Dreamfeed help!

[qawdes]

Hi, Im wondering whether the dreamfeed works for everyone? 

I have a 7 week old and we've tried the dreamfeed, which she takes and goes straight to sleep, but it doesnt seem to do anything for making her sleep longer into the night.  On the nights we dont dream feed she has las feed at 7/7:30pm, goes to sleep around 8:30pm and wakes around 12:30/1am. When we do a dream feed she has her last feed at 7/7:30pm, goes to sleep around 8:30pm and we dreamfeed at 10:30pm, she then wakes around 1:30am.  So other than cutting her sleep in half to feed her the dreamfeed doesnt really seem to acheive its purpose.  We tried it for a week straight but still nothing.  She feeds about every 3.5hrs and has good 1 - 1.5 hr sleeps, cluster feeding between 4 - 7pm.

Any ideas on how to extend the night sleeps?

xx Vicki

[juliane2004]

The dreamfeed never worked for our baby. We'd dreamfeed at 10:30 pm, and she'd wake up at 4 am. Instead, we actually wake her up at 10:30 pm, feed her, and she'd sleep till 7:30 am.

[Evgenia]

Hi Vicki,

As pp said DF does not work for all los. Many parents out there did not find DF helpful at all. I myself found DF to work like magic with my dd.

It could take about a week to establish df and could be a bit longer before u see any benefits of it.

DF should not cut ur los sleep in half, as she should be half asleep during this feed, thus the name dream feed.

7 weeks old is still very young to start sleeping through the night, but if u persist with cluster feeding and DF over time it will help ur lo go longer stretches at night.

Have a look at this post for info on DF http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=54662.0

[*Liz*]

No it doesn't work for every baby - but in order for it to work you really need to be feeding your lo while they are still asleep.

Are you breast feeding? The DF tends to be harder with BF babies really.

And we would also recommend to start phasing out the cluster feeding from 6 weeks as their tummies are getting bigger and cluster feeding tends to encourage snacking and more frequent NWings after this age, rather than increasing their daytime intake.

I would perhaps try a feed at 4pm, and then at 7pm, and then aim to do the DF at 10pm and see how it goes like that instead.

[qawdes]

Thanks for your replies!

I am BF but also expressing and sometimes using formula so hubby can feed if need be.  Last night i fed her at 4pm, 6pm and a little top up right before bed at 7:20pm.  She was alseep at 8:20pm and woke herself at 11:30 - DH gave a bottle feed.  She then slept till 4am.  That was a great night!  I see what you mean about getting rid of the cluster feeding LizJ, i tend to do it because she demands it but she is 4.2kgs now so she probably could handle spacing it out a bit.

We'll see how we go, each day is a new challenge

xx Vicki

[*Liz*]

Some BF babies do hang onto it a little longer that FF babies - so if she is hungry and wants it I would follow her cues for a little while with a view to cutting them out soon.