Dream feed - help!!

[Lapt91]

I have a 5 month old and recently he will not go back to sleep after his dream feed, since he was born he has followed the exact same routine. Bed at 7, dream feed at 10.30 and it’s worked a dream (minus sleep regression) but the last 2 nights he has not gone back down until 3am and it’s getting very tedious!

do you think perhaps he is ready to drop that feed? Or could it be something else?

Try dropping the feed and see if that helps. We dropped the dream feed once and it was the first time DS slept through the night! I think maybe when we were waking him for the dream feed it was waking him from quite a deep sleep and he struggled to go back to sleep afterwards. I'm not a sleep expert at all though so I could be completely wrong on this. Good luck!

I would drop it if you can. My dd is 6months and has slept through 12hrs since 12weeks. ( not a brag as we’ve struggled with other things) as long as he gets enough feeds through the day he should be ok hopefully

My then-sixth month old started getting really unsettled (screaming when I wouldn't play with her and when the feed ended) after the 3am feed. She was sometimes sleeping through til 5/6am anyway so we thought she wasn't really hungry. Swapped it for a bottle of formula and after two nights, she stopped waking up! We did have to briefly reintroduce the 3am breastfeed while she was ill with bronchiolitis, as she was struggling to get enough fluids and needed the comfort. When she was better, we again swapped this feed back to a bottle and she again stopped waking up for it.

You'll be able to start solids soon/already depending on your baby, and you can give something like porridge before the last evening feed. It's still a topic of controversy (and the difference it makes is small https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2686726), but breastfed babies who have cereals in their diets once weaning starts may sleep a little longer at night. So when your baby is ready, you can think about something like Readybrek or another smooth porridge as part of their evening feeding routine. My baby liked Milupa Sunshine and is now on Kendamil apple and blackcurrent (slighty lumpier). I add some smooth peanut butter to make it more filling. We give solids around 5pm, final milk around 6.15-6.30pm, asleep about 7.

Thank you, we don’t feed during the night. We follow blissful baby and dropped it some time ago but tonight will be dropping the night feed so see how we go! He usually wakes around 4am regardless! He is formula fed so just given him a bit extra all day to make up for the missed feed

Good luck and let us know Joe you get on

So to be honest it’s been a shit show! Since I posted he’s been waking up consistently after putting him down at 7, tonight it’s been every half an hour. Last night I got him in the bed with me at 12 and he slept all the way until 8 but I feel like my baby is broken! He’s never woken really between 7- dream feed so I’ve no idea what we’re doing wrong. He’s been waking closer to 8/8.30 most mornings so perhaps he’s over tired. Who knows but I hope sleep training sorts this out, as much as I don’t want to it’s probably best for us all x

There are so many bugs going around at the moment he could just be feeling a bit under the weather?

I thought that but he’s such a happy smiley boy in the day! It’s ok like I can deal with it as like the cuddles but just would love my evenings back 😂