1 Week Old Baby: Reflexes, First Feeds and What to Expect

Your Baby at 1 Week Old

A 1 week old baby feeds on cue — breastfed newborns feed 8 to 12 times in 24 hours, according to the Canadian Paediatric Society — and may sleep as much as 18 hours a day, for 3 to 4 hours at a time, waking often to feed. Newborns often lose a little weight in the first days before regaining it, and your provider weighs your baby to make sure it’s on track. Vision is blurry and sharpest up close, at roughly the distance to your face during a feed.

Your 1 week old baby has just arrived, and everything they do right now is instinct. Feeding, gripping your finger, startling at a loud noise — these are reflexes, not decisions, and they’re exactly what you want to see this week.

This guide covers what’s normal in the first seven days: how your newborn feeds, how much they sleep, the weight changes that worry almost every new parent, and how you’re likely to feel while you both find your feet.

Your Life This Week: The Parent Experience

The first week is a blur of feeds, diapers and almost no sleep — and that is the normal, if brutal, reality, not a sign you’re doing anything wrong. Your own body is recovering from birth at the same time. Be gentle with what you expect of yourself.

A loose rhythm helps more than a schedule this week: feed, a short awake period, sleep, repeat. Follow your baby’s cues, not the clock. Accept every offer of help with meals, laundry and rest.

The “baby blues” affect up to 80% of new mothers, usually starting 1 to 3 days after birth and lasting from 10 days to a few weeks, according to the Canadian Paediatric Society — mood swings, tearfulness, feeling anxious or overwhelmed. If low mood lasts longer or feels heavier than that, it may be postpartum depression, which the Canadian Paediatric Society reports affects about 13% of new mothers, and as many as 10% of fathers. It is treatable — please talk to your doctor or public health nurse.

Feeding Your 1 Week Old Baby

A 1 week old baby feeds little and often. The Canadian Paediatric Society advises feeding on demand — whenever your baby is hungry — and notes that in the first few weeks breastfed babies feed 8 to 12 times over a 24-hour period. In the first days, it’s not unusual to need to wake a sleepy newborn for a feed. For formula, follow the feeding chart on your formula’s packaging and let your baby’s cues guide the amount.

You’ll know your newborn is getting enough by what comes out and how they settle. The Canadian Paediatric Society lists the signs of feeding well: six or more wet diapers in 24 hours, stools that are yellow, soft and seedy, a baby who is content after feeding, and steady weight gain. Cluster feeding — short, frequent feeds bunched together, often in the evening — is normal and, the CPS notes, may simply mean your baby is going through a growth spurt.

Whether you are breastfeeding, formula feeding or doing both, the goal this week is a well-fed, steadily growing baby. If breastfeeding isn’t an option, the Canadian Paediatric Society advises using a store-bought, iron-fortified, cow-milk-based infant formula for the first 12 months — fortified with the iron, vitamin D and other nutrients a newborn needs.

A note on formula this week. The first week is about getting comfortable with paced bottle feeds and safe preparation. MOF’s organic Stage 1 formulas — including HiPP Dutch Stage 1 — are iron-fortified and suitable from birth, providing the vitamin D, iron and DHA a newborn needs. Formula is a good choice whenever it’s the right one for your family; it is never second-best to a fed, thriving baby.

Sleep at 1 Week: What’s Normal & How to Help

A 1 week old baby may sleep as much as 18 hours a day, for 3 to 4 hours at a time, spread around the clock — and the Canadian Paediatric Society is clear that it is normal and healthy for babies to wake during the night to feed. There is no long overnight sleep yet, and there shouldn’t be.

This scattered sleep is developmentally normal. The Canadian Paediatric Society notes that sleep habits become more predictable sometime after 3 months — so longer, more regular stretches simply aren’t here yet. Nothing you’re doing wrong is causing the night waking.

To gently start a day-night difference, keep daytime feeds bright and sociable and keep night feeds quiet and dim. Put your baby down drowsy but awake when you can, and sleep yourself whenever your baby does.

Safe sleep reminder: always place your baby on their back for every sleep, on a firm flat mattress with a tightly fitted sheet and no loose, soft items — no blankets, pillows, bumpers or toys — in a crib, cradle or bassinet in your room for the first 6 months. The Canadian Paediatric Society advises this lowers the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).