Purpose of a dream feed

[finleyfoo]

I haven't tried the dream feed yet, but I was thinking about how it works. I have a 4 month old son who gets up 1-2 times per night (sometimes 3 times) and has some trouble getting back to sleep, even though he is pretty good at getting to sleep at the beginning of the night. I nurse him once during one of his awakenings. Sometimes I have nursed him twice.

It has always seemed to me that it could be very confusing for him that when he wakes up at a certain hour he gets nursed (and therefore comforted) but when he wakes up a other times he is expected to fall asleep on his own by crying (I go in and pat/sshshshsh in five minute invervals). In his mind, why do I get picked up and nursed at 2:00 am but not at 4:00 am? See what I mean?

So is that the purpose of the dream feed in a way. To set a designated time and wake the baby up to feed him without his waking up and crying and then soothing all other wake ups sending the message that yes you will get fed but it won't be because you've woken up crying?

I am not prepared to stop nursing him at least once at night because I'm not sure whether he is hungry or not and I don't want him to go hungry.

Any thoughts?

[Mariek]

Hi

The idea of a dreamfeed is to basically "tank them up" so that they will sleep for a longer period throughout the night. We used to do a dreamfeed at around 10.30pm.  To do the dreamfeed you don't actually wake them. Sucking is a reflex for babies and they will suck automatically when they get a boob or bottle near their mouths so will eat without you waking them.

How much is he taking in the overnight feeds? If he's bottle fed you could try offering water instead or if BF then a paci/dummy (although if you go down that route you have to think about paci weaning too).

What's his day time schedule like? If he's getting enough milk in in the day time his night wakings/ feedings are probably more habit than necessity.

love

[Kherzy]

"How much is he taking in the overnight feeds? If he's bottle fed you could try offering water instead or if BF then a paci/dummy (although if you go down that route you have to think about paci weaning too)."

In the first book Tracy mentions the paci thing.  (page 186) The first night give the paci instead, kid will suck whole 20 minutes before falling back to sleep, next night it may cut back to 10 min, the 3rd night he might fidget in his sleep, if he wakes give him the paci.  substitute oral stimulation of paci for the bottle or breast adn eventually he won't wake up for it. 
good luck.