Do dreamfeeds work?

[mindtheagegap]

I am now mix feeding my DD as I'm back at work in two weeks time. She is 4 months old and goes to bed at 7.30, waking at around 4am for a feed. She has a full bottle (210mls) and goes back to sleep until 6-7ish when she has a breastfeed, which is pretty good at her age. BUT it can take over an hour to settle her so I can be up 4-5 am and am worried about lack of sleep when I'm back at work. My friend says to dreamfeed at my bedtime and she'll sleep through, but I'm worried it'll muck up a fairly good sleep pattern -plus seems wrong to wake a sleeping baby. Has anyone tried dreamfeeding? Does it work?

Yes! When my first dd was around 5 months old we used to dream feed her at 11pm and she would then go until around 7am for her next feed.

It is great! You have to be careful to wind them though without waking them but you will get the hang of it. Dd was awful with wind so we had to make sure we did it before putting her back down.

Its defo worth a go. Make sure you keep the lights very low and be you will be fine. Good luck

I think all you can do is try it and see if it works. It worked for me but not in terms of sleeping through, just less wake ups - naturally, DS would sleep from 7pm to 1am, then again wake at around 4am for a feed. So to avoid being up at 1 and 4 we fed him a dream feed at about 11pm so then he would go to 3am before needing a feed.

I also found it was the easiest feed because I wasn't really 'waking' him, he stayed very drowsy and was easy to settle afterward.

I would try it now, before you're back at work; either it'll get her into a good pattern, or you'll know it doesn't work and won't have the stress of trying a new pattern while getting back to work.

If it doesn't work I would suggest you and DH take turns with the night feed so that you both get a night here and there with a full night's kip.

i think you can try it but her sleeping pattern sounds brilliant

i think if a baby is asleep, let them sleep and they will wake naturally when hungry

DD is 19 weeks and goes to bed at 7 ish.

she naturally wakes for a feed at 10/11 pm and then she is up again twice

my DS used to go through from 7 - 3 am at this age and i never used a dream feed

I dream feed my DD who is 5 months. We bought a red side light from ikea (doesn't wake her up as much as white light) and just pick her up and pop the bottle in her mouth at 10pm and she drains it. She is doesn't need much winding which makes it easier, but even if she grizzles a little bit when we put her back down, she just drops off again within 5 mins and I wake her up at 7am for her morning feed. It has worked really well for us.