When to drop the dream feed?

So I am wondering when I should drop the dream feed or if I should have dropped it long ago? We have 4 bottle feedings and 3 solids feedings during the daytime. They go to bed at 6pm so their last bottle is at 5:30ish and then they have a dream feed at 9pm (they drink anywhere from 4-7 oz). They are on the light side as son is less than 5% for weight and daughter 15% so I guess that concerns me too but I'm sure they'd make up the lost ounces somewhere.

Mainly my questions are:
How many bottle feedings per 24 hrs did your 9 mo olds have?
If you did do a dream feed when did you drop it?
Did you go cold turkey and have them cry it out (i'm fine w/this method) or did you wean them down slowly?

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

it might have been around that time I stopped. I stopped when my two went from sleeping until 7 to waking at 5am no matter I did. I let them sleep one night and they woke at 5, I gave them a few oz. and they went back to sleep until 7. Now they stopped the 5am wake soon after that and slept 12 hours.

Just give it a try for a few nights. I believe by 6mo they can go 12 hours without eating. It might throw them off for a week or so, but they will get used to it.

We were also on 4 bottles until they were 1.

 

Have you thought about adjusting the schedule so that they go down at 7:30 or 8? my two take their last nap around 3:30, supper at 6:30, bath at 7, and last bottle at 7:30-8. I believe this is what helped us finally knock the dream feeding. My DS is still pretty small too, and I constantly worry about his intake, but he seems content with our routine now, and he is gaining. They are sleeping for about 10 hours now. They have had no sleep training either. This is just how things have flowed together for us.

 

I never did the dream feed...once they started STN this wasn't an issue. I CIO at 4.5 months.

Then teething started at 6 so no more STN, it took a month without CIO to STN...

Right now we do 4 8oz bottles....the rest are solids in the day. Mine are 75th and 90th so not an issue.

Here is what I think...if they don't wake up for 9pm feeding just let them sleep through and see what happens.

They may make up the calories in the day. Formula/Breast are super important for overall nurtition and brain development, but solids have alot of Kcals. That may help chunk em up.

Are you doing solids? That doesn't help them STN, but it help reduce daytime bottles.

 

How many bottle feedings per 24 hrs did your 9 mo olds have? Mine are not there yet but I know that babies should have a minimum of 20-22 oz of formula/milk in 24 hours until they are 1 years old.

If you did do a dream feed when did you drop it? We dropped dream feed at about 5 months. Mind you, mine were big for their age at 18lb at 5 months.

Did you go cold turkey and have them cry it out (i'm fine w/this method) or did you wean them down slowly? We did a combination of both. In the beginning, I started to dilute formula so while the volume was the same the actual calories were smaller. Then after about 3 days of that, I started to reduce bottles by 1 oz every 3 days. Once I go to 3 oz - we did CIO.

Once we did that, they just seemed hungrier during the day and instead of fussing to finish daytime bottles, they would finish them fast and just generally eat more during the day.

 

Thanks everyone! I already dropped my ds's dream feed last night (as he has seemed ready for it lately) and it went fine. No crying so I'm hoping for the same result tonight. My DD is more of a difficult baby and I think I will slowly wean her off of it using the decreasing and or watered down ounces trick and then to cold turkey. I think she really just likes to see me even though I don't speak or look at her and we are in complete darkness. Some mommy is better than no mommy at all as far as she's concerned!

 

I backed up the feeding by about 15 min a night until it was about 2 hrs from the bedtime feeding. Then I dropped it all together. My oldest had the dreamfeed the longest and we stopped it at about 5mos. They didn't ever wake for it, it was me going in, getting them up and feeding them while they were still asleep so when I was ready to drop it I just let them sleep so no CIO needed. At 9 mos, I'd be totally comfortable with some CIO to drop the dreamfeed.