Dropping the dream feed

[babylovesmilkdrink]

DD is 11 months now and has had roughly the following schedule since she was about 5 months:

1. Sleep sometime between 6:30 and 7pm, bottle of milk before bed. She goes down easily - she usually grizzles in her cot for a few minutes and then rolls over and sleeps.

1. Dream feed somewhere between 10 and 11pm. Takes the full bottle.

1. Wakes up between 6 and 6:30am.

She generally has no night wakings now (8 month sleep regression was a different story!), or just a brief waking or two to have her dummy (which she is heavily reliant on to sleep) replaced.

I'm wondering if we should be dropping the dream feed? DH is of the 'not broke don't fix' mindset, and he is the one who does the feed so it doesn't really impact me either way. However, I'm worried she doesn't really need it and that it is not great for her teeth or for sleep hygiene. I'm also concerned now as she never used to wake for the feed, whereas over the last few weeks she has started waking up inconsolable just before the feed and not settling without it. Can anyone please advise?

We also dropped our twins dream feed at 1yr old. In my view that should be taking the majority of their nutrition through daytime solids and milk from that age. For a short amount of time they did wake out of habit at around 10-11pm, but it wasn't difficult to get through.

Having children is a constant debate of 'if it's not broke don't fix it', but it is the parents responsibility to move them on in life – dream feeds, sleeping in their own bed, dummies, moving from their cots, dropping feeds, using a cup, potty training etc. So, despite knowing how daunting it can be to change gears once you're onto a good thing, I don't personally find that argument holds much weight once they reach the relevant age for the skills they should be gaining.

I agree with you that it’s not good for teeth or sleep hygiene and it needs to go, as should all bottles after 1YO and this is where I would start. It’s also quiet old for a dream feed. I’m a huge fan of them but we phased it out when they started weaning. As far as DH is concerned it won’t be the first or the last thing where ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ doesn’t cut it- you’ll also have to potty train her and ditch the dummy when she’s around 3 and there will likely be resistance to both! It also sounds like it is does need fixing and that it’s no longer working for you if she’s now waking upset looking for the feed when she used to mostly sleep through. So I’d consider it definitely time to get rid. I’d do a really filling snack right before bed. Weetabix and banana were my go-tos. Then if she wakes overnight resettle with a cup of water and cuddles.

Thank you both for the advice. @Didimum I showed your post to my husband and it really got through to us both. We've gone by making it earlier every night and have managed to drop it since I posted. She has been quite unsettled in the night for the last few days but she's sleeping through the old dream feed time and I think this is related to colds and teeth as she hasn't been looking for milk.

Best of luck! You will be out the other end with sleep soon, I’m sure!