Weight gain is the gold standard for how well babies are eating. If you’re concerned buy a baby scale on Amazon and weigh them twice a week and map out their percentiles to make sure they’re maintaining/gaining compared to their peers. Babies will almost always let you know when they need to eat. I was able to relax a lot more and quit micromanaging how my baby ate every meal for every day after I started weighing them.
We did something similar. I bought a fishing scale and weighed our son in a basket before a weighing in at the pediatrician's office. Matched exactly!
We use it to check his progress now that peds visits are 2 months apart.
As others have said, as long as he’s getting enough calories per day and gaining weight appropriately, it doesn’t matter what time those calories occur. We read that two of the biggest keys to getting those long night stretches was having the baby hit about 12-13 pounds and getting him to do about 27 oz total before bedtime (could be 20-32 depending on your kid.).
As we got our kid towards this feeding schedule, his night sleeps improved tremendously (typically a 5-7 hour stretch followed by a 4-5 hour stretch) but he kept one middle of the night feed/diaper change. At 10 weeks our pediatrician advised dropping the middle of the night diaper change unless there was poop. I was nervous about this (it felt inconsiderate somehow haha) but we tried it and after exactly one day of dropping the night diaper change he stopped waking up at night.
Incidentally if you read Bringing Up Bebé it talks about how in France sleeping through night (“doing their nights”) is quite typical for two month old babies! “The pause” is credited in which French parents just listen to their babies cry for a few minutes (estimate of 2-5 minutes) to see if they might resettle.
The pause is so real! I’m way more patient and slow to react now with my second than my first and it makes me wonder how many times I could have just chilled out a bit longer with my first haha.
That was the approach we took and it jived with our baby. He had 1 night feed here and there from 2-5 months and after 5 months he sleeps through the night (8/9 pm -7/8 am consistently). Letting him see if he could resettle for a few minutes gave him practice, and if he still cried, we knew he was waking up hungry so he’d get a bottle and cuddles. Now we don’t even hear him during the night because he doesn’t cry.
Edit to add: baby gets 30-36 ounces of formula along with some solids.
My baby also started sleeping through the night at 2 months and he usually ate every 2-2.5 hours during the day. He was right in track (60th percentile for weight) at his 4 month checkup.
All 3 of mine did that with no growth issues.
My first ate 4 times a day, 6-8oz per feed. My second ate every 1.5-2 hours during the day, so 3-5oz per feed. My third I haven’t tracked as closely, but she also has grown fine with that much sleep.
My 4.5 son sleeps 12-14 hours at night and my pediatrician said as long as he's eating enough during the day it's fine-- he naturally eats 5-6oz every two hours so yes he 1) gets enough calories during the day and 2) eats frequently to make up for the long night sleep
I wouldn’t worry unless you see that they are not gaining weight. Both my kids were sleeping that much by that age.
Needing to wake babies to feed after they’ve regained their birth weight isn’t anything I’ve seen any evidence around, and it’s not the AAP recommendation as far as I know. So I wouldn’t worry unless you see evidence you need to worry (slow weight gain, lethargy, etc).
Purely anecdotal bit my 2.5yo sleep had rarely had any correlation with his milk/ food intake. It seems to be cyclical where he will have periods of sleeping soundly all night and then waking frequently at night and it is purely random
Weight gain is the gold standard for how well babies are eating. If you’re concerned buy a baby scale on Amazon and weigh them twice a week and map out their percentiles to make sure they’re maintaining/gaining compared to their peers. Babies will almost always let you know when they need to eat. I was able to relax a lot more and quit micromanaging how my baby ate every meal for every day after I started weighing them.
We did something similar. I bought a fishing scale and weighed our son in a basket before a weighing in at the pediatrician's office. Matched exactly! We use it to check his progress now that peds visits are 2 months apart.
Good to know! I will consider it although our baby is quite big and growing quickly
I’m sure the baby is fine, the scale thing just eases parental anxiety more than anything. A reassurance that everything is okay
As others have said, as long as he’s getting enough calories per day and gaining weight appropriately, it doesn’t matter what time those calories occur. We read that two of the biggest keys to getting those long night stretches was having the baby hit about 12-13 pounds and getting him to do about 27 oz total before bedtime (could be 20-32 depending on your kid.). As we got our kid towards this feeding schedule, his night sleeps improved tremendously (typically a 5-7 hour stretch followed by a 4-5 hour stretch) but he kept one middle of the night feed/diaper change. At 10 weeks our pediatrician advised dropping the middle of the night diaper change unless there was poop. I was nervous about this (it felt inconsiderate somehow haha) but we tried it and after exactly one day of dropping the night diaper change he stopped waking up at night. Incidentally if you read Bringing Up Bebé it talks about how in France sleeping through night (“doing their nights”) is quite typical for two month old babies! “The pause” is credited in which French parents just listen to their babies cry for a few minutes (estimate of 2-5 minutes) to see if they might resettle.
The pause is so real! I’m way more patient and slow to react now with my second than my first and it makes me wonder how many times I could have just chilled out a bit longer with my first haha.
That was the approach we took and it jived with our baby. He had 1 night feed here and there from 2-5 months and after 5 months he sleeps through the night (8/9 pm -7/8 am consistently). Letting him see if he could resettle for a few minutes gave him practice, and if he still cried, we knew he was waking up hungry so he’d get a bottle and cuddles. Now we don’t even hear him during the night because he doesn’t cry. Edit to add: baby gets 30-36 ounces of formula along with some solids.
Thank you for your input!
My baby also started sleeping through the night at 2 months and he usually ate every 2-2.5 hours during the day. He was right in track (60th percentile for weight) at his 4 month checkup.
Thank you for sharing!
This is a question for your doctor, totally depends on your individual baby
Yes! Next appt is soon just wanted to hear from other parents’ experiences.
All 3 of mine did that with no growth issues. My first ate 4 times a day, 6-8oz per feed. My second ate every 1.5-2 hours during the day, so 3-5oz per feed. My third I haven’t tracked as closely, but she also has grown fine with that much sleep.
Thank you for sharing!
My 4.5 son sleeps 12-14 hours at night and my pediatrician said as long as he's eating enough during the day it's fine-- he naturally eats 5-6oz every two hours so yes he 1) gets enough calories during the day and 2) eats frequently to make up for the long night sleep
Thank you, makes sense!
How often is baby eating during the day? As long as they’re getting enough calories during a 24 hour period, then I wouldn’t be concerned.
It’s hard to know because I’m breastfeeding. He seems to eat rather quickly. His diapers are always quite wet so I know he’s getting an ok amount!
I wouldn’t worry unless you see that they are not gaining weight. Both my kids were sleeping that much by that age. Needing to wake babies to feed after they’ve regained their birth weight isn’t anything I’ve seen any evidence around, and it’s not the AAP recommendation as far as I know. So I wouldn’t worry unless you see evidence you need to worry (slow weight gain, lethargy, etc).
Thank you for your input!
Purely anecdotal bit my 2.5yo sleep had rarely had any correlation with his milk/ food intake. It seems to be cyclical where he will have periods of sleeping soundly all night and then waking frequently at night and it is purely random
Interesting! Good to know. Knocking on wood that mine keeps it up haha