Should I reintroduce middle of night feed?

[Alibobster]

3 weeks ago my ds stopped having his middle of the night feed (formula fed)He is now 12 weeks old. He now goes to bed at 8pm then dream feed at 11.45pm and then sleeps until I lift him at 7am for his feed. The last few nights however he has been waking around 4am and fussing. I have been giving him his dummy and he spits it out after a while and I put it back in and this more or less goes on until 7am. He never screams or cries but I'm wondering if he is hungry and if I should reintroduce this feed? He never finishes his feeds during the day but that's not to say he's not hungry during the night. Don't know what to do

I would ditch the dummy and encourage him to self settle, perhaps with a bit of help from you, reassuring words, head stroking etc. Personally I would not revert to night feeds, though many will disagree. Look up on line to establish if baby is getting enough milk in the day, you might need to add another small feed in. So for example if he usually has 6oz at bed time, try 4oz before his bath then 4 more at bed time, making it an 8oz split feed. If he is having enough and has wet and dirty nappies and gaining enough weight, I might try hungry baby formula at the dream feed. Also, you could try properly waking him for the dream feed, ie not a dream feed at all. Tire him out a little so he's more tired after. I know she's not popular with everyone, but have you looked at gina ford? You can learn a lot from her book, and no need to follow to the letter, just use what works for you. Ds1 responded really well to her routines. DS2 (3 weeks) started her routine yesterday and is already settling better.

Thanks bonzo, I don't want to reintroduce night feed because I'm worried it will just become a habit and feels like a step backwards. Sometimes he takes enough during the day other times he doesn't although he was still sleeping through regardless. I did try the self soothing route before but wasn't brave enough to persevere and have made a bit of a rod for my own back although when the dummy comes out when he's in a deep sleep he doesn't waken up, it's only if he's drifting in and out of sleep it's a problem. I have tried splitting the feeds but he point blank refuses to take any more, he actually has his wee mouth shut tight so I can't get the bottle in! My main concern was that I wasn't feeding him when I should have been. If he's unsettled again tonight I will try the hungry baby milk at bedtime tomorrow night. Thanks for all the great advice