When to start a dream feed
10 Minute Masterclass: Dreamfeed
hey it's Rebecca Mickey here and welcome
to the ten minute master class in this
master class are gonna be talking all
about a dream feed and how it can help
you and your child to get a better
night's sleep so let's get started so
what actually is a dream feed a dream
feed is when you get your child up
whilst they're sleeping you feed them
you burp them and you lay them back down
now the idea is that because you are
feeding them earlier in the night
they're not then going to wait for a
feed and will be able to sleep for a
longer stretch most people are doing a
dream feed then before they go to bed so
let's just for example sake say that
your child goes down to sleep at 8
o'clock and then you go down to bed at
11 well if your child is then waking at
midnight that means that you've had an
hour's sleep before you've been woken so
let's see if we can actually introduce a
dream feed here to help your child to
get a longer stretch asleep and then in
turn means that you are getting a longer
stretch of sleep before you're needed to
go in and help your child again just
before you're gonna go down to bed you
want to go into your child and you want
to pick them up and feed them and get as
much for feed into them as you possibly
can now make sure that you burp them
this is not a step that we want to skip
because we don't want them then waking
uncomfortable
shortly after then chances are they're
going to be still asleep and you're
gonna lay them down and then hopefully
they should then be getting another long
stretch of sleep which means then that
you are gonna be able to go to bed and
you are going to be able to get that
long stretch to sleep as well before
you're awoken again I think the perfect
time to introduce this is at around 3
months of age you can try before then
but often times it doesn't work but
around 3 months is a really really good
time to do this and as when we are
working with anything sleep related it
doesn't just mean that it's going to
work from night one and so what I would
do is give it at least three nights to
decide whether it's going to work for
your child or not if you're nursing you
can most certainly try nursing your
child at this time but remember that
often times a child who's nursing is
just gonna fall asleep really really
quickly it uses a lot of muscles
sometimes people will have an easier
time expressing some milk and another
time of the day and then giving this
dream feed with a bottle this is
something that's nice to do then with
your partner is that you can take it in
turns then to do this dream feed and it
means that one of you can go to bed
really really early and then the other
can stay up and do that dream feed and
so when it is potentially you're going
to bed early and you mean be able to get
a really long stretch then before you're
woken up for that next feed so it may be
worth doing then if you are able to have
your partner give a bottle at that time
a lot of times children who don't
actually take a bottle at any point
during the day do really well with a
bottle at this dream feed because we are
getting them up and they are still
asleep and so they may still just take
that bottle even if they will not
entertain a bottle in any way during the
day they may certainly do for a dream
feed so as I mentioned earlier you can
introduce a dream feed at about three
months old but it doesn't mean you have
to it may be that it doesn't actually
work for your child at that point a lot
of this does depend on how many feeds
they get in during the day whether
they're just ready for this we're
looking at their temperament we're
looking at so many other things whether
you're going back to work or not we're
looking at a lot of things that means
that three months may not be quite ready
for your child so just if you try this
and it doesn't work for your child at
three months don't worry
you could try again in a month or two
months even and see if it works for your
child then don't just give up completely
on the idea because it didn't work once
we want to try for at least three
consecutive nights before deciding
whether it's working for your family and
if it's not give it a week to or months
and then try again how do we get rid of
that dream feed well there's a good
times at around eight months of age or
after that you may want to consider
getting rid of the dream feed and I said
that you do so really really slowly
because if your child is used to getting
a fairly big feed then at that point and
you just cut that out their tummy is
going to be hungry and that is going to
wake them because their stomach is used
to getting that certain amount of milk
at that time the tummy is gonna get
ready to digest and that's when they're
gonna stop that their tummy is gonna
start rumbling and that is going to wake
them up so what I suggest you do if you
wanted to work on reducing down the
dream feed we the nursing or with the
bottle is to gradually reduce the amount
that they get so this is really easy to
do with the bottle you can see how many
ounces they have and work on gradually
reducing it down making changes every
three or four nights works really really
well so you may reduce down by half an
ounce or an ounce and what you're doing
is you're helping your child's stomach
to adjust the amount that they're
getting the amount that they're
expecting you also want to do a similar
sort of thing if you are nursing you can
reduce down the amount of minutes that
you are nursing so if you're nursing for
10 minutes initially you may nurse for
nine and then you can gradually work on
reducing it down now remember some
children will needs to feed during the
night until they're around 12 months of
age that's completely biologically
normal and some children will most
certainly go beyond twelve months of age
again that's completely normal for that
to be the case don't worry your child
will make up for this milk if they need
it if they are needing this hopefully
they will begin to make up for what
you're reducing down at night during the
day but if they know that if they don't
then they will continue to wake and they
may just you may want to start up that
dream feed again for a little while and
then work on gradually reducing it down
after you've settled into that so let's
just say your child obviously needs to
have that feed at that time they're
still waking you may fall back asleep
after you've helped them but if they
wake again really quickly then
definitely hunger is an issue and so I
would just feed them if your child is
hungry feed them they're hungry and so
they want something to eat
and so help them with that then
everybody is back to sleep so much
quicker
and then just giving them those feeds
for however long you're comfortable
doing when you then think that they're
ready to try reducing it down again then
try reducing it down you will probably
naturally increase the amount that
you're offering during the day if not
that may be something that you want to
be a little bit more aware of to make
sure they're not missing out on any of
that milk make sure that you click the
link below and you will be able to get
the download instantly get that download
which gives you all the information
about the dream feed and reducing that
down and I will see you in the next ten
minute master class
