question about dreamfeeding

[rianasmom]

Hi,
I am new to this board. My 4.5 month old just started waking around 2AM to eat and again at 5-5:30. I've been browsing this site and wanted to try dream feeding. Last night, she went to bed at 7:30 and I fed her at 10:30. It didn't make any difference. She still woke at 1:50 and 5:30 to eat. Is this supposed to take some time or should it have worked right away? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

Hello, and welcome to the boards

It's unlikely that the df will work straight away. Your lo doesn't know that she is supposed to sleep through the night. What the df does is top her up to go for a longer sleep, so, when she wakes a few hours later, you can be confident that she is not waking out of hunger, but habit. This gives you the foundation to break this habit, and getting her back to sleep. Once you have done this a few times, then she will stop waking so often at night. You do need to do this a few times, though, and be consistent with it.

Good luck

[Noelle]

Hello! 

How many nights has she been waking?  Does she take full feeds?  If she's been waking the same everynight it could have become a habit.  One thing you can try too is to give her a pacifer - if that doesn't work after a couple of tries then I would feed.  Though if she isn't taking full feeds and she didn't use to wake in the past you may want to try pu/pd.   Has her daytime calories decreased at all?  Maybe you can try to add to those as well.

HTH 

[Idahomom]

I started EASY when my ds was 3.5 months and df when he was 4 mo.  It took him 4 nights to stop waking at his previous feed times.  We gave him a paci for 2 nights then did shh/pat for 2.  Since then, smooth sailing.  He wakes maybe every third night and it's always at a different time.  One thing to watch out for is lo waking for the df.  DS started waking at 10:30 anticipating a df, but I put him back down with shh/pat and gave him the df at 11pm instead.  That broke the habit quickly.

[rianasmom]

Thanks for your responses. The 2nd night, I df at 11:00 and she awoke at 4:00 and back down til 7:00. I didn't do it last night and she awoke at 2:30 and 6:30. It seems as if she is hungry because she does feed alot. I don't think her daytime calories decreased. I actually started feeding oatmeal.
How long are you supposed to df? When do you start to wean that?

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

We stopped the df at 6 months old, but I know some people do it for longer. Depends on the lo, though.

HTH

[rianasmom]

Do you try to burp your baby while dreamfeeding? I am scared to put her down without burping for fear she will spit up.

[Noelle]

With my kiddos and the df, even if they weren't fully asleep when I put them down, they would usually fall back asleep on their own.  So what I did after feeding them was to walk around a bit with them on my shoulder..basically burping them while "holding" them to sleep if that makes sense.   

[Idahomom]

I don't burp my lo, supposedly they are so relaxed at the df that they don't take in any air (I don't know if this is true though).  But when DH does the df he does put our lo up on his shoulder and just holds him there and says air does escape because ds is relaxed.  I may start doing this also.