Dreamfeed Help!

[gooders30]

I have been DF'ing my LO since she was about 6 weeks old.  She often drank 5oz in her feed.  She is formula feed.  She is now 6mths this friday and i have started solids with her in the last week.  She is only on breakfast but seems to be enjoying it.  
In the last week or so she does not seem to want her dream feed.  When i pick her up out of the cot she will cry and struggle from me until i put her back in her cot.  i also had a go at just leaving her in her cot and putting the bottle in her mouth but she drank a bit and then got stressed so i gave her her dummy and let her sleep.  She is waking in the night but only for her dummy.  She always has done.  Never had an issue about feeding her in the early hours as soon as i put her dummy in she rolls and goes right back to sleep.  

Also she now likes to sit up and drink her bottle so wondering if she just doesnt want to drink lying down anymore?
Im just concerned she is not getting enough milk but i think i might just have to go cold turkey with it and try and give her an extra ounce in her feeds through out the day.

Not sure really? has anyone else done cold turkey and is it ok to do?

thanks x

[Lolly]

What time do you do th DF? You could always try it about 30 mins earlier or later if you do it the same time to see if she takes it better in a different part of her sleep cycle.

If she is refusing it and trying is disturbing more than helping then it's fine to drop it cold turkey, if she is refusing she is probably telling you she doesn't need it. The amount she was taking isn't a huge feed for a baby so she may not miss it, but see if she will take a few extra oz in the day as you suggested.

Laura

[gooders30]

Hi Laura

I did try moving it - i used to DF at 11 every night and then i tried 10:30 and also nearer 10 and at times she gets fussy and stressed.  i gave her an extra ounce in her breakfast feed and i will try and give her another extra ounce in her bedtime feed too and then try not disturbing her tonight.  It will be great if we can drop this DF but just want to make sure that im not doing harm to LO. 
 

[Lolly]

You won't be doing any harm, some babies never take to the DF. My two would take a decent feed on the odd occasion, but mostly they were really bad DFers so we gave up and just let them wake when they were hungry! It made things easier, I knew they were hungry so it was feed ASAP and get back to sleep as quickly as possible!

Good luck - let us know how it goes!

Laura

[gooders30]

yup i will give it a go.  i havent fed my LO during the night apart from DF since like 3 mths.  Shouldnt i just keep to my 7am EASY 1st feed? I fear just feeding her when she wakes will mess the routine up.  Whenever she wakes in the night i only ever just go and put her dummy in and she goes straight back to sleep. 

[Lolly]

Yes, just keep doing what you normally do - resettle with the dummy and 7am first feed!

Laura

[gooders30]

ok will do - will let you know how it goes "crossing fingers"

[*Kara*]

How is it going Gooders30?

[gooders30]

Things seem to be ok.  My LO has slept through the last 2 nights - only woke me at 6am this morning but just gave her a dummy and she re settled until 7am for her first feed. 
She is taking 30oz during the day with 2 x 8oz bottles (first and last bottle) and 2 x 7oz bottles.

Hope she keeps this up! i am going to start introducing a second solid meal in the day so i just need to make sure her daytime bottles dont drop.  Is it normal for their milk intake to drop a little with solids?

 

[*Kara*]

That's a great amount!  It's fine for them to drop a little when you introduce a new meal - My DD generally would drop a few ounces for a few days - then it would come back up to almost what it was before.  Generally within an ounce or two

She only needs about 24 ozs a day so you have a good buffer there