I always thought that dream feeds was a feeding that occurs while the  
baby is sleeping.  Some mothers I know do this in hopes that baby will  
sleep longer at night.  The baby is picked up and nursed before mom  
goes to sleep or if the baby is waking at a set time in the wee hours  
mom will feed baby a little earlier than the waking time in hopes that  
baby will sleep through it .  The idea is that the dream feed can be  
shortened and shortened and then eventually eliminated and baby will  
sleep through the night.  Dream feeds can be by breast or bottle and  
are promoted by some of "those sleep books."

I have tried a dream feed before I go to bed but it has never helped  
my baby sleep longer.  She never does a great feed when I do this but  
it is a really nice snuggly thing to do, to nurse baby in her sleep  
and never have her wake up.  I never felt that purposely waking up to  
feed my child before she wakes up would be beneficial.

Of course prolactin levels are higher at night and not nursing at  
night when your baby wants to nurse will affect milk supply.  Sorry,  
no references for you.  In the later BFing relationship, isn't supply  
driven by breast emptying, rather than prolactin?  Either way, if the  
breast isn't emptied, supply will decrease.

Cordelia Merritt RN BSN IBCLC

On Apr 24, 2009, at 4:51 PM, LACTNET automatic digest system wrote:

>
> Date:    Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:51:29 +1200
> From:    Karen and Lee Palmer <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: "dream feed" and prolactin levels
>
> 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. Local well child  
> nurses =
> have asked me for some evidence they can use to counteract this =
> practise. Can anyone lead me to some concise information around =
> prolactin levels during the 24 hour period and how night feeds =
> (expecially from 2 - 5 am) are important for continual milk  
> production?  =
> I know the Hartmann Institute have done some work on this but I was =
> wondering if anyone out there has already looked at this issue and  
> can =
> lead me in the right direction.=20
>
> Sometimes I feel I am continually battling "populist" theories,  
> where =
> somebody is making a lot of money promoting that theory.
>
> Karen Palmer
> IBCLC
> New Zealand


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