12 thoughts on “Poll Results: What Age (Approximate) Did You Drop the Dreamfeed?”

  1. Ethan is 16 weeks old and I’m still having trouble with his 40minute naps. He’ll wake up for all naps after 40minutes. It makes is terribly difficult to follow a schedule. And new this week, he’s been up 2 or 3 times at night. He’s not hungry, he’s just awake. Before he was sleeping 9-10 hours before eating once and going back down. What is it about the four month mark that is so difficult? I’m trying to be patient until this passes. From what I’ve read on here, he may just grow out of it – does that happen one nap at a time or will he just start taking 1.5 hour naps for all of them? How long did the sleep troubles last at four months? Oh, I hope the end is in sight!Regarding the dreamfeed, it seems scary to just drop it completely.. but when Ethan was 11 weeks, he was having trouble getting to sleep one night and didn’t fall asleep until about 8:45pm. I didn’t want to wake him up so close to him going down that night & my husband and I were exhausted from the crying. So we decided to see how long he would go.. and he slept until 4:30am. So we just dropped it and he’ll sleep from 7pm thru 4-6am (with the exception of the last few days) and go back down til we start the day at 7:15-7:30am.

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  2. It seems most babies just one day start sleeping well. All naps just start working out. The length of the 4 month difficulty varies. That could be an interesting poll, though. The day will come when it works out. Keep trying things, but don’t stress about it (easier said than done 😉 ).

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  3. My daughter (almost 5 mo)also had a dreamfeed, and her bedtime is 8:30, and then we would get her up at 9:30 and feed her again. We just decided to drop it, and it was fine. She slept until 7:00 the next day. She didn’t seem to mind in the least. I would just try and drop it and see what happens. If he wakes up and you think he is hungry, then you can go back to the DF and move it back slowly instead of dropping it until you reach your overall goal. Also moving to a 3 1/2 hr. schedule works well to drop the DF. Making the last meal of the day around 8:30.

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  4. My little guy is 10 weeks and has been sleeping for 7-8 hours after his dream feed for 2.5 weeks. I think he could drop this feeding and sleep 11-12 hours without a feeding. But would I need to pump at the dream feed time to keep up my milk supply? With the dream feed he is nursing 6 times a day so it would drop me down to 5 nursings.

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  5. My daughter is 7 1/2 months. I'm reading about the dreamfeeds and realizing I should have dropped this awhile ago. She wakes at 7 and eats every 4 hours. She goes to bed at 7:30 and I wake her up to DF between 10-11. If I drop the DF then I go down to 4 feedings. She is an "efficient eater" and only eats on one side for a few minutes at each feeding. My worry is my milk supply, though I've had plenty of milk, if she only eats twice on each side each day. Should I drop the DF??

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  6. Mrs. Chappy, I would drop the dreamfeed. If you are concnerned about supply, try pumping when you normally do a dreamfeed.

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  7. My lo is 4.5 months old and I am looking to drop the DF. Only concern is if she will get enough calories during the day to avoid waking in middle of night. She currently sleeps from 7/7:15 pm to 7/7:15 am and DF is around 10/10:30. She has been doing this pretty consistently for a few weeks. We follow 3.5 hour schedule and she drinks 5oz at each feeding (5 feeds not counting DF). She eats pretty well at wake up feeding but the next she is usually not interested in at 10:30 but will eat at 11 (4 hours apart). It's hard to let her wait until 11 as interferes with other feedings of the day. Any suggestions and is it not appropriate to drop the DF right now?

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  8. Jenn it sounds like the dreamfeed is ready to be dropped. I would go for it. If she is ready for doing some four hour intervals in the day, I would let her. Maybe cut another interval with 3 hours.

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  9. HiMy son is 24 weeks and is about to start solids in 2 weeks time. He goes to bed around 8pm after his bath and he has a DF somewhere around 11-11.30pm (sometimes he wakes before 11pm and other times we wake him around 11.30pm). I thought he had to have 5 feeds per day (7am,11am, 2.30pm, 6.30pm and DF), so I was going to wait until solids were introduced before dropping DF but now I'm thinking I need to drop it ASAP. He normally drinks 210mls at DF and goes straight back to sleep until 6-6.30am and is often not very hungry at 7am feed. What is your advice?

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  10. My DD will be six months old next week. She was consistently sleeping from about 8:30 to 8:00 with a DF at around 10:30-11:00. I dropped the DF a few nights ago and the first night she slept until 7:30. Now she has been waking a half hour earlier every day with this morning being the earliest at about 6:15 ( and she went to bed at 9). It is messing up our whole schedule by her waking up this early…. Do I reinstate the DF even though she is six months old???? Thanks, Leah

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