Dream feed poll - to do or not to do

[Babyisaac]

We've been doing a dream feed with our DS from about 6 weeks old. He is now 9 weeks. We have had a limited amount of success with this feed - sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

I'm interested to know who of you out there does one and whether they work or not. I think the idea of them is great - fills them up without having to wake them, but I'm not sure if we'd be better off without one. DS wakes up anywhere between 3-5 hours after one but then won't settle for the rest of the night.

our ds is not 6 months old... we have been waking her up (or not for the first 3/4 months as she was very colicky) at about 10.30 to feed since about 3 weeks. seemed a bit pointless at first - woke 1/2 times again for feeding before morning - but I am a routine queen and benefits finally kicked in at about 4.5 months when she started sleeping through from 11 till about 6/7. we are now trying to drop it which is a bit of a struggle. but as they say all babies are different...

I have tried drean feeding with my 9 wk old doesnt really work she still wakes up in the night wanting another feed.. depends on the baby I think. Apparently it takes a week to kick in though?? Havent got the energy for that!

Oooh, we're just dealing with this! My LO is 16 wks old today and was quite a good sleeper (in the scheme of things, obviously!) until about a month ago. Since then, a nightmare - would wake for her night feed anywhere between 2 and 5, which was fine, but after this feed would not sleep for more than 40 mins. She'd then scream til we settled her again, then repeat til morning. Exhausting!! Realised looking back that probs started when we began the dream feed. We dropped it 3 nights ago and we're like a different family. She has slept til 5 (going to bed at 8!) then gone back down til 7. Think she didn't need it - was causing excess wind and pooing in middle of night - and suspect it upset her sleep pattern too. Having said that, I know others it works for. We will not be going back!

I'd say not... I tried with dd and it just made her wake up more. She would go 7-2-6 ish without but if I gave her a dream feed at say 11 she would then wake at 1, 3, 5 and 6! It wasn't a proper dream feed though, I never managed to give it without her waking, although she would still be drowsy.

never quite worked out how to do a dream feed with bf. how do you persuade them to wake up enough to feed without waking them up enough that they won't go back to sleep?

I'd say no because it made no difference to when my DD would wake for her next feed and after a while she would wake religious at the time we used to DF which I think was habitual.

religiously obviously

I'm a great believer in the dreamfeed. It worked perfectly for ds1 and dd (let's not include ds2 in this - he doesn't understand the concept of 'sleep' anyway [groan]). But IMO at 9w it can still be quite early to sleep through. What does he do if you don't dreamfeed him? ATM it may still be better to go with the flow and let him call you for a feed. Maybe try regulating his feeds by doing the dreamfeed in another month. IIRC we didn't dreamfeed (as opposed to feeding whent he baby asked) until they were about 4m or so.