« previous next »
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Dropping dreamfeed for 7 month old  (Read 3056 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline lamcg

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 28
    • Location:
Dropping dreamfeed for 7 month old
« on: November 17, 2005, 05:04:20 am »
Hi--

Just wondering if anyone can help us figure out how to drop our 7-month old son's dreamfeed. We started the dreamfeed three months ago and it works to get him to sleep through.

The time of the dreamfeed varies from 9:30 to 11 pm-- my husband aims for 10 or 10:30, but Gabriel sometimes wakes for the dreamfeed before then and sometimes our son is able to wait until later.

The amount that he takes at the dreamfeed also varies-- from 4 to 9 ounces. This is likely because the amount of food he takes in the daytime varies as well. He is on three meals of solids-- all fairly substantial meals, plus four bottles (this includes the dreamfeed). We are totally on formula at this point, and I would say he takes between 28-30 ounces of that each day on top of his solids (this includes the amount taken at dreamfeed).

I know what Tracey suggests in her book as far as slowly subtracting the amount from the dreamfeed and adding it to the daytime feeds and then gradually moving the dreamfeed up. But this is not going to work with Gabriel because he won't take anymore than he wants from each bottle and each meal-- he often does not finish his bottles. Also, as I wrote above, our son's dreamfeed does not have a consistent time either.

Any suggestions?

Lauren
Logged

Offline Noelle

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 53
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 1993
  • Eau Claire, WI
    • Location: Eau Claire, WI
Re: Dropping dreamfeed for 7 month old
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2005, 16:55:27 pm »
Quote from: lamcg

But this is not going to work with Gabriel because he won't take anymore than he wants from each bottle and each meal-- he often does not finish his bottles.

Won't know unless you try...he might surpise you :wink:   

Not sure what other options there are. You could try cold turkey and do pu/pd if need be.  Increase his solids/offer as much as he'll eat (which I'm sure you already do  :D )  Hopefully someone else has some suggestions too.  :D
Logged
**Noelle**  Formerly JohnandZoesMom


Offline zelda

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 6
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 130
    • Location:
Dropping dreamfeed for 7 month old
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2005, 09:22:03 am »
I wanted to give this one a bump for more responses...

my baby is exactly like lauren's - variable amount during the df, sometimes refusing it completely, won't take any more during the day.

any tips appreciated.
Logged

Offline lamcg

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 28
    • Location:
Dropping dreamfeed for 7 month old
« Reply #3 on: December 03, 2005, 15:52:35 pm »
Hi all--

It's been two more weeks and we've been traveling, so we haven't done a whole lot yet to work on dropping the dream feed.

We have tried a few easy things:

1. The dreamfeed is now consistently at 10 pm, although there are a few nights a week when our son will wake for it earlier.

2. I have been trying to give him another bottle feeding in the mid-afternoon, and he will usually take SOME, but we haven't seen any consistent decrease in what he takes at the dreamfeed as a result.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks--

Lauren
Logged

Offline Jujuyanni

  • New & Learning The Ropes!
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 7
    • Location: New Zealand
Dropping dreamfeed for 7 month old
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2005, 00:41:35 am »
Hi,

Just a thought, do they use a dummy? Perhaps giving him this instead might make a difference. This is one thing I remember Tracy suggesting for dropping night feeds when they just have a need to suckle.  I found this helped with my daughter and she is now 6 months old with still a dream feed.   I find with her and can just be a habit at times and a few nights of replacing feeds with a dummy can just be all she needs:?:
Logged

Offline lamcg

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 28
    • Location:
Dropping dreamfeed for 7 month old
« Reply #5 on: December 05, 2005, 03:08:03 am »
Thanks for your suggestion about the pacifier. However, we worked hard to take the pacifier away this last September and I don't think I want to give it back to him after all that.

This is what I'm thinking about how to go about this, and I can't really think of any other way...

1. Move the dream feed up 1/2 an hour every week or so.
2. Continue offering another bottle feeding in the daytime.

In addition to that, do you think it would be helpful if we offered him 2 ounces less with each 1/2 hour that we move the dreamfeed forward? It's just tough with our son because he's not a consistent feeder in terms of amount of formula, but he is eating three meals of solids a day so it seems like we should be able to get rid of the dreamfeed pretty soon here...

Lauren
Logged

Offline zelda

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 6
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 130
    • Location:
Dropping dreamfeed for 7 month old
« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2005, 09:00:20 am »
here's our update:

we've been gradually feeding less and less - well, that's not exactly right since he never drank the df consistently.  we have been lowering the maximum amount as well as moving the df forward.

i have also been trying to give him some solids at breakfast, but this hasn't worked so far.  but that could be because he is just not eating so much these days.  he's still sleeping through the night, so i hope we're on the right track.
Logged

Offline zelda

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 6
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 130
    • Location:
Dropping dreamfeed for 7 month old
« Reply #7 on: December 09, 2005, 06:55:57 am »
another update: our baby has been refusing his df for several days now but continues to sleep through.  tonight we're not even going to try to give it to him and see what happens...
Logged

Offline lamcg

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 28
    • Location:
Dropping dreamfeed for 7 month old
« Reply #8 on: December 09, 2005, 16:29:24 pm »
Zelda--

That's great news! Thanks for checking in. It helps to know there is someone else out there trying to do the same thing. I hope you'll post how things go when you don't give him the dreamfeed tonight.

Gabriel is still at 9:30 pm with a few less ounces than when we were doing the dreamfeed consistently at 10 pm. We were going to move to 9 pm last night, offering even less, but the night before, he had woken at 4 am crying. After changing diapers, checking teeth, etc., he was getting even more hysterical. I finally tried feeding him, which did the trick. He took 7 ounces. Yikes. But last night we were back to "normal"--- he took 5 ounces at the 9:30 pm dreamfeed and slept through until 7 this morning. So we'll try 9 pm tonight with fewer ounces and see how it goes. At this point, I think some of that late feeding is habit because he has such solid meals in the daytime and pretty close to enough formula... I just can't imagine that he's not getting enough to eat in the day to last him. But we'll see-- stranger things have been known to happen around here!

Lauren
Logged

Offline Noelle

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 53
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 1993
  • Eau Claire, WI
    • Location: Eau Claire, WI
Dropping dreamfeed for 7 month old
« Reply #9 on: December 09, 2005, 17:08:26 pm »
Yay Zelda!!!  :D

Things are sounding pretty good Lauren....keep us posted  :D
Logged
**Noelle**  Formerly JohnandZoesMom


Offline zelda

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 6
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 130
    • Location:
Dropping dreamfeed for 7 month old
« Reply #10 on: December 11, 2005, 08:08:38 am »
...and he still slept through the night!  yay!  and he pretty much dropped it himself, i am so impressed with our babe.

i think the trick is that he now taking some solids in the morning.  we feed him some formula at 7am (4oz), some cereal and banana at 8am together with us at the table and then some more formula at 8.30am (4oz) before he goes down for his nap.  i think we'll let it go on like that for a few weeks until he gets used to eating solids in the morning, and then try to consolidate the feedings...

keep going, lauren!
Logged

Offline lamcg

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 28
    • Location:
Dropping dreamfeed for 7 month old
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2005, 15:01:55 pm »
We have now completed Night #3 of 5 ounces at 9 pm. Our son is sleeping through, but he's waking up earlier and earlier. Last week, his wake up times were around 7:30 am. Now they are about an hour earlier, sometimes more.

It doesn't seem to matter what time we put him to sleep. We wait until he is tired and it also depends on when his last nap was, but it over the last three nights, his bedtimes have ranged from 7 pm to almost 8 pm. I am not liking the earlier wake ups, but we still definitely need to get rid of the dream feed.

Also when he gets up, he can't be starving because he's able to wait until 7 am easily for his bottle. He's definitely taking more formula in the day as well, so I'm not even convinced that the earlier wakings are related to the earlier dreamfeed.

Do others find that their babies wake earlier as they gradually get rid of the dreamfeed?

Lauren
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
« previous next »