Dream feeding

[Arcanegirl]

What is it?
How do you do it?

 

[ryder]

Basically you give your baby a bottle before you go to bed. This keeps them from waking up and disrupting their sleep. And also hopefully holds them off of feeding for longer. It always worked for Jasmine, I did it until she was on 3 meals a day.

 

[Arcanegirl]

Alex always woke up and took a feed when we went to bed at midnight, would i jsut count that as a dreamfeed or does he need to be asleep (i know thats a silly qu )

 

[NatalieW]

If he wakes up and your happy - I wouldn't worry.

Isobel doesn't wake from 930pm til 3am and I wanted to extend it, so I pick her up and put bottle in and she takes the milk slowly and after she's finished I put her down and she carries on sleeping.. last time I did that she went from 3am waking to 5am waking..

 

[Arcanegirl]

Do you change her nappy when feeding? Weve always made a routine of changing nappy before feeding.

 

[Nikkinoonoo]

Personally I start our routine at around 11pm. I make a bottle up and leave it on the side while I change her bum. She will stir at times but not often 'wake up' then once I have changed her I feed her the bottle while she is still asleep/stiring and it usually sends her right back off again. I have been doing this since the beginning so I don't have any advice of introducing it. It works fantastically for us, I hope it does for you too xXx

 

[NatalieW]

Do you change her nappy when feeding? Weve always made a routine of changing nappy before feeding.

When she is down for bed about 8-9pm we don't change nappy unless she has made a dirty one, she'll stay in a wet one until we get up in the morning. Nappy is massive but it's never been a problem. We also dream feed with only a night light on and no talking between me and DH or even me and Isobel. Complete silence.

 

[Vickie]

What the others said really. We didn't change Hannah's nappy unless it really needed it. Sometimes she woke up during the feed but she generally passed out while we were winding her

 

[tasha41]

I've done this a few times, she wouldn't take it until recently.. I don't change her diaper during the feed because it wakes her up and for me, defeats the purpose. I change it first thing when she wakes up in the morning though before I feed her.

 

[AHB238]

Hi we introduced a "dreamfeed" at about 11 weeks.

We'd tried it before then but she would either wake up or was so asleep that she wouldn't take any feed, so changed her routine slightly.

Before we would bath her at 7 then feed and straight to bed, but at 11 weeks we changed it to feed at 6pm, bath at 7pm and then playtime, where she normally falls asleep, then at 9.30pm we wake her up, change her nappy and feed her, she falls asleep again then or gets sleepy and she is then put to bed and usually sleeps for about 10 hours.

We just started doing it one day and she took to it straight away.

Hope this helps.

 

[Michy]

Alfie is on 3 meals a day and still needs a dream feed!!!

He has a bath at 7 and then takes a big (10/11oz) bottle at 7.30 and is usually asleep by 8 at the latest.

Then we give him another bottle at 11/11.30pm when we go to bed, he normally takes around 5/7oz. We literally just put the nipple to his mouth and he drinks whilst laying asleep on his back. Then when he has had his fill we just sit him up till he burps and then lay him back down. 9 times out of 10 he stays asleep through the whole thing, but if he does wake then he takes himself off within 10 mins or so without making a fuss. We never change his nappy at night unless it is a stinky one!

The dream feed really works for us, we tried to drop it a couple of weeks ago and he woke at 2am and then 4am, whereas with the dreamfeed at 11ish it is rare for him to wake before 6.30am.

 

[ryder]

Nope, no nappy changing... And the point of dream feeding (ie: feeding while the baby is asleep) is to not interrupt their sleep... If they actually wake up, especiialy if they cry, it really intterupts their sleep and it can be harder to keep them in that deep sleep stage.

 

[Arcanegirl]

Can you feed them whilst theyre laying in the bed? I thought it was a choking issue to do that...

 

[ryder]

no, I always picked Jasmine up... she never woke really, sometimes stirred a bit, but never woke enough to matter.

 

[Vickie]

we always picked Hannah up as well

 

[tasha41]

Yep Elyse stays asleep if I pick her up

 

[bluebell]

I started dream feeding Jay at about 2 months and stopped again at 7 1/2 months when I stopped bfeeding completely.

It really worked for us as Jay would more often than not stay asleep when I picked him up, fed him and burped him and would then sleep through until morning I started off changing his nappy but this would disturb him more so then I only changed him if he'd done a poop.

xx

 

[Michy]

I don't pick alfie up, he actually feeds better on his back anyway because of his slight tongue tie.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I pick Ruby up for her dream feed, she usualy takes about 4-6oz and then I change her nappy. Wondering whether not to bother though. She usually wakes up during the nappy change but when we put her back in her basket with her dummy she always goes right back to sleep. (we don't do it in silence in either, keep lights low but often the telly is on! - she sleeps downstairs until OH and I go to bed, then we take her up with us.)

 

[Amanda]

I've never done this with any of my other kids, but Ben just sort of started it himself. He would sleep from 7.30pm, then wake at about 10 ish wanting a bottle, and then go straight back to sleep after. So we just carried on doing it, and now I half-wake him to give him a feed at the same time. He then sleeps till 6.30am. And I don't bother changing him unless he's dirty as there's normally only a half-wee in it!!