Whitney passed along this mama tip to me and now I’m telling you; if your baby is starting to skip that 10pm feeding and you want to stretch those sleeping hours to ones that are more convenient, try the dream feed. She says it didn’t work for them, but we used the dream feed technique for several months.
Pssst, the Baby Whisperer also recommends it if her word is worth more to you.
Now, it takes a very steady hand and I never tried it myself because I had the lucky job of pumping during feeding time (consequently, Alec is the pro in our house) but here’s the deal:
- Warm the bottle
- Feed the baby while he sleeps — you don’t even have to rouse him from the crib
- Now, you go to bed and enjoy the extra ZZZZ’s
Basically, the sucking reflex is so strong that Holden could down a 4 oz bottle (and later almost 6 oz!) while still sleeping. I think Alec played video games on his phone with his free hand.
I hear that some people are able to do a full-on nursing session without waking the baby this way.
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it IS possible to take your baby out of the crib and nurse them while they sleep. i was hestitant to try it at first. after spending all my energy trying to get my son to sleep, why risk it? but i figured if he did wake up, we’d rock him back to sleep as usual and he’d be up to eat at some point anyway….
i nurse my son laying down on my bed — it is easier to get up without disturbing him than from a chair. sometimes he opens an eye or two but is fast asleep by the time i put him back in his crib. and he usually burps on the way back to his room!
We 100% endorse the dream feed. We did it with formula, but still. It made the nights SO much easier when each of us was “on duty” as it were for only 1/2 the night. Its great. Totally great.
Is there not an issue with burping? When I read this, my first thought was that they’d wake up screaming with a gas bubble soon after… After reading some of the “testimonials” it seems that’s not a problem. Has anyone had any issues with gas?
My first son was a major spitter-upper — total reflux kid — but he didn’t have this problem with the dream feed. I suspect his little body was so relaxed during the entire process, but I don’t really know. I can just say what we did.
My second son was less of a puker. He used to cry out “WAH!” as soon as the bottle ran out each time but he remained asleep other than that noise.
Go figure.
hi, i didn’t even know this was an actual method when i did it. and i did it cause i wasn’t able to stay up and wait for her next feeding. so she’s been sleeping all night since 6weeks old.
hi, my son is 6 months old, and I still dream feed him. When do they stop doing it? I am afraid to hear him scream in the middle of the night if I stop giving him a bottle @ 10pm. Please share your experience.
Ann, I’m a night nanny that helps getting babies to sleep all night, I use the dream feed Method about 90% and it works, I would start the dream
feed @ 9:30 for the 1 st week then 9:00 for the second week and so on
8:30 and eventually that how we cut the dream feed and cosistency is the key
good luck
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