When to drop the dream feed?

[lazyhen]

Hi all - My DD is now fully FF at 3months. She is a good weight and seems to be thriving.

When is it reasonable to drop the dream feed? She sleeps through the night (12 hours) which I bless her for everyday, but I was wondering when/how to stop the night feed?

Today she's had all 30oz during the day so am just wondering whether I should leave it?

I guess I could try not giving it to her and seeing what happens but just wondered if it is too much to expect her to go 12 hours without food/drink?

I was reminded of that scary woman (Claire Verity) on bringing up baby last year who had those babies sleeping through the night without any feeds from 12 weeks.

You should just give it a go - if she wakes up crying you'll know she's still needs the dreamfeed! I think my dd was about this age when she actually started to reject the dreamfeed on her own and then started sleeping right through. Good luck!

dd1 dropped it herself at around 5 months. I was nervous initially but she clearly still wasn't interested. Would suck for a minute or two then snuggle back off to sleep til morning.

Dd2 has been a little more tricky, I kept it up until 7 months, even now she stirs around 11pm (no doubt she has very happy memories about getting extra milk at that time) but she settles back quickly when we go in to soothe her and offer the dummy.

Right - I'm going to try it! Having trouble finding a nappy that lasts all night so that might wake her but what't the worst that can happen?

I was on a thread like this a few months ago and found it v helpful. One of the mums posted the saying "fortune favours the brave!" which made me laugh and encouraged me to try it. (Turned out dd2 wasn't ready but I'm glad I gave it a try).

p.s. re the nappies - do you use reusables or disposables? Going up a size in a disposable may help, or adding a booster into a reusable. Also if your dd drops the dream feed that's one less wee during the night so we actually found the nappy was slightly less heavy in the morning.

We gradually cut down the dreamfeed so that ds could adjust and increase his daytime feeds if he needed to. I think we cut down an oz every 3 days.

Thanks everyone... She woke up at 2.45am and had a whole bottle but then slept through until 7.45am Bliss! I guess that answers that question about whether she's ready to give it up or not!

As for the nappies, it's just a work in progress and I'm trying everything! (I have a thread on the nappies board about this) but I know it was hunger not her nappy that woke her up at 2.45 so I will continue the dream feed for the time being.

Thank-you!