thoughts on the 'dream feed'

[justtheoddquestion]

Hi, we have a beautiful 4wk old boy. I think we're in a good feeding routine; 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm and then a 'dream' feed (from a bottle, the rest is breast) at 11pm. I've just read somewhere though never to give a late night dream feed. What do you think?
Also our HV said we don't have to wake him again after 11pm to feed him but if he wakes/is grumbling around 2am/3am to of course, feed him. He never seems to settle very well though after the 3pm feed. He's a little superstar but I'd like to know what works for you guys at night. Thanks.

I gave a dream feed to both of my children. On my first it made no difference and he still woke at 2am. The second would have a dream feed and stay asleep until 7am. I think I dropped it at around 4 months.

DD was a bit older and by then bottle fed but the only dream feed we did was late evening.

She used to want to feed around 12:30-1am and it killed me as I could never get a good sleep in. So I did a dream feed around 11pm (or DH would do one later) and often I could sleep 10pm until 3-4am (almost a full night).

I can’t imagine you would do dream feeding apart from late nights though?

If you are breastfeeding the current advice is to feed on demand. So if he wakes hungry ; feed, if not just sleep! This is so long as he is putting on weight etc.
If grumpy after night feed try burping and more feeding. Mine still sometimes drops off after 1 boob only to wake for the other 10 mins later (4months).