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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

dreamfeeds- opinions/advice please!!

13 replies

chocolateistheanswer · 06/09/2008 20:21

we're currently waking our 10 wk old ds up at 10/10.30 for a dreamfeed. He takes his previous feed around 6-6.30pm, and following the dreamfeed goes through to (usually) 5.30am. This is quite a nice amount of sleep considering he's so young, and i'm reluctant to do anything that's going to take us back to 2am feeds...just wondering whether dreamfeeding is popular others and if so, when did you stop?

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angel1976 · 06/09/2008 20:25

Hi, lucky you! I just stopped DS's DF and he's 6.5 months. He actually weaned himself off it. Basically, he was not taking much in the morning (still isn't but that's a different problem altogether!). And instead of taking the full feed for his DF (of 5-6 oz), he was taking only 2 oz and instead of drinking it all kinda dreamily, he started losing interest and wanted to just go back to sleep. So he has been sleeping through from 7pm-6am (7 if we are lucky!) since about a week ago. Having said that, it also coincided with him starting to take more for his solids and he's on 3 solid meals a day with pudding for his night meal. I always find the DF the easiest (just gave it to DS before we went to bed ourselves) and never could quite understood the rush to stop it!

DistractionTechniques · 06/09/2008 20:31

IME dreamfeeds are a Good Thing. DD has recently stopped having hers (she's 9 1/2 months). It suited us a treat.

Are you BF or FF (not up to speed on FF I'm afraid)? I never actually woke DD for her dream feed, she latched on quite happily in her sleep.

frumpygrumpy · 06/09/2008 20:32

Keep the dream feed!

Original poster

chocolateistheanswer · 06/09/2008 20:36

yeah i'm with you on it being the easiest feed so not wanting to rush!! He doesn't take that much at 10.30 (3-4oz generally, so less than he takes in the day) but then at 530 he's back to a full feed. Were you feeding at a regular breakfast time? I've been feeding him at 5.30 or whenever he wakes up, then putting him back down if he's sleepy so next feed tends to be midmorning...wondering if its sensible to say have a regular 8am breakfast feed?

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Original poster

chocolateistheanswer · 06/09/2008 20:37

I'm FF...he does manage it in his sleep (actually quite impossible to properly wake up at this time so have given up trying!)

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frumpygrumpy · 06/09/2008 20:38

If he's not taking much and not waking you might experiment one night.......

Original poster

chocolateistheanswer · 06/09/2008 20:42

yeah that's what i was thinking...not quite brave enough yet!! Couple of friends have said they stopped when introduced solids around 6 months (how's that for avoiding it?!)

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LittleMissTickles · 06/09/2008 20:50

I was so scared to stop the dreamfeed for my DD1. Eventually did so at around 8 or 9 months. She didn't seem to notice, except made a few little sounds around that time in her cot for a couple of nights.

With DD2 we stopped it around 6 months and she really didn't notice. Stop it when you are ready, there is no rush really.

Anifrangapani · 06/09/2008 20:52

Lie was so much easier when we worked out dream feeding..... Roll on sleeping

Original poster

chocolateistheanswer · 06/09/2008 20:55

thanks everyone....think i'll stick with it for a while longer, it's no problem for me and the more sleep he gets at night the happier i am!!

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MuffinMclay · 06/09/2008 21:06

I dream fed both of mine (ff) and it meant they would then sleep through until 6.30/7am from about 12 weeks old. I recently dropped the dream feed with ds2 (nearly 7 mo), once he was having 3 meals of solids a day and was starting to fuss with his breakfast milk.

Sophie2 · 06/09/2008 21:24

We atooped the DF at 4 months as we got greedy with our sleep and neither of us wanted to stay up until 10.30!. I gradually reduced the no. of oz in the bottle and we did not change his nappy which we had been doing previously. We got down to 2oz and crossed our fingers and it worked! good luck

angel1976 · 06/09/2008 21:31

Hey chocolateistheanswer... The way I worked it... If DS woke up before 4am, he got the full feed but if he woke after 4am, I tried to settle him with only 3 oz as otherwise, he will be up at 7/8am and not want to drink at all, which had a knock on effect on all his feeds! Eventually he pushed his waking up time till 6/7am, which suits us fine! He still has the occasional 5am waking but can usually be persuaded to go back to sleep! But with your DS the age he is, I imagine he will want to keep his own timetable a bit longer but you can always try giving him just a couple of oz to settle him at 5.30am and then a full feed at 7am?

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