 2 feedings, which the mother will determine for the baby herself. Some children sleep peacefully until the morning, waking up for the first feeding session.

Should you wake your newborn baby for feedings at night? The smaller the baby, the more he needs night feeding. If, starting from the 4th month of life, the baby is sufficiently well-fed and sleeps peacefully, then you can not disturb him.

When he is sick or teething, the baby himself will stay awake half the night, bothering the adults with his whims. Feeding here will become a calming factor, giving the baby the opportunity to get some sleep and give the parents a rest.

Sometimes there is no need to wake up a baby for feeding at night when he sleeps with his mother. You can also feed a sleeping person - he, smacking his lips, finds the breast on his own. Once satiated, the child will continue to sleep. Children who sleep separately gradually get used to not waking up until the morning. Only babies who have not had enough to eat during the day will require feeding. In this situation, the question of “wake up or not wake up” disappears by itself.

Sometimes the baby does not eat well during the day and does not gain the necessary weight. In this situation, night feedings should be made mandatory. How many times to wake up a baby for feeding depends on individual circumstances for each mother, but it is necessary to do this at least once a night. This situation also applies to premature babies who need enhanced nutrition.

It is important to wake your newborn baby for formula feeding. Mom has to prepare her in advance for a certain time. It is undesirable for these porridges to rest. You cannot rely on spontaneous expression of appetite when the mother is not breastfeeding. Moreover, the baby is not fully saturated with formulas, as happens with natural feeding.

If the little one is asleep, and the situation requires him to wake him up, then this must be done correctly so as not to scare the little sleepyhead.

Feeding techniques

By the hour

Many people use this technique, giving food to the child every 3 or 4 hours

strictly on schedule. Therefore, the question “Does it need to wake up an infant for feeding?” they don't have it. The baby will definitely be cheered up and fed. Gradually, the baby gets used to the regime and wakes up on his own at certain intervals.

On demand

In this feeding option, the baby eats according to his own schedule

. It is not necessary to observe the exact time. There is no need to specifically wake up the baby at night, since he will receive less milk at the next meal.

Feeding a baby by the hour

Feeding factors: age and weight

When deciding whether to wake an infant for feeding, parents should consider the infant's age and weight. If a three-day-old baby sleeps for more than 2 hours, this may indicate stomach illness or other problems.

This situation requires the intervention of a pediatrician.

If the baby does not have health problems, he can sleep for 4-5 hours without disturbing his parents.

Weak infants who are slowly gaining weight should be fed more often. They must receive enough food.

The younger the child, the more often and regularly he eats. At the age of six months, children are less likely to require food and can sleep peacefully until the morning meal.

Only during periods of illness does the baby return to night feeding.

Should I wake my baby for feeding?

WHO experts say that healthy sleep for a baby cannot exceed five hours. This can lead to dehydration and reduce the rate of weight gain.

Therefore, experts recommend establishing a mixed feeding regimen. When breastfeeding occurs on demand, but the breaks between them should be no more than 4 hours.

This feeding regimen helps establish lactation. In this case, in general, you need to wake up the baby for feeding, including at night.

Why long breaks in feeding are harmful:

1. The baby may develop dehydration and low blood sugar levels.
2. In the mother, this can cause mastitis or lactostasis.

Sleeping more than 5 hours may indicate health problems in the child.

Night meal

When a newborn is hungry, he will not wake up completely. The child will be restless in his sleep, toss and turn, and smack his lips. The mother should breastfeed the baby, and he will calm down and begin to fall asleep again as he feeds.

The convenience of co-sleeping is that there is no need to get up and rock the newborn, because he does not have time to wake up.

An infant who sleeps in a crib and does not wake up from hunger should be awakened once a night for feeding unless otherwise directed by the pediatrician.

Frequent feedings are more beneficial for the mother's health, as fluid stagnation in the mammary gland is eliminated. If the baby refuses to breastfeed at night, if he is not yet hungry, the milk is expressed and stored in the refrigerator. You can later warm it up in a water bath and give the baby a bottle.

Meals at night are strictly discussed with the pediatrician. He will be able to estimate the rate of weight gain and growth of the baby over a certain period of time, based on existing standards. In some cases, for certain diseases, health workers weigh the newborn daily.

Until the baby reaches 3 months, pediatricians recommend that he and his mother sleep together.

If the baby is growing slowly and gaining weight poorly, parents are required to strictly follow the instructions of the attending physician regarding both night and day feedings.

Formula-fed children must receive food at a certain time every 3-4 hours.

Only if the baby sleeps uninterruptedly, the period between meals is increased.

When setting a sleep and eating schedule with the help of a doctor, all indicators that affect the appetite and well-being of the newborn are taken into account.

Find out right now
For colic, constipation, bloating, regurgitation and to normalize digestion.
Young mothers often share their worries that the newborn sleeps for a long time - and this disrupts the usual feeding schedule. Wise nature decreed that after birth the baby sleeps for as many hours as his body requires. And he wakes up only to eat, which worries his caring mother.

Types of feeding

On demand

With this type of feeding, the baby himself shows you when he wants to eat. This method of feeding a child is recommended by WHO for breastfeeding, especially in the first 2-3 months. Frequent feeding increases milk production and thus helps the mother to establish the lactation process. The glands produce exactly as much nutritional fluid as the baby needs, the baby gets enough of it, and your risk of stagnation of excess milk is reduced. When feeding on demand, a breastfeeding baby has more contact with his mother, which instills confidence in him and makes him calmer.

But from 2-3 months, depending on the child’s readiness, you should purposefully switch him to feeding by the hour in order to normalize the daily routine. Gradually, the baby should learn to wake up not from hunger, but because he has rested. This will give you time to exercise, massage and bathe your baby before feeding.

By the hour

Feeding by the hour provides for a strict schedule for latching the baby to the breast with breaks of 4 hours. This technique is more suitable for breastfeeding babies older than 3 months, and for children on IV. If a nursing mother sticks to feeding by the hour from the very beginning, this may reduce her lactation volumes.

When to wake up

1. During the birth process, the mother was injected with medications, which entered the baby’s body with the milk - and now it is difficult for him to wake up on his own.
2. The newborn is placed separately from the mother, so the baby does not wake up, saving its own energy. This instinct is provided by nature and is completely natural.

Therefore, the mother should take the initiative and wake the baby at first until he establishes an internal feeding pattern. However, you shouldn’t abruptly carry out the awakening process; there are some tricks for this:

• the newborn’s hand should be slightly raised and lowered, observing the reaction;
• if light sucking on the lips begins, and the eyelids tremble slightly, you can wake him up;
• If the baby does not react in any way to the mother’s actions, the sleep is in a deep phase, you will have to wait 20 minutes.

Frequency of awakenings

The number of feedings depends on the age of the baby and the characteristics of individual development. It is important to remember the main rule: the younger the child, the more regular and frequent the feedings. By 6 months, the baby less often needs a night meal, and the need for mother's milk gradually approaches the morning time.

The established regime, without night feeding, will continue for the remaining period of breastfeeding. An increased need for milk may occur during an illness or during teething, but then there is no need to wake up the baby - he will ask for everything himself. After the return of normal well-being, the usual diet is restored.

Feeding at night

If the mother practices co-sleeping and the newborn sleeps next to her, then he does not wake up completely during the feeding process. Feeling hungry, the baby will begin to toss and turn, look for the breast and smack its lips.

Normally, the situation should happen 2-3 times during the night, since the baby himself knows when he needs to be fed. In this case, you don’t even have to wake up the baby. The exception is some children:

• newborns who are used to sleeping separately may not wake up throughout the night;
• weakened or premature babies also do not wake up on their own, so mother

It is necessary to wake the baby for feeding.

Otherwise, the child will not receive the nutrition necessary for normal development, will not gain weight or will begin to lose it altogether.

Another good reason to wake a newborn is the mother's lack of breast milk. Experts advise frequent breastfeeding at night and in the early morning to increase prolactin production. It is this hormone that is responsible for the amount of milk. There is no need to worry that after waking up the baby will give the mother a sleepless night - a rare case when the baby does not fall asleep during feeding.

To properly wake a newborn, you must follow several rules:

1. Notice the active phase of sleep, when the baby often moves his arms, legs and makes movements with his lips and eyelids. There are kids who smile during this period. It may seem that he is not sleeping, but he is not, so you need to wake him up carefully.
2. In order for the child to wake up on his own, it is enough to open him up by removing the blanket. You can pet him or hug him gently.
3. Changing a diaper is also suitable for waking up: the usual actions will not frighten the baby and wake him up.
4. If you carefully hold the baby in your arms in an upright position, supporting his head, he will definitely open his eyes.
5. A light back massage will help the newborn to wake up, as the movements will enhance the blood circulation process.
6. A quiet song or soft words will help the baby return from the realm of sleep, and during the daytime you need to sit opposite him so that his gaze rests on his mother.

During night feeding, the baby may fall asleep after just a few sips, so the mother will have to stimulate the process. You need to gently stroke the baby's cheek or change the position of the body, but do not overdo it, so as not to stimulate regurgitation.