Gina ford vs baby whisperer!!!!

8 replies

Hunter1106 · 16/08/2011 20:07

my 10wo ds continues to wake frequently through the night for feed (every 2-3 hours after 11pm dream feed!!!) and is wide awake from 5am!!!! any opinions on dream feeding vs waking him at 10pm fully so he takes full bottle, currently he takes no more than 3oz at dream feed!! Starting struggle with lack of sleep!!!! Any advice would be much appreciated!

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Aloha31 · 16/08/2011 20:21

If I give my 9wo a dreamfeed then she is up all night for some reason. If I skip it she sleeps from 7 until 2ish, sometimes waking only once but usually twice util 7am...not sure why!

ILoveDolly · 16/08/2011 20:22

Are you even allowed to mention GF here (rofl). Personally I always found La Hogg (ie dreamfeed option) to work best for my two.

mrshotrod · 23/08/2011 22:26

I've read both methods, and they are kind of similar in many ways. However, we gave up waking our son at 10/11 when on holiday at 8 weeks old. We were going to bed at 9pm anyway, so it was just an extra wake up for us too. He slept through to his usual 2/3 am feed. (i.e, it made little difference feeding him at our bed time)
This school of thought was backed up in a book I really like 'Sleep' by Beatrice Hollyer and Lucy Smith. They recomend that once your baby is asleep for night sleep, let them decide when they want to sleep a long stretch and feed them when they wake up hungry. It worked for us. Now trying it with 2nd baby...... currently 8 weeks old.

Sleepglorioussleep · 10/09/2011 06:05

I guess that's what we've done with dd2 ten weeks. She has had increasingly long stretches at night and last two night's has gone nine til half five. I don't think that is because of what we've done, but it doesn't seem to be hurting either. And a month ago I was on my knees.

flack · 10/09/2011 06:51

I knew a couple who loved GF for first child but found BW ideal for 2nd child; it may depend on the individual child, too, and you can only know by experimenting.

Georgimama · 10/09/2011 06:55

They're both shit. Throw the books away. Your baby hasn't read them.

I hate to say it but it is perfectly normal for a 10 week old to need feeding every three hours including during the night. As you are talking in ounces I presume you are formula feeding - if you are really struggling with tiredness could you get your head down early and get your partner to do the 10pm feed so you've had a few hours kip before the baby wakes for next feed?

Mimmee · 10/09/2011 09:14

I personally did not do dreamfeed and just left DD to wake naturally - she would never wake up enough to take a full feed and then would be difficult to settle. You may find that he drops that feed altogether and just wakes at 2-3am and at least if you go to bed early you might get a good stretch of sleep (funny to think that 4/5 hours counts as a good stretch now!)

I think if you leave them they know best what they need and when.

10 weeks is still very little - DD dropped the 10pm feed herself at about 12 weeks and then progressively slept later until about 5.30am. (It did go a bit haywire at 41/2 months but thats a whole other thread!)

I read GF and promptly chucked it in the bin - I do like BW techniques though.

Petesmum · 10/09/2011 09:26

I'd ditch the books, as previously said, baby hasn't read them and will do what it wants anyway! Sounds like you need to share the feeds with OH doing the late evening feed when DS wakes up and you doing the 3am feed (or the other way round) Not so great for spending quality time in the evening with your OH but it's only for a short while.

My DS was always an early bird and a 5 / 5:30am start was his norm so you may not be able to do much about this for a while -sorry, On the positive side my DS always woke up with a huge grin on his face which always made me feel brilliant

Flip