getting rid of dream feed

[chirojaz]

My DD is 8.5 months and I want to start the process of getting rid of the dream feed.  I breastfeed her (both sides) for the DF so I don't know exactly how many ounces she is getting.  Currently feeding her @ 10pm.  Just curious if I should slowly start bringing the time earlier or should I reduce the amount first by only giving her one breast.  Last night when I opened her door to her room to give her the DF she woke up (sometimes she does this) but she didn't want to nurse.  She took one side ok and then would not take the other side.  So she went back to sleep and woke at 7am.  Well actually she had a couple of NW which is not typical, usually she sleeps through the night, but I didn't feed her during them.  Today she had lots of loose stools so I think the NW were because she wasn't feeling good.  So anyways, I think she can still sleep through the night off of just one breast instead of both but I'm not sure thats how I should be doing it. Any thought?

[amayzie]

There are lots of ways you can do it- but we just went cold turkey and dropped it one night. It worked for us-basically he woke one night at the DF time and i was settled in bed on the net and couldn't be bothered getting up, he resettled in a minute or something and i left it... he was just ready i think. We also did a BF.

[Erin M]

You can also look here for lots of good info:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=65750.0

[cath~]

We also dropped it cold turkey (health visitor weighed her and said I could drop one milk feed so, of course, I chose the DF )
It worked fine for us.
I didn't fancy bringing it earlier and once she started feeding it was hard to stop her w/o upsetting her, so better to just not offer the DF at all.

[chirojaz]

those that dropped it cold turkey, did it change your babies sleep at night or what time they woke up?  That's the only thing I am concerned about.  Of course I want her to continue sleeping through the night and as she currently wakes anywhere between 6-7am I don't want it to be any earlier 

[amayzie]

With us it didn't- i was really panicked about that too!! He was already about 1-2 times a week waking at 5 or so for a feed with the dream feed- and that continued, not more, just the same- but he's stopped that now too. He;s only up if he's teething...

[cath~]

When I dropped DF, L started waking up about 30-45 mins earlier.

She used to wake up when I did the DF to feed so was awake for about 30 mins or so, so it made sense that after I dropped the DF her WU time would creep a bit earlier.

[chirojaz]

Just curious because there have been a number of nights that my DD wakes up right around the time I was already getting ready to go in to do a DF.  So if I want to drop the DF cold turkey what should I do if she wakes up around that time?  She usually starts crying, I have tried to leave her to see if she would resettle but after 20 minutes I give up and go give her the "dream feed" that obviously is no longer a DF if she is awake. 
Also, sometimes she doesn't take a good afternoon nap and I have to put her to sleep at like 6:15pm, making her last feed at like 5:45 or 6pm.  If I stop doing the DF and am putting her to sleep that early what does that mean for her wake up time.  Is she going to wake up at like 5am and be hungry? If so, do I feed her then?

[amayzie]

Perhaps you could try something like- good nap, normal BT- 7pm BT feed=no dream feed, bad nap, eary BT=Early feed, do a dream feed- just for a bit!!

[MissyD]

When we dropped the DF cold turkey (we were sleep training to get rid of the 7-8NWs & feeding to sleep), I did puPD when DS would wake up.  I also made sure to give him more solids for dinner and to nurse him longer before BT so that I wouldn't worry about him being too hungry.  After two days, he stopped waking up for the DF  

And I was always worried that he would be hungry (seeing as he fed 7-8 times a night before!) but looking back, I think it was more me who wanted to feed him than him actually needing it .  But I totally understand being worried about their being hungry.