Author Topic: Dreamfeeding....gradually reduce amount?  (Read 1040 times)

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Offline midnightineurope

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Dreamfeeding....gradually reduce amount?
« on: February 20, 2006, 23:29:33 pm »
We are having success with p/u p/d after a week in and are a little more human for it.

 We are managing to get Evie down to sleep at 8pm and with a dreamfeed at approx 1030-11pm we are are seeing her waking at 530-6am which is perfectly acceptable.

 She is taking 120mls exactly everynight at dreamfeed...she is then completely sent back into a deep sleep and will take no more.

Would it be advisable to try and cut out the dreamfeed gradually by reducing the amount we feed her every night or should she need this to get her through for a good while yet. It is not a problem to feed her at this time, we are just wondering if it is best practice to cut it out for her well being and sleep pattern?

thanks for any help on this in advance.

colin.

Offline Tammy: Ethan & Kaden's Mom

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Re: Dreamfeeding....gradually reduce amount?
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2006, 02:04:44 am »
A few questions...

How old is your dd?
How much is she eating during the day?



Offline midnightineurope

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Re: Dreamfeeding....gradually reduce amount?
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2006, 18:54:43 pm »
Thanks for replying.

Our daughter is 17 weeks old to the day.

She is breast feeding at 630-7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm

we bottle feed formula around 6pm although she does struggle to take the whole 200mls and can take up to an hour to take it all if she does...we consider this a top up to get her through the night.

She then has a final breast feed before going down to sleep at 8pm.

look forward to hearing any advice

thanks.

Colin.


Offline Tammy: Ethan & Kaden's Mom

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Re: Dreamfeeding....gradually reduce amount?
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2006, 21:43:21 pm »
I believe that Tracy usually suggests keeping the dreamfeed until solids have been introduced and are firmly established.  For us, we didn't start solids with our ds until he was 6 months old, and then he didn't really take any decent amount until about 7 months.  I personally dreamfed ds until he was about 8 months old, and then slowly dropped it.  I could've done it earlier, probably at 7 months, but I was very paranoid about him waking up in the night for a feed if I took away the df.

I would personally continue to do the df right now until you've introduced solids and she is taking to them well.  Then you can think about cutting out the df.

We dropped the df by cutting back 1 oz every three days, and adding the ounce that he was no longer getting to a bottle during the day.  I'm not quite sure how that works with breastfeeding  though.  But this is the method we used:

(Ds was taking a 6 oz dreamfeed at 10 pm when we decided to drop it)

Day 1     - drop df bottle to 5 oz, and move the time earlier by 30 minutes.  Up the 1st bottle of the day by 1 oz (replacing the dropped ounce).  Do this for 3 days.
Day 4     - drop df bottle to 4 oz, and move the time earlier by 30 minutes.  Up the 2nd bottle of the day by 1 oz (again replacing the dropped ounce.)  Do this for 3 days.
Day 7     - drop df bottle to 3 oz, and move the time earlier by 30 minutes.  Up the 3rd bottle of the day by 1 oz.  Do this for 3 days.
Day 10   - drop df bottle to 2 oz, and move the time earlier by 30 minutes.  Up the last bottle of the day by 1 oz.  Do this for 3 days.

Then you should be able to drop the df entirely once you are down to 2 ozs.

I hope this helps a bit.  Perhaps someone can give you some ideas on how to up the feeds during the day that was doing breastfeeding plus a dreamfeed.  But again, I would keep the df until she's a bit older and has started solids.

Good luck!



Offline midnightineurope

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Re: Dreamfeeding....gradually reduce amount?
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2006, 22:45:28 pm »
thank you very much for the reply.

We're very happy with the progress so far and it looks like Evie may have to start on solids pretty soon as her growth rate has been rapid.

However we will not be too hasty and continue as we are so that we can keep a happy baby throughout the night.

Thanks again.