Dropping the dream feed - how did you do it?

[alicet]

Ds2 has been having a dream feed at 10.30pm since he was tiny and has been sleeping through after that until after 6am for a couple of months. So we tried to drop it last week and it was a nightmare. Granted he has had a cold and been teething so inretrospect not perhaps the best time to choose but dh and I are so tired (ds1 is only 2 and a half and we both have busy jobs) that the thought of having to get up through the night is pretty atrocious.

Any suggestions as to how to make this easier? I do anticipate that it might take his a little while to get it and I also know that we can't keep this up forever but the more painless for us all we can make this the better!

How old is he?

He's 11 months. And eats really well during the day. So he clearly shouldn't need it anymore. I have been wanting to stop for a few weeks but dh has been very resistant as his sleeping was pretty shite before.

My concern is that the longer we leave it the harder it will be to stop as the pattern becomes more entrenched...

Watching with interest. Same scenario here though DD is a bit younger.

Can you try by reducing the feed by a few mins/oz every few nights?

I think what I did was to dilute the milk with water gradually and then reduce the volume. When it got down to the point where he has only having about 1oz of milk in 2oz of water I just bit the bullet and stopped.

Sorry this clearly doesn't work if you are bfing though! I bfed although his dreamfeed was always a bottle so that both dp and I could do it.

Not bf so tha makes it simpler!

Can't really reduce by a small amount every few nights as the amount he has is very variable. Sometimes 1 oz sometimes 8. Doesn't seem to depend on how much he has had before going to bed either - all pretty erratic.

When we did the same with ds1 (well not dream feed but trying to persuade him to stop having milk during the night) we did the diluting it thing. He just drank more so in effect he was having the same amount, it took longer, and then he pissed himself as his nappy was sodden...