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Author Topic: Dream Feed - Necessary?  (Read 1233 times)

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Offline Pannee

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Dream Feed - Necessary?
« on: May 06, 2012, 07:40:02 am »
Hello, I have a 5 mo dd exclusively breastfed and we've just started a 3.5 EASY, moving to a 4 hour EASY.

I'm not sure about starting a dreamfeed mainly because I tend to go to bed at the same time she does in order to get that long stretch of sleep.  She then either wakes around 11pm anyway or if I'm lucky a bit later.  Can you give me some advice on whether to start it or not?  Her bedtime feed is around 7pm. 

I guess one of the pros is that she shouldn't wake up afterwards which then guarantees an easy back to sleep.  But my other concern is that she doesn't seem to go longer than 5 hours tops between feeds at night at the moment and I would be uncomfortable trying to push her through NW's until 7am.  Or should I let her feed again if she wakes?

Sorry, rambling a bit here, just trying to get my head around it.  BTW dd sleeps in our room as we have only one at the moment so I don't want to have to set my alarm to wake me either as it might wake her too.  DH works nights so he is no help. 

Any suggestions?  Most appreciated! 
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Offline becj86

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Re: Dream Feed - Necessary?
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2012, 10:51:03 am »
Hi, welcome to BW :)

The DF is mostly about your convenience - you feeding her when you go to bed so you get the long stretch; and a little bit about teaching LO to sleep longer at night without waking - it works for some babies but for others, it disturbs their sleep and makes them wake more frequently for the rest of the night.

With regards feeding during the night, generally you feed if LO wakes for a feed - a general rule is to resettle without feeding only if LO has not lasted as long between feeds as she would during the day. If you resettle for this reason, you have to wait til she's fallen asleep, even if its only for 10 mins before you feed otherwise you're reinforcing a message that if she grizzles/cries long enough, she'll get a feed which makes any future sleep training much harder.

In your situation, I'd not bother with a DF.
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Offline Pannee

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Re: Dream Feed - Necessary?
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2012, 10:56:04 am »
Hi Bec, thanks for your advice, sounds good to me.  Yeah, the resettling thing is tough.  Every now and then she will wake at around 3 - 3.5 hours after the first feed at night and its a tough one.  I know she can go longer, but those settling times take a bit out of us.  I tend to play it by ear, based on the time.  Ie. how close to wake up time.

Thanks again for your advice
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