BabyWhispererForums.com
SLEEP => Night Wakings => Topic started by: aj's mom on March 23, 2006, 05:40:15 am
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Hi, I have always dreamfed my DD, now 5 months old... we are on the 4 hr easy (with very very short daytime naps - see post in 'naps') around 10:30 or 11.
I have heard that I shouldn't be waking her to dreamfeed because it disrupts her natural sleep cycle, and that it won't help with nighttime wakings, but then again it makes sense to me that if I feed her while I am still up at night, that is one less time she will wake me in the middle of the night.
What exactly is the reasoning behing a dreamfeed, and what about giving it up? Just a thought.
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I am going to second you on that question. I have tried it a couple of times and I actually noticed that the second and third nights, my dd woke up a few minutes earlier than I went in the night before. She would never wake that early. The other few times I tried it....she woke up when I set her back in the crib (she is breastfed). I have not noticed that the DF helps w/ night wakings...but I don't know if I have done them long enough. I am curious to see what response you get. I haven't found that they work for me yet. How long have you been doing them?
(: shelby
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hey guys,
I am interested in answers on this too. I also tried the DF a few weeks ago about 4x and then my DS woke a few min before it was time like yours - I felt it was disrupting his sleep and he didn't sleep much longer than his usual night time wakings so I stopped. I was going to try it again - started last night - for a week and see but am nervous it will disrupt his sleep again and also last night it didn't do any good. My pedi says to NEVER wake a sleeping baby, esp. at night but I know the BW book says differently.
Curious on thoughts on this.
Lauren
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the dreamfeed is just that - a feed while lo is still sleeping. if your lo has woken while/as feeding then it may form a habit i assume...some lo's it works for some it doesn't - all depends on your lo. i would cut out the df if lo is waking at that time and work on breaking that habit - and if lo is still waking a lot during then night maybe try it again after the waking habit at df time is broken...it can be hard but lo has to stay asleep for it to work.
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I agree. I have posted elsewhere my frustration at trying the df when my lo was 9 weeks old for 2 weeks - he would never take it but also started waking earlier. I stopped trying and his schedule slowly worked it's way back. I'm not going to try it again until he is a little older, i've read in a lot of postings that sometimes babies that haven't taken to it suddenly do when solids are introduced....
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with that in mind - just another thought - if you do wait as long as 6 months to start the df (when solids are usually introduced...) tracy says the approx age to stop a df is about 7 months - some sooner some later as all lo's are different...just some food for thought.