When does a baby sleep longer and eat more?
Jen L asked:
My baby is 6 weeks old. I’ve expected that babies this age would be eating more and sleeping longer, but he’s still waking up after 2-3 hours and eating only 2-3 ounces at a time. Is this normal?
Caffeinated Content
My baby is 6 weeks old. I’ve expected that babies this age would be eating more and sleeping longer, but he’s still waking up after 2-3 hours and eating only 2-3 ounces at a time. Is this normal?
Caffeinated Content
In 30 Minutes, Learn to Get Your Baby to Sleep Soundly All Night. Click HERE to see our guaranteed baby sleep Solution
During growth spurts your baby will eat more and sleep longer. There is no specific age this will happen at, all babies are different but generally around the 3 month mark you will really notice a change.
I think what he is eating is perfectly normal for a six week old baby.
Sounds normal to me, my son didn’t sleep through the night until he was almost 9 months old. Every baby is different.
It can vary from child to child if you feel he is falling asleep eating and not finishing you could always try doing like 2 ounces and play with him a bit and then feed him some more . My children both had a hard time staying awake And I had to fight to keep them awake and eat a little more ( don’t force it of course ) but I would do things like feed half and change there diaper Or take a damp cloth and wipe there face a bit which is what nurses told me to do . I hope that this helps and good luck
It isn’t abnormal. Some babies take slightly more at a feeding at that age, but at one month babies eat between 2-5oz at a feeding so it is very variable. And it is prefectly normal to eat every 2-3 hours, that’s how long it takes to digest formula. 6 months is also the approximate time of a growth spurt.
I am sorry that you have been misled but that’s just the way babies are, they eat often and wake often to eat.
Armstrong KL, Quinn RA & Dadds MR. The sleep patterns of normal children.
Medical Journal of Australia 1994 Aug 1;161(3):202-6.
The above study is the definitive work on sleeping habits of (Australian) children to 38 months. The researchers surveyed 3269 parents, with a 96.5% response rate, over a one week period. The parents had to report on their child’s sleeping habits over the past 24 hours, plus answer a few questions related to their perceptions of their child’s sleep behavior.
What did they find?
* There is a wide range of normal childhood sleep behavior.
* Circadian rhythm is not well established until four months of age.
* Daytime sleep becomes less regular with increasing age, the most marked reduction in length occurs around 3 months of age. However, a surprising 11% under 3 months of age don’t have a daytime sleep every day.
* Frequent night waking that disturbs parents is common from 4-12 months (12.7% disturb their parents 3 or more times every night).
* Night time settling requires more parental input from 18 months.
* Nearly a third of parents have a significant problem with their child’s sleep behavior.
* Sleeping through the night: 71.4% did this on at least one occasion by 3 months of age, but many of these relapse into more frequent waking in the 4 to 12 month period. It is not until after 24 months that regular night waking (requiring attention) becomes much less common.
My son did the same thing. He would only drink 3 oz and fall asleep so I tried to feed him a little bit then stop and get him woke up again then feed him some more. It all depends on the baby though.