Weaning the DF and Fitting in Food and Snacks

[jacobmom]

My son, Jacob, just turned 9 months old and we are still doing the df.  My husband is worried that if we don't, he will start to wake up in the middle of the night as Jacob won't take any more ounces during the day.  Also, I am just wondering how to fit in his three meals, bottles and add snacks.  Here is a sample of his daily routine:

7 a.m. wake
7:30 a.m. bottle and breakfast (cereal, fruit and dairy)
9ish-10ish - nap
sometime b/w 11:30-noon - lunch (bottle, cereal, fruit and veg)
1ish-3ish - nap
4 - bottle
7 - bottle and dinner (protein, veg and fruit)
7:30-8 p.m. - bed
10 dream feed

The most he'll take from his bottle is generally 6 ozs.  I have gone back to work part-time and when he is at his daycare, he tends to eat more.  Also, if he's had a super-stimulated day, he'll eat more (i.e. yesterday, he had his "4 p.m." bottle at 3:30 p.m. and I gave him a rusk for a snack also.)

Any thought/suggestions/help anyone could provide.  I'm a first-time mom (in case there was any doubt ) so I'm just so new at this.

Thanks,

[Johno & Aurelias Mum]

Hi

To phase out the dreamfeed, you reduce the bottle by an ounce and half an hour for three days each.  So, days 1 - 3 you would reduce it to 5oz at 9:30.  The 4-6 you would do 4 oz at 9:00.

Because your dreamfeed is quite early, I expect that when you tried to do 8:30 he wouldn't be interested.  So then its gone.

As they get older and their food needs and sleep patterns change, the dreamfeed can actually start to interrupt nightime sleep.  We got rid of it at 8 months which is a month later than suggested and it didn't start any night wakings.

As for snacks, my LO didn't need any til he started running around - at about 14 months.  So now he has a drink and a box of raisins mid morning and a drink and a rusk mid afternoon.  Sometimes, we do apples, or other fruit but he doesn't really want any more than this.

As for milk intake - at 9 months the solids will start replacing the milk in nutritional value so you need to just ensure that he has a pint a day.  Either in a bottle, a drink from a sippy cup or as part of food.  So for example, porridge for breakfast has milk, yoghurts, cheese etc all start replacing the milk intake.

I hope this all helps.

[nestor]

Hi there,

In the BW Solves all your PB Tracy's explains how to stop the dream feeds.

Quote:
The process of cutting out DF usually arround 7 mths- has to be done in a 3-day increments, to insure that your baby makes up during the day what you're taking away at night.

Day 1: Add 1 ounce to the 1st feed of the day, and take away 1 from the DF. Give the DF (now 1 oz less) half an hour earlier, at 10:30 instead of 11.

Day 4: Add 1oz. to the first feed, 1oz. to the second, and take 2oz of DF.
The DF (with 2 oz less) should be at 10.

Day 7: Add 1oz to the first feed, second, and third, take away 3 oz. of DF, and give it at 9:30.

Days 10 (DF at 9:30) Day 14 (8:30), Day 17 (8:00), and Day 20 (7:30):
By continuing ever 3 days to add ounces during the day and take away the same amount from the DF. We end up doing a DF at 7:30 with only few oounces.


So as you can see this is a long process and it is suggested to do this way so we want disturb the night sleep.

She suggest 7 months, but this is at the introduction of solids. So whenever you start solids you stop the DF arround a month later.
 
Hope this helps,
nestor