Do Babies Eat More After Sleeping a Long Period?
All new parents look for ways to get their baby to sleep for longer periods at night. Feeding them more formula or breast milk is one idea; others include feeding the baby solid foods, laying him on his stomach to sleep and keeping the baby awake during the day. In addition to being ineffective, these methods can be harmful or dangerous. If your baby does end up sleeping longer than usual at night, you might wonder if that means she'll eat more when she wakes up. To understand the answer, you must first understand baby's sleeping and eating habits.
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The Standard Requirements
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A newborn is supposed to eat every three to four hours his first few months of life. According to the Cleveland Clinic, this should last until the baby is about 4 months old. At that time, he should begin to eat more and sleep longer, especially at night. Babies can sleep six hours or longer when they reach the age of 6 months or older. By 12 months, the baby should be sleeping through the night with only a few naps during the day. These are standard sleep times for babies that won't affect their eating habits.
Newborns Eating Limits
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No matter how long the baby sleeps, he always has a limit on how much formula or breast milk he can consume in one sitting. Newborns and young babies have small stomachs. During the first four to six months, their diet is primarily liquid, which is quickly digested. Thus, the baby can't eat enough to sleep much longer than the standard periods until he begins eating solid food, which takes more time to digest. University of Wisconsin physician Anne Eglash says that babies can only consume 6 to 8 ounces of formula (or 2 to 3 ounces of breast milk) at each feeding by 3 months of age. That amount is easily digested in four hours' time, or three hours for breastfed babies.
The Problem with Oversleeping
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ZeroToThree.org states that a very young baby sleeping through the night is a red flag for parents. Babies naturally wake themselves up when they are hungry. A baby who does not wake up when his last meal is digested is probably ill in some manner. Jaundice is one illness that can cause a baby to be too drowsy to wake up when his belly is empty. Even if the baby is well, his oversleeping can cause dehydration because his small body is not being hydrated as often as needed. Babies wake up as many as six times each night, but only two to four of those times are for hunger. A baby who does not wake deserves a parent's prompt attention.
Conclusion
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Don't try to overfeed your baby to make him sleep longer. You also shouldn't expect your baby to each more than usual upon waking from a long sleeping period. The only time this occurs is during growth spurts when your baby is transitioning from one stage to another -- for example, around the end of 5 months or the beginning of 6 months. The amount of he eats increases with the amount of sleep time, but this change won't be isolated or temporary. When his feeding needs change, prepare yourself to increase the amount he eats for the future.
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