dropping the dreamfeed! ***little update**

[sazzylou]

Just thought id let you know how it went! Well, we went cold turkey on the DF....and she slept!! ALL NIGHT!! She did 7-6.30 the first night, and the same again last night. Its fanstastic. Thanks for the advice ladies...im loving having sleep again

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Need a bit of advice on getting rid of the dreamfeed. We've been feeding her at about 11pm everynight since she was only a couple of weeks old in an effort to get her sleeping through the night. Well, it worked like a charm...not!! Shes only JUST started going through the night (about bloody time) but we're still doing the dreamfeed...

I was wondering when any of you dropped that feed, and how you went about it? If you did it gradually, or just stopped one night?

Its just that after 6 months of not much sleep, im soooo relieved that she's finally sleeping through that im actually terrified of dropping this feed incase she starts waking in the night for food again. Im sure she should be going through by now without it?? She's a big bubba and she's on 2 meals a day now ( and follow on milk).

Any advice would be appreciated. xxxxxxxx

 

[daftscotslass]

I'd be brave. We dropped it by accident as we had been travelling all day, went to bed at 9, woke up to dreamfeed her and it was 6am . If it doesn't work you can always start it up again. Good luck

 

[xJodieLoux]

What's a dreamfeed?

 

[daftscotslass]

It's where you feed bubs late in the evening (assuming they don't feed then already) without them waking up so that they go a bit longer through the night.

 

[xJodieLoux]

Oh right. I don't do that with Jaida, She has her last feed at about 7-8pm then goes to sleep. She wakes in the night at about 2-3am, then goes back to sleep for another 4-5 hours. When she wakes she only has 2 or 3oz though, I don't know if she wakes because she is actually hungry or if its just habbit. I did try waking her and feeding her at 11 one night and then she had the wors night ever, woke at about half 1, then again at about 5. I darent try it again.

 

[Full of hope!]

My hubby used to do the dreamfeed and he just decided one night that he wouldn't do it and see what happens. Well, Jacob slept till 5am from then on. Hubby also told me to stop the 5am feed too, he said just try giving him his dummy when he wakes.... and guess what?! It worked and he went back to sleep. So all night feeds where dropped by 4 months, we were lucky!

 

[Sherlock]

We never really did a dreamfeed tbh. Didn't much see the point in the early days as he would wake so often for feeds anyways overnight.

Once we got to about 12 weeks (when BF babies can usually start to go longer stretches at night without needing feeding) we started doing cluster feeding and he went to bed between 7-8pm. And then slept for 6-8 hours before waking. When he woke we made sure it was OH who saw to him and settled him back down for a few nights. He didn't get a feed as a first resort, only as a last one. And tbh he didn't really need or want one so soon settled back to sleep without a night feed.

3 nights of this and we had 10 nights of sleeping through till 6am. We now have the odd night where he wakes but we leave him for 5 minutes to see if he'll settle himself back to sleep. If not we turn the mobile on. And if that fails we do a nappy check and back into his cot. Only if all else fails does he have a feed. That rarely happens. His body has adjusted to not having a feed between bedtime and morning.

I'd just drop it and not try to do so gradually. Be prepared for a few nights of fussing but LO should adjust.

FWIW my HV explained that dreamfeeding often had an adverse effect in getting babies to sleep through as their bodies didn't learn how to cope with that extended period of sleep without food. And that feeding them a dreamfeed past a certain age wasn't really needed. Their bodies need 10-12 hours of sleep overnight and should adjust to not being fed in that time also. Of course some babies seem to need feeding overnight as they get older, I realise but when I think about it it does make sense to have babies adjust to not feeding when sleeping at night as they get bigger. At least to me

 

[sazzylou]

FWIW my HV explained that dreamfeeding often had an adverse effect in getting babies to sleep through as their bodies didn't learn how to cope with that extended period of sleep without food. And that feeding them a dreamfeed past a certain age wasn't really needed. Their bodies need 10-12 hours of sleep overnight and should adjust to not being fed in that time also. Of course some babies seem to need feeding overnight as they get older, I realise but when I think about it it does make sense to have babies adjust to not feeding when sleeping at night as they get bigger. At least to me

Ah, i did worry about this a bit. I thought maybe we're actually making her reliant on the DF by keeping giving it to her, and that we shouldve stopped ages ago!! But she has only just started to sleep through so i didnt dare stop it (i actually thought she would never go through the night, lol, im so tired ) Now she's been going through for about 2 weeks i think it is now, i think its time to stop it!

Im gonna go cold turkey. But im gonna do it at the weekend so if she's a little monster at least OH is here to let me go back to bed!! will see how it goes....fingers crossed!!

 

[moss]

How do you manage to feed a baby without waking them up? I can't do it. Jacob will sleep through anything once he is in a deep sleep, but if I turn him to be fed, no matter how gently, his eyes pop right open.

 

[drea b]

How do you manage to feed a baby without waking them up? I can't do it. Jacob will sleep through anything once he is in a deep sleep, but if I turn him to be fed, no matter how gently, his eyes pop right open.

Kaira use to be like this when she was really little but once she got to about 12weeks she stopped waking - just drank her milk and was popped back in the cot.

 

[drea b]

we went cold turkey and apart from a couple of mishaps (like last night when she screamed for a solid hour until I made her a bottle ) she's been going all night

 

[sazzylou]

How do you manage to feed a baby without waking them up? I can't do it. Jacob will sleep through anything once he is in a deep sleep, but if I turn him to be fed, no matter how gently, his eyes pop right open.

We've been doing it since Iz was only a few weeks old in an effort to make her go through the night (didnt really work, hmph ) so i think she's just used to it. She was so weeny when we started the DF that she never woke up. We just picked her up gently, popped the bottlle in and wriggled it about a bit, and the sucking instinct took over.

She's been waking more recently when we get her out of the cot, but after about an oz or so of milk she shuts her eyes and shes asleep by the time we put her back in the cot

we went cold turkey and apart from a couple of mishaps (like last night when she screamed for a solid hour until I made her a bottle ) she's been going all night

Ah, glad that youve managed to do it, and its pretty much worked for you! Thats encouraging, as im still pooping myself So worried she's gonna be up at 4am or something Ah well, we shall see!! We're gonna DF her tonight, but this is the last nigh...wish me luck for tomorrow

 

[Bloom]

Glad it worked i hope it stays that way