By definition, dream feeding is breastfeeding or bottle feeding a baby during the evening without fully waking them to encourage them to sleep for longer. It's a term that was originally coined by nurse and author Tracy Hogg and is popular among many parents as it means longer stretches of sleep for everyone involved.
4 months may be the most popular age to begin dream feeding. Between 4 and 6 months, babies will often experience another growth spurt and naturally show signs of needing an extra night feeding (even if they previously dropped an overnight feed). If this sounds like your baby, sleep feeding may be the answer!
Many parents ask: Do you burp a baby after a dream feed? and the answer is always yes. You want to burp a baby after a dream feed—or any feed—before putting them back down on their back.
A dream feed is beneficial for helping parents and caregivers get a longer stretch of unbroken sleep by lining up the baby's sleep with the parents. A dream feed does not make your baby sleep for a longer period of time, however it will move the longest stretch of sleep.
A dream feed involves feeding your baby when they're still sleeping. Typically, dream feeds are done around 10 or 11 p.m., before you've gone to bed for the night. The idea is that a baby will sleep longer through the night and, ideally, until morning on a full stomach.
Dream feeding might wake up your baby more and lead to trouble falling back to sleep, or result in more night wakings because you disrupted that first very restorative period of sleep. Dream feeding may also backfire in the long run because baby will get used to having an extra feed overnight.
For bottle fed babies though, it is important to do the dream feed like you would a normal feed - so pick them up and feed them in your arms rather than feeding them the bottle while they are lying flat in their bed.
Disadvantages of a Dream Feed
Sometimes a dream feed may not work out as you expected. You may wake up your baby. At times, you may end up waking up your baby when you're trying to feed them. According to research, infants up to six months old spend as much as 50% of their time in REM sleep.
The “feed-them-while-they-sleep” version of dream feeding might be a bad fit for babies prone to reflux. It's better for them to assume an upright position after feeding. If babies are allowed to fall asleep during a dream feed, this might contribute to delays in the development of self-settling.
Risks of Offering a Dream Feed
The baby won't feed because they aren't hungry enough. The baby is so sleepy that they don't coordinate their suck and swallow responses. Wasted formula or EBM if the baby is bottle feeding – neither can be reheated or kept. The baby wakes up.
Typically, by 9 months old, babies can sleep through the night on their own, and you should be able to stop dream feeding. If your baby starts waking earlier as you start the dream feed earlier, go back to doing the dream feed at the time you were previously and try again in a couple weeks.
By 6/7 months, your baby likely is ready to drop the night feeds completely. However, keep in mind that many babies still need a early morning feed (between 3-5am) until 12 months!
No need to burp baby after a dream feed- unless you want to! Also no need to do a diaper change unless it's dirty. If you do want to include a change, try and keep lighting low, and do it BEFORE the feeding so that baby can fall back to sleep at the breast/bottle.
Crucially, the main thing to note about a dream feed is the fact it is given to the baby via a bottle (with either formula milk or expressed breast milk), instead of via a breastfeed, because at the breast they will have a tendency to fall asleep more quickly (as it's so warm and cosy for them!)
KEEP THEM COZY
If your baby is swaddled, keep them swaddled throughout their night feeds. Or if your baby is older, keep them in their sleeping bag. If you need to do a diaper change before or during their feed, re-swaddle them again or put them back in their sleeping bag as soon as they are changed.
Just gently get your baby out of bed at around 10pm, feed from both sides or give a full bottle. Don't worry about burping or a nappy change.
What happens if a sleeping baby doesn't burp? If you're concerned about what happens if your baby won't burp after feeding, try not to worry. He'll likely be just fine and will end up passing the gas from the other end.
Three potential risks of the dream feed:
After disrupting the initial stretch of sleep, your little one's sleep may become more fragmented which means they will wake more frequently during the second half of the night. By waking your little one to feed, you may set a new rhythm for their body.
How much do you feed during a dream feeding? There is no right or wrong answer to this one; you can do a small “snack” feeding of 2-3oz, you could do their normal 4-6oz, you could feed on one side if breastfeeding, or feed on both sides! Some babies will only drink a tiny amount, some will take in the full feeding.
Since the abdominal muscles are relaxed, it's common for babies with a lot of reflux to tolerate a dream feed without spitting up. And even possibly negate the need to be burped, or held upright afterwards.
By 2 months, baby's last nap should be ending by 6:30pm. Bedtime should be around 6:30-8:30pm and should occur about 1-2 hours after the last nap ends.
First Weeks and Months
On average, most exclusively breastfed babies will feed about every 2 to 4 hours. Some babies may feed as often as every hour at times, often called cluster feeding. Or may have a longer sleep interval of 4 to 5 hours.