Excessive Night Feeding

Excessive Night Feeding

One of the most common complaints from new parents is that their baby seems to want to sleep all day, and then feed all night! Experts tell us that babies will sleep from around 16 to 18 hours a day – sometimes more. What they don’t tell us is that this may well be in short bursts, or naps, and that these naps will leave the parents with little time to sleep themselves!

Reasons for excessive night feeding

Many ‘old-school’ baby-care experts agree that the recent craze for demand feeding may be at the root of the problem of excessive night feeding. Very new babies can’t tell the difference between night and day – their natural rhythms don’t kick in until they are around six weeks old. They can, however, tell the difference between a full and an empty stomach! And the latter makes them very unhappy indeed.

When a baby is demand fed, his parents will often leave him sleeping for long periods in the day. Feeding is hard work for a tiny baby, and he will no doubt be tired after a good feed. And what could be harder than waking a quietly sleeping baby?

Calorie deficit

The problem is, a baby needs a certain amount of calories every day to be able to grow and develop normally. Small stomachs can’t take in a lot in one sitting, and milk is digested and burned off quickly. We have already established that a new baby will sleep for 16 to 18 hours a day. So if a baby is sleeping for four or more hours at a time in the day, and his parents are not waking him for his feeds, when is he going to make up the deficit in his calorie intake?

At night, of course!

The baby who has been allowed to sleep all day is well-rested at night, and sees no reason why he shouldn’t take this opportunity to fill up on some scrummy milk. Unfortunately, his little tummy can’t take a lot in one go, so he has to feed little and often. This can lead to his exhausted parents getting up three or more times in the night to feed. Not an ideal situation for any new family.

The solution

The solution is quite simply to wake your baby occasionally in the day for his feeds. This is not cruel – as we have just examined it is about making sure his nutritional needs are met. Try to feed your baby roughly every three hours or so in the very early days. As he gets older, try to keep him awake for short periods after each daytime feed, and keep night feeds as quiet and calm as possible. This helps him to learn the difference between day and night.

If you manage to get most of his daily requirement of milk into your baby in the hours between 7.00am and midnight, he has a greater chance of sleeping for a longer chunk of time at night – and so have you. You will both wake up more refreshed, and be well on your way to establishing a healthy routine of feeding and sleep.

More Baby Sleep

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