to dream feed or not to dream feed?

[vic891]

here's my dilemma: ds (8 weeks) feeds pretty much every 3 hours day and night (exclusively b/f) apart from the evening where he'll go 4 to 5 hours if left to his own devices - from around 7pm when I put him down.

so... do i give a dream feed when i go to bed at 10ish, and get some shuteye 'til around 1:00 (he only goes for 3 hours after a dream feed), or do I leave him to get on with this long sleep, but get up after only maybe an hour's sleep? maybe this will be his core sleep, that will get longer over time, and the dream sleep is disturbing it???

[jambot]

I personally feel that you should let them wake naturally at night when their tummies are telling them to. How do you know how long he'll go at night if he's being woken? I know 'dream feeds' are popular but I feel it causes more problems than it should. I never fed dd unless she woke herself and she gradually just went longer and longer. I know it's tempting as it's when you go to bed, but can't you try going to bed a little earlier for a while, until he stretches himself later?

[luc1979]

i dream feed without waking my ds up so it doesn't disturbe his sleep and i find he sleeps for longer and quite quickly started to go till 5 am which is great.

[girrafey]

i started dream feeding at 6 weeks and gave up last week when my dd was 9. i used to do it at 11 and then she would go through till 2 ish and then again at 5. i found putting her down at 7.30 - 8 with a good feed and wind and leaving her she now goes through till 4.30 and then up and ready to start the day at 7. all smiley etc as she doesnt have wind like she used to when i dream fed. i found out by accident one evening when i fell insleep of the tv and woke when she did at the 4. i have done this ever since. hope that helps.

[luc1979]

my ds keeps getting bad wind. if i don't dream feed he wakes at 3am so that's better than wind. going to do that.

[kaz3]

I dream fed my son about 10pm'ish - I worried about starting bad habits but it really didnt. He naturally started taking less and less milk at this time at around 6months - and then i continued the pattern until I was giving him only 1 oz milk - then just stopped. Im glad i did it as it extended my nights sleep and this pattern continued after the gradual weaning.

[charleepeters]

I dream fed DS for about 2 months and it made o difference to him at all - my h.v has always told me never wake a sleeping baby if you can help it so i dont

[luc1979]

kaz3 - did you wind your baby?

[vickitiredmum]

Vic - I have never given a dream feed with either my DS or DD. I always felt they would wake when they were hungry, and after they were 5/6 weeks, when they woke in the night (out of sheer desperation for sleep!) I would give a dummy with my DD (dont do this now with DS), and roll her over/change position to see if she went back to sleep - which she often did and in the end started going 11 hours sleep at 11 weeks old - no feeds inbetween. My DS now (15 weeks old) although he is a nightmare to get off to sleep - once he has gone off to sleep he's the same as DD and sleeps from roughly 8.30pm through til anywhere between 6.30-8am. But, i think every baby is different and dream feeds might be worth a try - but if after a few days you dont see much of an improvement I would knock it on the head and perhaps consider if he is really getting enough calories in during the daylight hours to stop him waking so regularly in the night.