success in weaning the dreamfeed anyone?

[lilapple]

Hi!  Our lo is almost 9 mos and I started the df at 6 mos when we started the four hour EASY.  I find the explanation of how to wean the dreamfeed in Tracy's 2nd book complicated and not really bf friendly.  I have tried to increase her day intake but I find that difficult to measure and difficult to do ( some days she is more distracted, others she eats better during the day but it is very hard to measure and say, okay yesterday she fed for ____ minutes and today she will feed for ____ plus ____minutes)  The only thing I have been able to do is to gradually move the df up little by little in three day increments but I am not sure what that will do if I am not able to increase the day feed and decrease the night feed.  Also, I can't imagine what it would be like once we have brought it up to 8 pm if she goes to bed at 7:30---she will only have been asleep for 30 min and maybe not even that as sometimes she takes 20-30 min to go to sleep once she is in her crib.  Has anyone who is bfing been able to wean this successfully either using Tracy's method or other? TIA

[daisymelan]

I know what you do when the df gets to 8pm, you don't offer it.  lol  I hope you found that funny.

I just recently stopped doing the df with my lo and I did it cold turkey.  I tried it one night just to seem, and guess what, he went right through.  And for the past two weeks he has done this about 5 out of 7 nights.  The nights he wakes, we just give him a feed. 

So cold turkey worked well for us.  There is another recent post on the board as well about this, you may want to check that one out too. 

HTH

[Erin M]

We weaned the DF here around 7.5 months, when she was on three full meals of solids a day.  That way she was certainly getting enough calories from other sources that the DF wasn't as important.  I brought it forward from 10:30/11 to about 9 PM and then dropped it completely.  It also tried to limit the amount of time she spent nursing for the DF as well.  I didn't really worry about upping her intake at other times of the day, seemed like she just naturally adjusted.  Anyway, she did great with it and we had no trouble dropping it.

[lilapple]

thanks daisymelan and erin!  I don't know if she'll do well dropping cold turkey because she has been waking and crying about the time or earlier of the dreamfeed.  I also don't give 3 full solid meals and won't plan on it for at least another month.  Should I wait then?

[Erin M]

Do you get the sense that she's taking a full feed for the DF?  If so, I might wait until she's more established on solids.  I actually weaned the DF around the time she started waking for it by bringing it forward so she wasn't waking anymore and then dropping it completely.  It's really such a guessing game, isn't it?

[Mommy in Moose Jaw]

Lilapple,
Just wanted to pop in on this as I am hoping to phase out the df soon as well.  Dd is on 3 solid meals a day also.  I think I am most comfortable with Erin M's suggestion as dd is only just now starting to have more frequent nights of sleeping through -- all the other nights involve teething   I like the idea of limiting the time first as dd tends to take 20 min for the df while all other feeds during the day are maxing out at 5-10 minutes -- no time for laying around anymore she says!  I think moving it back a little should be ok as lately no matter what time I give it between 10:30-11:15 (when I've fallen asleep on the couch!) it doesn't seem to affect morning wake-up time.  I am going to move the feed back in another 1-2 weeks.  I hope you post how you make out, I will do the same.