Feeding on demand ; how long is too long ?

[Mrs Doddy]

I have a 3 month old who I feed totally on demand, he feeds every 3 hours approx 4oz a time apart from at night when I put him down he will do a 7 hour stretch then he will take 6oz however there have been time were he's gone a lot longer in between feeds like 4-5 hours in the day I know as a newborn they say not over 4 hours but is this the same now ? He's growing fine and following his line in his red book and he will def make up the oz if he's gone longer so i think I shouldn't wake him???

Yesterday for example he fed at 5.30am took 5oz then I eventually woken him at 10.30 as I was getting worried he had gone too long and he downed 6oz !

 

[mummytobe_93]

I got told to wake them up for a feed at least every four hours for the first few weeks and then if they were gaining weight to then just feed whenever they want to and to stop waking them up. I'm not sure if everyone is given the same advice though

 

[mummytobe_93]

A three month old I wouldn't wake up I would wait for them to tell me they were hungry x

 

[Stash777]

Agree, at three months I would let him sleep. He will let you know he's hungry. Only time I would wake him is if he was sick to make sure he was getting enough fluids.

 

[MindUtopia]

Feeding on demand is feeding on demand, even for a very new baby, unless you have weight gain issues. Even for a baby that's 2 days old, you can feed them when they're hungry and not by a schedule. We did have to wake our daughter to feed every 3 hours for the first month, but only because she lost a lot of weight and was struggling to eat (took a month to regain her birth weight). For normal, healthy babies, feed them when they're hungry. If he's sleeping, he's not hungry. Just let him be and get some rest yourself. He probably won't always sleep this well, so take advantage of it while you can!

 

[halullat]

I was told to stop waking through the night once your baby has regained it's birth weight x

 

[Mrs Doddy]

When we are out he can go 5/6 hours without anything (sleeping in car/buggy) but have found he will take an extra 1/2oz so I guess that's ok ? I find if he hasn't taken enough on the fees before he will cluster feed until he's back up to normal amounts again-I had to wake to feed dd as prem and very small - feeding on demand is a new thing for me !

 

[zorak]

I've always fed my LO on demand. (He is now 9 months now). That being said if I notice it is 4 hours ish since his last bottle I tend to make a small one to see if he will take it just so he gets a drink if nothing else. We are in California though and it is HOT so I worry about dehydration.