5 week old won't dream feed

[amybHG1]

I have been using EASY for the past week and all has been going well except for the dream feed.

My LO is just over 5 weeks old and takes about 4oz at each feed, every 3 hours during the day. I have been cluster feeding like Tracey suggests but he just won't take the dream feed at all. His sucking reflex has always been quite poor and although I can get the bottle in and he sucks a bit, it's not strong enough to get any milk out.

Should I wake him for the dream feed (seems to defeat the object of it!) or increase the amount for the cluster feeds? 
With only doing cluster feeds and no dream feed he does only wake once in the night but his waking time in the morning when he is hungry is getting earlier and earlier each day.

Would love to hear any advice/similar experiences.

 

[Lolly]

Hello and welcome to the boards - congrats on your new arrival!

Not all babies take to the DF, some don't at the start but do when they get a bit bigger. Mine were terrible at it and if they did take a feed they woke more often so we just let them wake when they were hungry.

You can try a few things though, if you are doing the DF at the same time each night you can try doing it a bit earlier or a bit later to see if he takes it better in a different part of his sleep cycle. If it's not working though I would leave it for a few weeks and try again when he is bigger.

How much is he taking at each feed now? With the clusters I would just offer a normal full feed and let him take as much as he needs. Is he draining his feeds yet? If he is you need to put more in the bottle so he can stop because he is full and not just because the bottle is empty, there should be a bit left in the bottle at the end of a feed. There is a big growth spurt around 6 weeks so his milk needs may well be on the increase anyway!

Sounds like you are doing well though!

Laura