
August 18, 2000
Hypoglycemia
Question from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA:
We have twin boys who are six weeks of age. They sometimes sleep six to seven hours at night. While this is great for us, we were told by a doctor that this could cause the children to become hypoglycemic and were advised to wake them at five hours until they are two months of age. Both boys are healthy eaters. My question is should we follow this doctor’s advice to not let them get more then five hours of sleep at a time? If so, do we stop waking them after two months? Since they are all ready one and one-half months will they become hypoglycemic?
Answer:
Your medical advice is reasonable and precautionary just in case your twins’ reserves of body starch (glycogen) are not enough to get them through the night. I would follow the advice until they are around two to three months of age.
KJR