Karen and Lee Palmer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I often hear mothers talk about doing a "dream feed" and wondered what the
> heck they were talking about. I discovered it is very popular down under
> in New Zealand, but I don't know whether it is in other parts of the
> world.  It seems to be another populist theory amongst parenting websites
> and magazines, to get babies to sleep through the night.  Apparently, a
> mother feeds her baby last thing at night, then not again until morning,
> using settling techniques  until morning.  Sounds exhausting to me not to
> mention horrible for the baby.
> 
> Now, we all know this is counterproductive to breastfeeding but I would
> like to form a logical scientific answer to explain why this theory should
> not be promoted by health professionals

Is the problem as you see it the dream feed or the refusal to
night-parent thereafter?

I often did a dream-feed and nappy change just before retiring if it had
been a while since a feed, simply so that I would not be wakened within
5-20 minutes of me first falling asleep - something that I found was
absolutely terrible for my sleep quality and mental health. I did not,
however, refuse to night parent from then on. It just raised my chances
of getting that one first sleep cycle in before the next interruption
(my son fed frequently around the clock for many months, not uncommonly
every 90-120 minutes). It worked well, and my son had no problems with
it. It was quite the opposite of "exhausting", and there was certainly
nothing horrible about it for him. Nothing to do with anything
"populist"; we figured this out for ourselves.

The people I know who have tried a dreamfeed technique haven't done so
with the intention of ignoring their baby till morning regardless of
their needs. It seems to me theses are two quite different things.

Lara Hopkins

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