Babies: 3 - 6 Months

Dream Feed?

My little guy is almost always in bed by 8pm. I usually go to bed around 9:30 or 10. I have always woken him up to feed him before I go to bed to try to get a long stretch of sleep out of him. I am wondering if I should keep doing this or not. He does not STTN yet at all, but some nights he only wakes up around 3, then again at 5 or 6.

What do you all do? Does the dream feed really help?

Re: Dream Feed?

  • I don't dream feed, but I have read a few times on here that the dream feed has backfired on others, because when they stop doing it, their LO starts waking up at the time they usually dream feed expecting to eat. Just food for thought!
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  • I don't dream feed. My LO goes to bed at 8pm and wakes around 130a ( I co sleep the rest of the night) but she also usually eats around 430a. 
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  • I dream feed around 1030pm and my 4 month old will sleep till around 6am. Prior to the dream feed he would wake up around 230 then 430 then 7am. 
  • MrsRJCMrsRJC member
    I also dream feed at 10:30 and my 5.5 month old DD sleeps until 7:308:00 she goes to sleep around 8:30pm. Prior to dream feeding she was waking 13 x a night.

    Right now I feed her until she pulls off. Once I decide to stop dream feeding I'm just slowly going to reduce the duration of the feeding. I'm hoping that works better than just stopping cold turkey.
  • MrsRJCMrsRJC member
    Sorry I'm on my phone. She was waking one to three times per night...not thirteen times a night!!!!
  • I work 12hr night shifts so I'm up all night regardless but we usually dream feed around the time she would wake up anyways to cut up having to put her back to sleep and it works out pretty well for us.

    But I have noticed that during her 12 week growth spurt and during the transition of me going back to work she would wake up around or a bit before the time we dream feed so I can see how it can backfire. We're getting back on track, though.
  • I did it when she was younger, probably from 3 weeks to 8 or 10 weeks.  By the time we dropped it, she was sleeping 10-12 hours after it, and knowing I was going back to work and she would be getting up earlier it wasn't really necessary anymore.  Before I was feeding her between 10-11, and she was waking up between 9-10 the next morning, now I feed her around 7 or 8 and get her up around 6:45 in the morning (on weekends when I don't get her up she'll sleep until 7:30 or 8 usually).  Granted, I know I have a very good sleeper, so that may be different. :)
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  • We did the dream feed until LO wasn't waking up very well to eat so we let her sleep (around 8 weeks). After we dropped the dream feed, LO would wake up around 3AM to eat. I did this for a few weeks and now she's 11 weeks, and we weaned her off the MOTN feeding by feeding her less ounces each night and eventually she just didn't need the food anymore. Our pedi told us that by 3 months babies are CAPABLE of going 10-12 hours without eating. Not saying they all do, just that they can. So we tried to wean her off one at time and now she goes to bed around 8:30 and sleeps until 6ish.
  • We did the dream feed and it helped LO learn to sleep longer periods. We dropped the dream feed when LO wasn't waking up well to eat anymore (around 8 weeks) and she would go to bed around 8:30 and sleep until 3 and then again at 7 or 8. after a few weeks of this we eventually weaned her off the MOTN bottle as well, by just feeding her less ounces so she learned to not need that bottle. Our pedi told us babies are CAPABLE of going 10-12 hours without eating by 12 weeks- not that all will just that they CAN. So we just tried it and it worked. 
  • mz07mz07 member

    imageKtrevey:
    I dream feed around 1030pm and my 4 month old will sleep till around 6am. Prior to the dream feed he would wake up around 230 then 430 then 7am. 

    This for me... I started to do a dream feed about a week before she turned 4 months... when i did she would only wake up at 4:30, then 7ish. Now at about 4.5 months, we've had our first, genuine STTN... put down at 8, dream feed at 10:30, wake up at 6:30.

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  • =Lee=B=Lee=B member

    I dream feed twice before I go to bed.  My daughter feeds every 2hrs like clockwork.  She is asleep at 6:20 (she chose this time and holds to it).  I go in at about 8:30 and 10:30.  I change her diaper, BF, burp and at 8:30 give her zantac.  She sleeps through it all most nights.  Occasionally she wakes and conks out as soon as I start burping her.

    She will then sleep from 2-4hrs for the first part of my night then is up every 2hrs she feeds gets a diaper change and is back asleep immediately.

     We've done this for good 6-8 weeks now and it works wonders.  It allows me a longer stretch of sleep when I first go to bed. 

     

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