An honest answer from those who USED to Dreamfeed but dont anymore

[Fabby]

Ok, i need an honest answer from those of you who used to do a dreamfeed for your LO..... When you stopped (i assume when solids were possibly introduced) did your LO tend to wake at the same time out of habit or not?

I keep thinking i should do a DF but something always hold me back and i dont do it. I am worried that when we come to stop Rory will still wake at like 10pm out of habit (this is the time i shall do it if i do) He has been waking the odd night over the last week now for an extra feed.

Thanks in advance for your HONEST answers xx

 

[Aunty E]

No, not at all. We tried to stop the dreamfeed at around 7 months, but she still woke early in the morning for a feed (she really wasn't eating much in the way of solid food) so we kept it going for another month and then she dropped it with no bother at all.

 

[Kimmy25]

I stopped about 4 weeks ago just to see how he slept without it and partly because like you I worried he wake out of habit for it...Hes now sleeping 9-half 4 6ish so im glad I did x

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Yeah she did stir at around 10pm, but didn't ever properly wake. I think it's a point at which she changes sleep cycles though, so the dreamfeed may well have had nothing to do with it. In hindsight she never needed the dreamfeed anyway.

 

[Fabby]

Really didnt want go down the dreamfeeding route for various reasons but i think i may have to try it. There has been a 2 occassions just lately where Rory has had a bottle around 930pm - 10pm after being in bed for a while and already had his last bottle (he woke cus one night he was sick after he brought some wind up then another night he was just simply hungry) and he then went on to sleep till about 730am without waking for even one feed (usually as a rule around the 3am mark) so looking back at those incidences i probably should really consider a DF. Im also scared of it disturbing him too much and then he doesnt go back sleep but i suppose i will just have to deal with that i suppose IF it happens xx

 

[Fabby]

Is too late at nearly 15 weeks to do DF though do you think? xx

 

[Kte]

I used to dream feed her until she stopped her que's that she was hungry - she never woke out of habit for a feed at a certain time or if I missed a feed becasue I only ever fed her when she starting to stir when she was hungry but hadn't fully woken up. She used to make very distinct noises so I knew.

 

[allyk]

I used to df LO for bout 4 weeks but used to feed her at 11pm . Since dripping that feed she just sleeps straight through from 9 pm to 630am.

I though idea of dream feed was not to wake them up?!?! So nit sure why LO would wake out of habit

 

[x Michelle x]

Hi, we have always dreamfed Tabitha at about 11:30.. she doesn't wake for it and is very rarely awake when we do it (sometime she opens an eye and looks at us shiftily like WTF mummy).
She can be quite a fussy girl during the day for taking her milk and she is only in the 9th centile so i use it as a way to get an extra feed into her (we only do 3oz).
She has gone without it a few times and sleeps thru, but as it only takes 10 mins at our bedtime i'm really not bothered about doing it! Infact i enjoy feeding her when she sleeps, its sooo peaceful!!!

 

[nb1984]

Hey hun,

I dream fed my LO from about 6-7 weeks until she was 9 months old, she has never been a big eater so needed the calories. The most she has ever drunk is a 5oz bottle! I kept going until she didnt want it anymore, and by that I mean she literally for 5 nights refused the feed each time. It actually seemed like I was annoying her by going in her room!

So on the 5th night I did it at 9.30 rather than 10.30 and she still refused and then I just stopped and she was absolutely fine xxx

 

[whoops]

Hi, we have always dreamfed Tabitha at about 11:30.. she doesn't wake for it and is very rarely awake when we do it (sometime she opens an eye and looks at us shiftily like WTF mummy).
She can be quite a fussy girl during the day for taking her milk and she is only in the 9th centile so i use it as a way to get an extra feed into her (we only do 3oz).
She has gone without it a few times and sleeps thru, but as it only takes 10 mins at our bedtime i'm really not bothered about doing it! Infact i enjoy feeding her when she sleeps, its sooo peaceful!!!

I'm the same! I find myself propping her on my shoulder for ages afterwards and just cuddling her because she's all sleepy and warm, and she's too active during the day to cuddle properly.

 

[ginny]

I do that too, I even had a little tear last night, I just loved it... Bit soppy in know! Xx

 

[Murphy98]

Well, TBH when we stopped he started waking up at weird times all over the place. BUT we aren't sure if other issues just happened to coincide with the DF ending or not.

Basically our son started to refuse the DF so there seemed no point in weaning him off of it. I think that may have been our mistake - we just dropped it one night - and our LO woke at midnight I think out of habit. So the next night we dreamfed again but a bit earlier....and he woke at 2:00am. Then we returned to dreamfeeding as usual (trying anyway) but the waking continued for about 2 weeks. So we dropped the DF again because he was getting up anyway. Now he sleeps through just fine again - sometimes from 7:30pm-7:00am and when we have a wake up in the night we know its not at all DF related.

Now - before I blame the DF a) I think we didn't wean off it properly as I said above and b) he also had two teeth show up around then and c) he also should have been hitting a wonder week around then too. So who knows?

For what its worth I did really miss the DF at first - it was such a nice cuddle and check in before bed.

 

[BethK]

We stopped at 5 months, purely because LO was only taking a couple of Oz.
When we stopped she didn't wake at the same time but did wake at about 1am and wanting the bottle which we then gave her and she took the whole 7oz.
That lasted about 2 weeks and then she just didn't wake up for it, she slept right through.