what is a dream feed?

[MamaPan]

hi there
have heard the term dream feed? what is this and how do i do it (I am BF)? what are the benefits? and at what age do ppl usually start this?
it is just a term i have heard so i am 100% clueless about it...
Thanks for any advice
XXX

[Emma1979]

hello there, the idea of the dream feed is, if u put your baby down for the night around say 7pm for example, instead of waiting for him to wake and feeding him then (on demand), you go in around 10pm, and feed him with minimal stimulation and noise, ideally so he doesn't wake up (if u are lucky)... you keep the room dark, no eye contact, just a boring feed, then straight back down to sleep (after a burp if he is young).... the idea behind it is you want the longest stretch between feeds to be at a time that is going to be most beneficial for you, ie if u feed at 10pm then go to bed, he will hopefully go quite a few hours before waking for the next feed, and you get to sleep during this time, or thats what you sort of hope to achieve anyway... they say babies will often do their longest stretch from 7pm onwards, to say midnight or later, but that isn't much use to you if you are not sleeping then, so the idea with a dream feed is you feed at 10pm, and hope for a long stretch afterwards....

i cant exactly remember when i started it, it may have been around the 12 week mark, as that is when we started putting her to bed around 7pm, where as prior to that it was 10pm, so the last feed was the 'dream feed'. i stopped it for a while, but dd started waking at night again and i am trying to teach her to self settle, so i have started the 10pm dream feed, so that when she wakes, i know she isn't hungry and doesn't 'need' a feed, where as when her last feed was at 7pm, i was giving her a bottle in the middle of the night cos i thought she needed it. she is 8 months by the way.

sorry for the essay, i hope i made some sense!!

[Snacks]

Sounds good to me, Emma! Ideally it is a 'top-up' feed while baby is still asleep to stretch them out longer overnight.
I only tried the dream feed a couple of times and found it didn't work out for us. I found I couldn't bfeed Natalie without her waking up, and it didn't really make a difference to her waking pattern anyway, ie she didn't sleep any longer for it. But IMO it is certainly worth a go, particularly like Emma said if your baby has his longest sleep when you are still awake.

[MantaRay]

I have used the dream feed with a lot of success with Tom. We have only just dropped it, although depending on his afternoon eating and drinking we still do it sometimes. I never did much with Jack as he went down for the night later and slept through anyway, but with Tom it has saved me a wake up in the night (mostly from 2 to 1 wakeups, although now it is more the difference between 1 and 0 wakeups).

[Roryrory]

Oh!! I thought the dream feed was waiting till they cried out for you!! Thanks for that Emma - I think I will try that with number two!

You learn something every day

[Emma1979]

actually i was wondering, with the dream feed, if the first feed of the morning at 7am or whenever she won't drink, and doesn't want to drink right up until her next nap, do u think thats a sign she probably doesn't need the feed at 10pm anymore???? having issues getting her to drink in the morning and thought maybe that was the reason. she is almost 8 months...? think i will start reducing the amount at 10pm, she takes about 150ml now, so might make it 90ml and see if she still sleeps thru.

[MamaPan]

hi all - thanks for the replies...
Noah is pretty good at the moment with his sleeping - some nights he goes from 10pm - 5am (but then again some nights we are up 3 or 4 times)...
Maybe I will try this a few times and see what happens - he is great at going back to sleep after the night feeds so maybe this one would work for us...
Thanks again for all the replies and advice!!

Rory - WOOOOOO HOOOOOO on the mat leave!

[RhiChiChi]

We just introduced the dream feed at 11pm and DD sleeps through until about 7.30am. DD is 20 weeks

[Snacks]

Hey Emma, hoping your experiment with the reduced amount goes well. DD sometimes refuses that first feed too, and it only started about a month ago. Sometimes she refuses other feeds too, but I was more surprised by the first one of the day. Hope you find something that works for you.