If it’s the first time you become a mother, you surely concern about a variety of troubles around your baby. For examples, how to change their diapers, how to feed them, how to put them to sleep, how to warm up baby bottles, etc. Especially, one of the biggest challenges that mothers usually meet is babies falling asleep while breastfeeding.
If you’ve been in this situation before and you still have no idea how to deal with this, let’s read our post to find out the reason and the way to keep your babies awake during breastfeeding.
Why Do Babies Feel Sleepy While Breastfeeding?
When your babies are in the very first few months, they tend to sleep very much, about 15 hours a day. But note that not all the babies have the same sleeping time. Some want to sleep longer (18 hours per day), but others may sleep less (14 hours per day).
For most babies, being full after breastfeeding will induce them to sleep. However, some can fall asleep while they are still holding the breast. That’s because breastfeeding is a calming activity that can be applied to pacify crying babies. In rare cases, babies may feel sleepy when they just start being fed.
Moreover, while some babies have a specific schedule of breastfeeding and sleeping, others don’t follow any routine. It’s absolutely normal. Therefore, there is no need for mothers to worry or panic when their babies fall asleep at the wrong time.
Is It Necessary to Wake Up Babies While Breastfeeding?
Parents might wonder that whether they should wake up their babies or not. Perhaps they worry that their little ones won’t feed on enough, and thus, will stay hungry without realizing, which may cause some other health risks.
For example, the process of gaining weight of newborns can be slowed down because they often lose 7 percent of their weight after birth. Besides, the production of milk from the mother’s breasts isn’t stimulated and boosted.
Breastfeeding induces sleep in babies, so it’s a fast and effective way to give your little one to sleep. Although it’s normal when babies fall asleep during breastfeeding, there are some cases that parents should wake them up.
If babies feel sleepy when they start to feed, or they don’t take in full breastfeeding, they will require being constantly fed day and night and can’t get any long stretch of sleep. Therefore, it’s essential to keep them awake.
How to Deal with Babies Falling Asleep While Breastfeeding?
If you want to wake up your baby to give him/her a sufficient breastfeeding, you should follow the important suggestions below:
- The suitable time to wake up your baby is during REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement sleep). Some signals of REM sleep are fluttering eyelids, changeable facial expressions, clenched fists, movable arms and legs, and sleep grins. It’s harder to wake up a baby in a deep sleep.
- Contacting with your baby by talking to him/her or singing a song. In additions, making skin and eye contact, or stroking the hands, soles of feet, shoulders, arms and back are also the great ways to keep them awake during breastfeeding.
- You can put a cool washcloth (not too wet or too cold) on the babies’ forehead or use a baby wipe to wipe the face. Or you can hold them upright to encourage them to open their eyes.
- If the light in your room is too bright, babies will tend to keep their eyes close because they are quite sensitive to light. Therefore, dimming the light is necessary.
- Whenever your baby sucks slowly, you should change his/her diapers before switching to the other. This can make him/her feel uncomfortable, leading to being woken up.
- Expressing a drop of your milk on their lips by hand to make him swallow during breastfeeding.
This video will suggest you some ways to wake up your baby while breastfeeding. Check it if you want!
Conclusion
In a nutshell, this post has provided you the essential information about babies falling asleep while breastfeeding. Moreover, you shouldn’t worry about this situation because it’s very normal. The most important thing is making your baby full before he/she continues to sleep. Of course, learning special ways to take care your kid is essential in all cases.
If you have any question or contribution, please let us know by leaving your comment in the box below. We will answer all! Thank you for your reading!
