Rollover/ dream feed

[mummyv]

Hi,
Has anybody had any luck using the rollover/ dream feed technique? My DH and I are a bit dubious about using it as we are scared it will wake our DS up and we have had enough trouble of late trying to resettle him without adding another time slot to our routine!
Can anybody share their technique with me? We are trying to get our LO to sleep past his body clock alarm of 1.30 am...we have been told that the rollover feed should get him through until 6 or 7 am. Does this sound right?? Can't be that magical can it??

Thanks
mummyv

[drewid]

Hi there :)

How old is your little one?

We personally never used the dreamfeed technique. I would never ever wake a sleeping baby...especially not when it takes so much effort sometimes to get them to sleep! I just learnt to sleep when he slept and accept that night feeds were part of the job until the 6 month mark, and then it was negotiable to try to actively reduce them.

Oh, I remember now I did 'try' the dreamfeed once or twice..not sure why. But I do remember that it made no difference, he was still up for his 3am feed.

Most bubs sleep longer as they get older...sometimes its just a case of hanging in there with the early morning wake ups and before you know it, they'll be sleeping longer.

[mummyv]

Hi Nicole79

Our - notsolittleone- is 5 months and 1 week. I have just weaned him and is now on formula. It appears my milk was not enough for him, as now he will put away a 260ml bottle sometimes!!
DS wakes up at 1.30am, we were told to start feeding him at this time instead of resettling him each time, which we had been doing previously. Now if we feed him at this time he wakes up again at 5.30 expecting another feed, so now we have to resettle him at this time instead of 1.30am!
I was going to try to feed him at 5.30 too, but this seems to be encouraging the night feeds instead of trying to reduce them....

mummyv

[lukaelmo]

Hey mummyv,

My little dude is 6 months old and has never really slept through. If I don't give him a dreamfeed (sometimes I crash early!) he usually wakes to feed sometime between 1am - 3am, goes back to sleep and then gets up again at 5am ish...

If I dreamfeed him at 10 or 11pm, he usually doesn't wake 'till 5am ish...

If I can I prefer to dreamfeed him, because it's better on me to get in a solid 6 hours, instead of a broken 7 or 8.

Why don't you try and see what happens?

[Snugglepot]

You don't really wake them, just pick them up and put the bottle in their mouth and they feed while sleeping. It is a natural refex. Not sure if a 5 month old would do it? I would try it for a while and see, give it a couple of days at least. Saying that it did not work for me, but it worked for 2 mums I know (really well!)

As for feeding at 1.30 and re settling at 5, I would do it the other way, if they wake at 5, start your day then and try and settle them over the night wake ups. Good luck

[Mummabear]

This is my experience with dreamfeeding.......

Initially when we started the dreamfeed at 11pm it seemed to disturb his sleep pattern, and as you feared, it would then set him off again on 4 hourly feeds. So I stopped it for a month and he started sleeping past 11pm and waking around 1am - 3am. About a month after not doing the dreamfeed for a month, on advice from a sleep doctor we picked up the dream feed again, this time at 10pm. He was now 5.5 months at this stage. This time around I found that giving him that dream feed meant he would sleep through until 7.30am. I tried to take it away again as he stopped drinking much but he started waking again at 1am - 3am for food so he's back to having his dreamfeed. I don't have a strict time for it anymore. If I hear him stirring then I'll go in and feed him, otherwise I feed anywhere from 10pm - 11pm. I don't wake him, I get the bottle ready, sit it on the chair waiting and then scoop him up asleep from his cot and hold him close and cuddle him, put his dummy in to sooth his stirring until we get to the chair and then gently slide the dummy out and slide the bottle in. He pretty much stays asleep, sometimes opens his eyes, but doesn't usually fully wake. I can even burp him and he'll stay asleep or drowsy. On the occasions when he has fully woken he's gone back down without fuss. I must say that I really, really enjoy that feed, he so snuggle and cuddly and it's such a slow and gentle feed. I just look at his beautiful, sleepy little face and think about how much I love him. I'll probably keep it going more for me than him :o

If you're going to give it a go I'd say give it a good try for a week or so, just a night or two won't give you a true indication as to how he's going to react to it.

Good luck :)

[Heids]

Hi Mummyv

We started the dreamfeed at 8 weeks and will continue till Brandon is on solids. It took a few days ( nights :confused: ) to get it right but just keep persisting and it will happen. After his 10.30 feed his next feed slowly started getting later and later 3.30,4,4.30 and now he wakes between 6.30 and 7.15 regularly.

Good Luck
Heids

[Imogensmum]

For Imogens dream feed i do not get her out of the cot- i have a chair there and i put the side of the cot down and just feed her in bed- as she wakes quite easily- so i find this method works well for me ( mind you if you are breast feeding i don't recommend this method:D :D :D )

But the benifit to this feed is that i am finding she will sleep longer- and only wake once she is hungry- say 3-4-5ish???

[mummyv]

Thanks for your replies ladies!
I will try it out when my hubby is with me tomorrow night.
We have another variable now....my little one has decided to wake up himself twice before midnight, so now I don't know how I'm going to get a feed in while he is asleep!:confused:

[RachWA]

With DS this work very well from about 3 weeks on. We didn't wake but did change his nappy so he was slightly stirred. He would instintivly bf and have a really good feed, this would get him through till about 3am and then 6-7am - very easy to cope with. He also went straight back to sleep after his feeds. He has been a good sleeper most of the time and still is.

My 5 week old dd is a different story. Still feeding every 2-3 hours and takes about 1 hour to go back to back to sleep and often after 3-4am feed won't settle very well until after next feed. I have tried the rollover feed with her but she still wakes 3 hours later and also won't have a good feed until she is ready. I know it still early days but hope she starts sleeping longer soon. I will try the rollover feed again (maybe persist a few nights with it) and if that dosen't help then try ebm for the rollover so that she is getting more full feed.