Dream Feed

[Beachbaby1]

DD has just turned 10 months and is still having a 7oz dream feed before we go to bed around 10ish. She drinks the whole bottle and then goes straight back down till morning.

This is her fourth 7oz bottle of the day so drinking around 800ml a day. She is not consistently eating 3 good meals a day - she does eat at breakfast lunch and dinner but the amount varies. She is putting on weight after a rocky start.

So, I feel like I should be aiming to cut the dream feed as I’m worried about her teeth and also conscious that I should be reducing her milk feeds.

My worries are that seen as she drinks it all does that mean she’s hungry or is just habit? If I do cut it out and she wakes in the middle of the night how will I know if she’s hungry or not? Also, she doesn’t drink a lot of water (prefers to dribble it out) so would worry about a lack of fluids.

Shall I just slowly reduce the amount we give her and see how it goes?

Any advice/experience anyone has would be much appreciated!

TIA

[lorza03]

10 months is still quite young and if she isint taking in lots of food then she probably uses the milk to keep her going all night. your her mum and you know her best go on whatever your gut instinct is telling you but I would say she prob needs the milk until at least 1 yrs old then maybe think about reducing the amount. My daughter is 23 months and still has the occasional bottle of milk before bed. If your worried about teeth try a sippy cup, but I would say they use a bottle for comfort as much as they want it for milk. If you ask your Hv or read up it does say milk has natural properties to help with sleeping! Go with the flow ifshe's ready for something to end you will pick up on the ques. Hope I've been some sort of help.

[user1493413286]

I would try cutting it out and see what happens. If she wakes later in the night you could give it to her then and start giving it again the next night if you felt she needed it. The other option is to reduce the amount over a week or two so that it’s not a sudden change.
You might even find she eats a bit more the next day to make up for it. My DD wasn’t accepting her dream feed so we cut it out and it was fine.

[Nan0second]

I'd cut it down by an oz every 2 nights until it stops altogether if she's eating well in the day.

[NutellaCookie]

I am having the same dilemma OP. DD is 10 months too and still relies on her dream feed for a full nights sleep. DS had definitely been weaned off his by now.

I have just dropped her afternoon bottle and instead give her an early tea at 4pm. I find she is now much more interested in her tea and is also really ready for her bedtime bottle. She takes almost all of this (8oz) and then about 4oz of her dreamfeed.

I think we will just carry on with it until she is a bit older and we are confident she will sleep through. Definitely wean her off little by little...this off what we did with DS and we had no problems.

[welshweasel]

DS had a dream feed of 7oz at 10pm, used to drain the lot. I went away on a course for 3 days when he was 7 months old. DH 'forgot' the dream feed on the first night but as he slept through we never gave one again. I'd say if eats well during the day then try dropping it and see what happens!

[Ilikesweetpeas]

We reduced the amount very slowly, I didn't want to stop the full nights sleep! It took about 4 weeks but by the time DD was 11 months she slept though with no dream feed