Dream feeds can be a fantastic way
of getting your baby to have a really good feed
during the night while they're sleepy
and then give you a really good stretch of sleep overnight.
It also can be a really good way
of getting your partner to do a feed
if you're breastfeeding to let you have a bit of a sleep
while maybe the partner gives your baby a bottle
or an expressed bottle of milk.
Today I'm answering the question,
"When and how do I drop the dream feed?"
Hi, I'm Amanda, founder and co-creator
of Little Ones Sleep Programs.
I'm a pediatric sleep specialist and mother
to two darling little girls.
At Little Ones, we sell comprehensive online sleep
and nutrition programs
from zero through to toddler and preschool age.
We do this via our custom-built app
where we have our fantastic programs,
and we also house our amazing support village
for our customers,
where our trained sleep consultants and our dietitian
are there to answer any of your questions day and night.
I'll go through when you should drop the dream feed first
and also then secondly, I'll go through how to drop it.
So when you should drop the dream feed,
firstly, is if your baby is having a dream feed
and then still waking
more than two times
after that dream feed.
That means that the dream feed
is probably not working for you.
Sometimes also a dream feed can really cause actually
like two-hourly waking,
which just means that you should actually drop
the dream feed straight away.
But in people who have been successful
with the dream feed,
the dream feed may start gradually reducing
in the amount or time of which you're feeding your baby.
That would be a really good indication
that the dream feed could be dropped.
So, if you're getting down to around
sort of only a bottle, maybe 60 mls,
then this is a really good time to drop the feed.
Or if you're breastfeeding,
if the feed is less than five minutes long,
then that would also be a really good time
to drop the dream feed.
And if your baby is still drinking loads
and loads and loads at the dream feed
because they're nice and sleepy
and they're having a really decent feed,
but then at seven in the morning when you go to wake them,
they're really not interested in their feed anymore,
that would mean that the dream feed needs cutting down.
And then, if all everything else
is going really well for you in your dream feeds
and you've got to the point where your baby
is sleeping well,
they're still having a really decent amount of milk
at the dream feed,
and they're still feeding well in the mornings,
you will want to drop it at around about six months old
at the latest.
Because this is when, after six months old,
that actually, your dream feed can cause other issues,
such as your baby not wanting to eat solids during the day
or otherwise it can actually cause things
like a habit wake at nighttime.
So how do you drop the dream feed?
This is really pretty simple.
If you're breastfeeding,
you would reduce the feed time by five minutes.
And if you're using a bottle,
you would reduce the milk by 30 mls
or one ounce every three days.
That gives your baby a chance
to reallocate those calories
and increase the amount that they're drinking
throughout the day instead of at nighttime.
So once you're down to five minutes of breastfeed
or 60 mls of a bottle,
you can stop waking the baby altogether
and just cut out that dream feed.
I hope that answers your questions
and gives you some practical tips
of how and when to drop the dream feed.
If you have any questions or any comments,
make sure you pop them in the comments below.
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