Dropping the dream feed

[rockclimbingmum]

Hi there, my baby is 18 weeks old and has been on formula for the last 8 weeks (breast before that). She feeds really well and is a good weight. I have been doing a dream feed at 11pm (in her sleep) and she therefore sleeps through from about 7.30pm to 7.30am. A few people I know have stopped the dream feed and I decided to give it a go to see what happened. Last night was the first time I did not give it and my baby did not actually wake up crying for milk, but did cry in her sleep about 4 times during the night - as soon as I put her dummy in she settled and was fine. However, I am really tired!! Has anyone else tried this? Do you think she will settle if I give it a try for a few more nights or do you think she is too young? I am worried that she may not get enough milk if I continue to drop the dream feed, as she won't take bigger quantities during the day time, so is essentially just drinking one less bottle per 24hrs. Any advice gratefully received!

Think your little one might be a bit young to drop that late feed. I bf and carried on the dream feed until my dd was 7 months. If you are tired from staying up late, bring the feed forward to 10-10.30pm. Good luck

Yes, it's a tricky one! I agreed with you and decided that I would do the dream feed last night, but have picked up a tummy bug so went to bed early. When my husband tried to do it she wouldn't take it (maybe a bit early so not hungry enough). I was planning to get up at 11pm to do it but fell asleep - the next thing I knew it was 7am and not a peep out of her all night! Even so, I am not sure if it might just be best to stick to 5 feeds instead of 4 so she is getting enough food. Any thoughts?

I never really did the dream feed. I stopped it at about 5 weeks both times as that was around the time I managed to get a 7pm bed time established. Once they were going to bed at 7pm I could never get either DD to wake up enough to feed at 11pm, and as I was bf they couldn't really feed when half asleep - they'd just get really grumpy. both DDs slept through the night from about 9 weeks, but I did find that once DD2 was reliably sleeping through the night I had to increase her day time feeds from 4 feeds to 5 feeds. I have lots of friends who did do the dream feed though and most of them dropped it around 4 months - like you they just tried doing without it and found their babies still slept through.

Thanks for that - it's reassuring to hear what other people have done! I spoke to the health visitor today and she said it was fine as long as baby was getting at least 600ml in the day time, so I think we'll just carry on and hope for some more lovely peaceful nights! Thanks again!