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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

dreamfeed or not to dreamfeed??

27 replies

jodie1984 · 15/09/2005 13:03

hi, i am interested who does a dreamfeed because i was giving my ds (11wks) a dreamfeed at 11.30pm which would have been 4hrs after his last feed but he only takes half of his feed. lastnight i decided not to give him the dream feed and he did not wake up untill 2am which was 6 1/2 hrs since his last feed and he drank all of his milk. and went untill 6.30am.

what are your views??

OP posts:
motherpeculiar · 15/09/2005 13:05

when I tried a dream feed with DD2 about that age it set off a spiral of more and more feeding at night until it was out of control and i had to call in dr ferber. Sorry to be so melodramatic but I'm only just recovering from the sleep deprivation now...

starlover · 15/09/2005 13:05

i'd carry on as you are... not giving it. one less thing to think about!

Tinker · 15/09/2005 13:07

Made no difference when I did it. I'd give it up.

dobbin · 15/09/2005 13:08

I really like the baby whisperer's advice (EASY system) but never gave a dreamfeed routinely because when I tried it, ds still woke up for the rest of his night feeds anyway. From about 4 weeks I put him to bed around 8pm and he soon started sleeping til between 3 and 4 am. That gradually extended and he now sleeps through to 6-7am.

I also prefer not to dreamfeed because once he's gone down for the night, I've been able to leave him at my parents, go out with dh for dinner and a few drinks, stay the night at my parents and feed him when he wakes up. It just gave me a little freedom and made no apparent difference to his ability to sleep through.

stitch · 15/09/2005 13:09

whats a dreamfeed?

Kelly1978 · 15/09/2005 13:19

dreamfeed - feeding baby late at night before u go to bed.

It works for some and not for others. DD and ds never wanted to know. The dts wake up very loudly protesting if theirs is more than an hour or two late. If it isn't workign then drop it.

stitch · 15/09/2005 13:20

aaaahhhh i seee.
fortunately my times of such feeding are past

Luckie · 15/09/2005 13:44

I never did a dream feed, it never even crossed my mind - I was so relieved to get him to sleep at first. I just fed DS when he woke up in the night. He started sleeping 8pm-5am at 8 weeks (obviously with the odd bad night) and he now sleeps 8pm-7.30am. But that was what worked for him, they are all different.

Tipex · 15/09/2005 15:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SpikeMomma · 21/09/2005 20:37

I've had this dilemma. Think i might stop doing them then and see what happens...

dur dur durrrr...

karmamother · 21/09/2005 21:35

I'm glad someone brought this subject up. I've been watching the Baby whisperer & thought it seemed like a good idea that I'd like try when bubs is born. It's good to see both sides of the arguement, as it were. Last time, DS fed 2 hourly for pretty much all day & night. I now know that I was giving him skimmed milk as I had dreadful IBS so I wasn't very well-nourished myself. I stubbornly continued with the 2 hrly feeds, however.

This time, I'm very healthy & well nourished so I'm hoping we'll have a more suitable routine! Now I know that the dream feed might not solve the night time problem, I won't slog my guts out trying to get it to work. Thanks!

jessicaandbumpsmummy · 21/09/2005 21:39

Im with Kelly on this one - Jess loved her dream feed and it was the only way we got her to sleep through til about 4-5am!

She had JUST weaned herself off it now (14 months old - oops!) and sleeps 8pm - 7am with possibly 1 waking at about 4am for dummy/a few oz's milk!

This is the girl that has to have 4 9oz bottles a day to survive though.... she loves her milk!

Original poster
jodie1984 · 22/09/2005 15:40

update- lastnight was ds's best night so far, he was fed at 6pm, bathed at 7am and asleep by 7.30pm. he then did not wake untill 12am!! i fed him and put him back to bed and he fell asleep really quickly and did not wake again untill 6am!! i fed him and he fell back asleep in his bouncer untill 9am!!

i hope it lasts but ive got a funny feeling a one off

OP posts:
Harriett · 23/09/2005 12:25

we have been 'dreamfeeding' our 8 week old for a few weeks and it really works- she is very alert already through the day and if we let her wake up in the night properly she stays awake for at least an hour. She has even dropped a whole night feed already, so we are very very happy!

Frizbe · 23/09/2005 12:33

I used to feed dd from about 3 mths, at 7pm then put her to bed. I then gave a dream feed at 10.30-11pm (sometimes including a dream nappy change, if I could manage it without waking her up) and she slept thru until 6am. She kept this routine up until nearly one!

charliegirl25 · 23/09/2005 12:36

Message withdrawn

bristolinas · 23/09/2005 14:15

my ds is 15 weeks and we've been dream feeding for two months now it certainly works for us. He's sleeping through til seven from 10 weeks old !! Hadn't thought about when we are going to stop though probably when we've weaned! I love the baby whisperer book as he's our first it's been a bible!

NomDePlume · 23/09/2005 14:16

I did, it worked a treat for my DD

swizzles · 23/09/2005 16:24

my baby was having a last feed at 7pm and going to bed at 8pm. She was sleeping until 5-6 am whay-hey!

Then she decided she wanted an extra feed at 2am, not much fun

we had tried dreamfeeding her when she was younger - she only took a couple of ounces and still woke at the usual times so we wrote it off. However, we tried dreamfeeding last night at 10.45 pm. She took the whole bottle and slept until 5.30. Another at 5.30 and went through until 7.30

hope it lasts

Tatties · 23/09/2005 17:14

If it works for you great, but it didn't for me! I tried it around 7-8 wks when I had just got ds going to bed around 7pm (it had previously been 9-10pm after several rounds of bf..). I dreamfed him in the hope that he would sleep through his next feed at 2pm but no... He still woke up at all the usual times for a feed and then when I decided it wasn't going to work and stopped doing it, he started waking up for it anyway! Cheeky monkey.. I think too that it may have set a pattern of more regular feeding throughout the night rather than going for any long stretches, which he is only just starting to break now that he is nearly 6mths! Although this could also be with the help of solid food.

IMO don't wake them for feeds, just let them sleep and they'll wake up when they're hungry. I think it's harder to make it work when you're breastfeeding too, because you don't know how much they are taking at ever feed. I definitely wouldn't bother with a dream feed for number 2 - if they were anything like ds they would never turn down milk when it is offered!

weesaidie · 23/09/2005 17:33

I think every child is different.

A dream feed worked great for me for a few months, she would then go til 4amish. But after a while I felt she wasn't taking much and stopped and she still slept til the same time.

babydriver · 23/09/2005 17:40

Found dream feed worked very well - from memory, I did it from about 3 months through to about 7 months when he was weaning and able to sleep through.

I started off doing it with expressed milk, as I found he drank the bottle much more quicky than direct from the breast so disturbed his sleep less. (Plus I wanted him to be used to the bottle in case of emergencies.) I then went off and expressed for the next night. When I went on holiday c5months, I couldn't be bothered with expressing/sterilising etc and kept with breast from thereafter. When I realised at around six or seven months that he was taking hardly anything I tried dropping it and haven't looked back.

I started it because I found being woken in the really small hours pretty deadly so preferred to crash after the dream feed and then get woken at five, six or whatever. So I was really doing it for me, but luckily DS was accommodating!!

jigger · 23/09/2005 21:28

I followed GIna Ford on DS who was our first & religiously fed him at 10 or so everynight. It seemed to teach him that it was ok to wake up if you were hungry later in the night. We ended up sleep training him at 6 months to get him to go through the night (the hard way!)

With DD who was number 2 I never woke her at night for a feed & she slept through after a 6 o'clock evening feed from 10 weeks.

I know which option I would choose the 2nd time round.

sparklingshiraz · 25/09/2005 09:15

my dd has a dreamfeed that used to work a treat. WE would give a bottle a 1opm-ish then wake at about 6am. Now she is 10mnths and only takes milk at night. She pushes bottles away during the day, will only take juice from cup (not even water) during the day. She has a feed at 10pm after sometimes having one prior to bed at 7pm (never has much at this one), then wakes once or twice during the night for milk. I expected the night feeds to be over by now. It sometimes seems to be getting harder not easier.

mumfor1sttime · 26/09/2005 11:23

I thought about dream feeding, but was too nervous to wake ds up-thinking he might not go back to sleep!!
When newborn he would go to bed at 8-9pm and wake at 2am and 4.30am (usually to the nearest minute!)
Wasnt sure to try and feed him before I went to bed in the hope that he wouldnt wake at 2am.

Instead, I went to bed at 9-10pm, so I could get few hours kip before he woke at 2am! I sooo hated the 2am feed. He dropped this around 5 weeks old.

We had the 4.30am feed until he was around 8 weeks old. The time slowly shifted round to 6am, we just ignored his snuffles and whinges, often he would go back to sleep.

He is now 8.5 months and sleeps from 6.30-6.30

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