Dream Feeds

[bambino]

What is the purpose of dream feeding ?
Is it to help bubs sleep longer at night ?

DS usually goes to bed after his 9pm feed and sleeps through to 6am, but waking once at 3am for a feed. This suited me fine.
But lately he has been going to bed around 7.30pm in which this has been making his last feed at around 6pm, then waking at midnight for a feed.

I have heard of people dream feeding their bubs at 10pm. Since I personally don't know these people I can't ask them why.

So hopefully someone here can shed some light on what the purpose is.....

:)

[Snuffys Mum]

I dream feed my ds at about 10pm. I started trying it at about 6 weeks but found it made no difference to his sleep/eat pattern. So every couple of weeks I'd give it another go for a few days to see what difference it made. It hasn't been until the past 3 weeks or so (hes 16 weeks now) that it has actually made a difference for me.

So now I feed him at 6.30 pm, to bed at 7. I'll dream feed him at about 10pm and that will last him till about 5-5.30 am. Sometimes he wants a feed then but most times he just puts himself back to sleep until about 7am.

Now if I don't dream feed him (and I've experiemented with this) he'll sleep from 7pm till about 2 or 3 am and then wake every hour or so after that.

So I'm glad I persisted with it. If your ds doesn't take to it straight away, maybe just give it break and then try again later. If you want to read a bit more about it there is a really good book called "Save Our Sleep" by Tizzie Hall. Her ideas aren't for everyone but it worked for me.

Good Luck!

[bambino]

So now I feed him at 6.30 pm, to bed at 7. I'll dream feed him at about 10pm and that will last him till about 5-5.30 am. Sometimes he wants a feed then but most times he just puts himself back to sleep until about 7am.

In the beginning he dropped his midnight feed on his own, but since we have introduced our feed/play/sleep routine, his feeds now fall around the 6.30pm time too.
So by introducing a dream feed at around 10pm, this should then help drop the midnight feed once again ?

He normally sleeps until 6am anyway and 7am on a good day.

[Snuffys Mum]

In the beginning he dropped his midnight feed on his own, but since we have introduced our feed/play/sleep routine, his feeds now fall around the 6.30pm time too.
So by introducing a dream feed at around 10pm, this should then help drop the midnight feed once again ?

He normally sleeps until 6am anyway and 7am on a good day.

Well theoretically, yes it should put a stop to the midnight feed, but I don't want to promise you that lol!
Like I said, it took a good number of weeks for it to have any impact on my ds. So for a while he'd feed at 6.30 pm, dream feed at 10pm, wake at about 2am, 3am, 4am lol!!!!! But we got it worked out in the end.

[bambino]

Thanks for your help.

I will be giving this a try as of tonight.

:thumbsup:

[Snuffys Mum]

Thanks for your help.

I will be giving this a try as of tonight.

:thumbsup:

You're very welcome. Hope all goes well!

[pickles]

The dream feed worked really well with my first child in bed at 6.30 , feed at 10 pm and then woke at 6am ( 11 weeks - 18 weeks ). With my second howeverif i interupted that sleep by giving a dream feed he would then be up every two hours for a feed. Funny enough they were both sleeping through by 7 months despite different techniques ( both breastfed ).
Good luck
Pickles
DD 02/03
DS 03/05

[oleander]

I dream feed DD when I go to bed which is sometime between 12 and 2am. I do it in hope that she will sleep through the night although she never has.