doing 'dream feed' tonight - any hints & tips?

14 answers /

Last post: 07/01/2024 at 1:31 am

ANONYMOUS
Anonymous
16/01/2007 at 7:16 pm
I'm going to try out a dream feed with my 6 week old little boy tonight and just wondered if anyone has any hints or tips on how to do it successfully!!

He's been sleeping for a 5 hour stretch in the early evening, so I'm hoping to feed him before I go to bed and then only have to get up once in the small hours to feed him again, thats the theory anyway!

What sort of time do other mums do the dream feeds and do they work? ie. do your baby's sleep a little bit longer into the night or do they wake up as normal anyway?

Also I've just gone up to the next size teats and he's gulping his milk a bit, do you think I should use the smaller teats for the dream feed so I don't drown him in milk when he's half asleep?

Any advice welcome, thanks in advance!!
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ANONYMOUS
Anonymous
16/01/2007 at 7:40 pm
dreamfeeds are normally done between 10-11pm. just to clarify a proper dreamfeed is literally while ur lo is asleep so i would go with the slower teat as they suck slower and u also dont need to wind them becos of this.
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ANONYMOUS
Anonymous
16/01/2007 at 8:20 pm
JUST BE CAREFUL OF DREAM FEEDING AS MY PARTNERS COUSIN STARTED TO DREAMFEED AND PUT BABY DOWN TO SLEEP WITHOUT WINDING SHE TOUGHT SHE SLEEPING LONGER THAN NORMAL BUT WHEN SHE WENT TO FEED HER IN THE EARLY HOURS OF THE MORNING SHE WASNT BREATHING SADLY SHE DIED AGED SIX WEEKS .IT WAS SOMTHING TO TO WITH BABY TAKING TO MUCH FOOD IN HER SLEEP AND NOT GETTING WINDED WAS RELATED WITH THE DEATH.PERSONALLY I WOULD LIKE TO GET UP AND FEED BABY DURING THE NIGHT JUST TO MAKE SURE THINGS WERE ALRIGHT.
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ANONYMOUS
Anonymous
16/01/2007 at 8:22 pm
I agree with Sarah about the timings and using a slower teat.  It's amazing how they can drink whilst asleep and that they don't need winding.  We tried both dream feeding and waking our LO for the 10/11 feed and definitely prefered the dream feed because he didn't get himself in a tizz and we didn't feel like we were really disturbing him. We kept this feed going until he was 5 months old, gradually reducing the number of ounces once we started weaning.  PM me if you have any other questions, although I took all my advice from the 'Baby Whisperer' book.

Good luck x
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ANONYMOUS
Anonymous
16/01/2007 at 8:29 pm
Oh my god, I'm in shock.  Was just posting my reply when I saw Andrea's.  That's awful about your partner's cousin's baby - so sorry to hear this.  As I said, Becky, I took most of my advice from 'The Baby Whisperer Book', and I do remember our HVs talking about it, so it must be a recognised thing. Maybe talk to your doctor about it first if you're now worried.  I will certainly be asking mine if I have a second!!!
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SHARON B(32)
Sharon B(32)
16/01/2007 at 9:20 pm
I'm pretty shocked at that reply too - but my heart goes out to your partner's cousin Andrea. Never heard of a baby dying from overfeeding and not being winded unless baby choked??? Still a very sad story.

As for the question - I voted 'no'. We did the dreamfeed for a few weeks, then one night I went to bed early, and said I'd feed Thomas when he finally woke by himself. He actually woke at around 5am - the same time he would've done if I'd dreamfed him!!! In the end I actually found that disturbing him to feed him (even if not actually waking him) made him more prone to waking in the night.

Establish a good bedtime routine (bath, bottle/breast, bed) and these early days of sleepless nights will soon pass.

Sharon x
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ANONYMOUS
Anonymous
17/01/2007 at 12:33 pm
I dreamfed Annabel for a few months - at first I could feed her without waking her (was BF) but then she would always wake, though back to sleep by the end.  After a while though she got used to it and would wake up at around 10pm before I even got to her, which got pretty annoying.

I don't actually think it made any difference to how much she slept and when I stopped she would still wake at the same time in the night for another feed.  Don't think I'd bother next time around, though they're all different of course.

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ANONYMOUS
Anonymous
19/01/2007 at 4:45 pm
I havent done a dreamfeed with my LO as I really dont agree with it.  He has been sleeping thorugh since about 8 weeks old and at 11 weeks sleeps from 8pm till 7ish most days, earliest is 6am he will wake.  

I understand its easy to create a pattern thats useful for your sleeping pattern but if your baby was hungry they would wake, if their not waking then their prob. digesting the previous feed still, so putting extra pressure on their digestive system that is already fragile is risky!  Personal opinion!! If you do go with it, hope it is successful...make sure to do extra checks as  they can also bring up the milk with wind and choke if not winded after the feed.  Soz for sounding neg.  its good to have lots of opinions,  then you can go with whats best for you xx
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ANONYMOUS
Anonymous
20/01/2007 at 5:34 pm
We dream feed our LO at approx 10:30 pm.

Pick him up very gently, put a bottle in his mouth and he drinks it.

I do very gently rub his back (with a hand under his chin), and see if any wind comes up, sometimes we get one - most times we don't.

His normal teats are a size 3, but I use a size 2 on this feed.

I plan to start phasing it out around 6 months.

Then very gently put him back to bed - most times his eyes do not open during this process.

He then sleeps until about 06:30 (or sometimes even later in the morning).

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ANONYMOUS
Anonymous
20/01/2007 at 8:45 pm
Just wanted to say thank you to every one that has replied and given opinions and advice!

Andrea T, so sorry to hear your story and to be honest once I read your reply I didn't feel I could even try a dream feed with your warning echoing round my mind. I'm going to leave it for now and see what times he starts waking regularly on his own, then review how its going in a few weeks. I'm also going to see what my health visitor thinks about it from a proffesional point of view.

Donna F, don't appologise for giving your opinion about not agreeing with dream feeds, I definately appreciate having a pros and cons to consider!
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ANONYMOUS
Anonymous
20/06/2007 at 10:33 am
Andrea, so sorry to hear about your story.

Spoke to my HV as was worried about not winding lo in the night as half the time I couldn't keep my eyes open I was so exhausted and she said my sleep was more important that worrying about lo not being winded but now I'm worrying, think i will start getting up splashing cold water on my face and making sure I stay awake!
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ANONYMOUS
Anonymous
20/06/2007 at 11:00 am
hi everyone
i dream feed, but i change ethan's nappy first so he generally is semi awake and i ALWAYS wind him afterwards - he goes straight back to sleep though so this has definitely worked for me.
having heard the story on this thread, i can see me being ultra vigilant about burping tonight!!!!!!!!!
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ANONYMOUS
Anonymous
07/01/2024 at 1:30 am

I always dream fed at around 11 they usually don't have the full bottle and then they would wake at say 3 or 4 have another change nappy and sleep till 6/7. Using normal teat will be fine x

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ANONYMOUS
Anonymous
07/01/2024 at 1:31 am
In answer to
Anonymous

I always dream fed at around 11 they usually don't have the full bottle and then they would wake at say 3 or 4 have another change nappy and sleep till 6/7. Using normal teat will be fine x

I always burped also x

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