My DS is 5mo and is still waking in the night for a feed (actually he wakes up quite a few times most nights but we are starting to seee an improvement lately). He started solids at 4mo on advice of my HV (in South Africa big babies are recommended to start solids earlier). He has rice porridge for lunch and rice porridge mixed with a bit of butternut at about 5pm. He really enjoys it and it has definitely helped him to sleep a little longer at night and to last 4 hours between his bottles in the day. He usually feeds at about 1:30am but has stretched it a couple of times until 3:30am. He would happily take 200ml but I try to limit it to 175. The problem is that he doesn't wake up immediately hungry (it usually takes him 30-45 mins to show an interest) and then he will drink 175ml max but often 130-150ml. I know the night feed is affecting this but I know he can't last 11 or 12 hours without a feed.
I did try and implement a dream feed when he was 3 months old but abandoned it after a few nights when he started waking at 10:30pm expecting it and again at 2am expecting another one! Looking back I should maybe have given it a bit longer but it seemed to really disrupt his natural rhythms (he used to sleep until about 2am) and we've never had him repeat this. He usually wakes now at about 12am for a dummy insert but was waking at 10:30pm for a long time after the failed dreamfeed. I was thinking of reintroducing a dreamfeed at about 10:30pm and then using pu/pd to help him settle for the rest of the wake-ups.
Do people think this is wise, considering he will be on 3 solid meals a day at 6mo and should then have absolutely no reason to need a df? Should I wait it out (I'm exhausted from the consistent broken night's sleep) and start making his night feeds smaller or introduce the df in the hope he sleeps through?
Any ideas would be gratefully appreciated!
