Dream feed

Caleb has slept thru the night a few times, and I'm looking ahead to it becoming more common, but I still dream feed him at 10. I'm wondering how you dropped your dream feed. I know it sounds simple, like, "duh, just don't do it" but if I don't, he might start waking up in the middle of the night again, so I don't know how I am supposed to know when he's ready to drop this. I don't want him waking at 10 every night when he's two either, ya know?

 

I have never done a dream feed, but I would guess it's just like dropping any other feeding? Does he usually take a whole bottle at that time? If not, I would just drop it and see what happens!

 

oops, sorry I forgot to mention he is EBF... no bottles, but he takes a full feeding at 10, so I guess that's comparable.

 

What time is the feeding before that? I wonder if you could slowly move it closer together, moving the 10 earlier and earlier, and see how he does? Either that or just drop it and see what happens...he might surprise you!

I bottle-fed obviously(sorry for assuming!), and I dropped a bottle when they were taking less and less at a feeding.

 

This should probably be moved to the breastfeeding forum

Its hard when you nurse because you only a have a few options at such a young age:
1. you can just stop and see when/if the baby wakes naturally on his own
2. you can try to limit the time allowed- you'll have to break the latch but IM not sure how he'll take that.

I think the BF forum honestly will have better suggestions! I nursed mine for 8 & 14 months but we didnt give up night feeds until well over a year.

 

ok, but how do I move it? Or does someone else have to?

His last feeding before that is at 7... we're still on the every three hour schedule, with no sign of stopping that.

 

i nursed my girls for their dreamfeed & i just stopped it cold turkey, but that wasn't until they were almost 9 months old as i didn't find it a hardship for myself, it wasn't overly disruptive to the girls' sleep, and i liked the fact that i was sneaking in more calories for my wee babies.

however, at around 6/7 months i weaned both my girls off of their 3:00am/4:00am feed - i did that by first getting an idea of how long they actively nursed on average (it was around 8 minutes). then every two days i reduced the nursing time by one minute. when we were down to two minutes, i dropped the feeding. Danika slept through without any trouble. Riley was really fussy the first night. i would go in & pat & shush every 15 minutes, but i didn't pick her up. the first night was rough but after that she slept through fine. you could maybe try something like that. GL!

 

QUOTE(mel&3 @ May 14 2009, 07:05 PM) [snapback]1314399[/snapback]
ok, but how do I move it? Or does someone else have to?

His last feeding before that is at 7... we're still on the every three hour schedule, with no sign of stopping that.



You seem to be getting some good responses here. Do you want it moved?

I didn't ever dream feed. I just fed on demand. If they woke, I fed them until 6 months adjusted and then I let them CIO. I think that's the same for both BF and FF in my opinion.

 

Great responses! I think at about 6 months you can CIO like Becky and Liesel suggested. We did not BF but we did have to CIO for night feedings because at one point Kevin was just waking for the bottle as a habit, not so much nourishment. Good luck!

 

QUOTE(E&Msmom @ May 14 2009, 09:54 PM) [snapback]1314392[/snapback]
This should probably be moved to the breastfeeding forum


:huh:

QUOTE(mel&3 @ May 14 2009, 10:05 PM) [snapback]1314399[/snapback]
ok, but how do I move it? Or does someone else have to?


Only a moderator can move your post.

I would just drop it for a few nights and see how he does. He might surprise you.

 

QUOTE(girls! @ May 14 2009, 06:22 PM) [snapback]1314423[/snapback]
I didn't ever dream feed. I just fed on demand. If they woke, I fed them until 6 months adjusted and then I let them CIO. I think that's the same for both BF and FF in my opinion.

I agree. I didn't dream feed with the twins but I did with my singletons.

TBH, yes I just stopped doping it when I dropped it. It really is that simple then I dealth with each of their reactions as they came.

Good luck!

 

I feed on demand too and just dropped feedings as needed.

When I noticed I was consistently waking my dd up at 5am when my ds would wake to eat, I stopped waking her, and she's sleeping thru until 7-8 am.

So now I'm trying to get ds to go longer, so when he wakes around 5am I keep giving him his paci a few times to push him until 6am. When he gets used to that, I'll push him to 7...etc until they are both eating around the same time again. If he's crying then I'll go ahead and feed him but if he's just restless/fussy/starting to wake up, the paci will work for 15-30mins at a time!

I would just drop the feeding and see how he does, it's easy enough to add it back in if he regresses and starts waking in the middle of the night again!

 

With mine, I noticed that they stopped being so interested in the dream feed as they weren´t drinking so much. I decided after much ooohing and aaahing (I was afraid, like you, that they´d wake) to go cold turkey. It worked and we´ve never looked back since! GL!

 

I also dropped that feed around 3 months. I was waking them to eat, and they weren't eating much anyway. My mom told me to drop it--we were staying at her house, and I was afraid for the reasons you mentioned. But, to my surprise they actually slept longer in the morning! They woke around 7 instead of 6. We never looked back!

 

QUOTE(becky5 @ May 14 2009, 08:29 PM) [snapback]1314365[/snapback]
I have never done a dream feed, but I would guess it's just like dropping any other feeding? Does he usually take a whole bottle at that time? If not, I would just drop it and see what happens!

I agree with Becky! You never know what will happen until you try. I never dream fed... my two didn't stay sleeping long enough to do that! Evan woke up when he needed food too. Good luck!

eta: IMO this is about dreamfeeding not bf or you would have mentioned BF in your original post. I think FY is the best spot for this.

 

With the boys, when I dropped dreamfeeds, I moved them up in time closer to the earlier feeding or later to a later feeding (I was too chicken to just go cold turkey). In this case if he sleeps through after the 10p feed, I'd move it up by 15 minutes for a couple of days, then up another 15 minutes, then another, etc. Once that feed is close to 8:30ish (which is fairly close to the 7p feed), then I'd probably drop it, especially if he's not feeding much. That's just what I did, but you got lots of good advice otherwise.

For my baby girl, I just dropped them because she became uninterested in eating unless she woke up to eat. I just note this to point out that all babies are different so you may try a couple of different techniques if one doesn't work right off the bat.

Good luck.