Some babies sleep through the night from an early age. But, some babies will eat in the middle of the night until 9 months old or longer. Some parents swear by a “dream feed” to help their babies sleep longer while others don’t like it. But, what is a dream feed and at what age should you try it?
What Is a Dream Feed?
A dream feed is a feeding you give your baby while he or she is asleep before you go to bed yourself so they won’t wake up in the middle of the night.
Some moms breastfeed before they go to bed and others (or their partners) give their baby a bottle, sometimes without even picking up the baby.
The theory is that you will get a longer stretch of sleep, yourself. After all, if your baby can go 5 hours without eating, but goes to bed around 7 PM, that means you will need to feed the baby around 12 AM. That means your sleep is disrupted since you’ve possibly gone to bed at 10 PM.
That’s only two hours of sleep!
If you give a feeding to your baby around 10 PM, then it’s possible your baby won’t wake again until 3 AM giving you both a 5-hour stretch of sleep!
The questions are: Is it a good idea? Will it work? And, should you do it? For some people, a dream feed will be a Godsend. Not for others. Let’s explore further!
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At What Age Can You Dream Feed?
Most parents will start using a dream feed any time between 6-8 weeks old and 4 months old, once your baby no longer needs to eat every 3 hours at night. However, it’s not too late to try a dream feed even at 6 months old since many babies will increase their caloric needs around this time.
Most parents will continue to offer a dream feed until they are confident their baby can go all night without eating AND sleep a total of 11-12 hours without eating. Therefore, there’s no reason you couldn’t try it at 8 months old if night weaning isn’t working.
Keep in mind that if you stop the dream feed before your baby is ready, he or she may start to wake up too early for the day.
In my 10+ years of experience, most formula-fed or bottle-feeding babies can stop around 6-8 months old, and most breastfed babies can stop around 9-12 months old.
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How To Dream Feed
To give your baby a dream feed, you simply feed your baby while he or she is still sleeping.
For example, your 5-month old baby goes to sleep around 7 p.m., you feed them around 10 p.m. before you go to bed, and your baby might sleep until 4 or 6 a.m. or later. This gives you a glorious 6 to 8 hours of sleep! If you go to bed early and have your partner/spouse give the dream feed and you can get even more sleep!
If your baby wakes up during the feeding, soothe them back to sleep as you would at bedtime. It may take a few nights for your baby to get used to it.
When it works, a dream feed is completely safe and a wonderful thing!
Sample Dream Feeding Scenario
Here’s an example of how a good scenario might look:
- Baby goes to sleep around 7 p.m. after your regular bedtime routine.
- You dream feed around 10 p.m. before you go to bed.
- Baby sleeps until 4 or 6 a.m. or later, giving you a glorious 6 to 8 hours of sleep straight. When your baby is older, they might even sleep through the night.
What Time Do You Dream Feed?
What time you do a dream feed will depend on your baby’s schedule as well as your own.
Usually, the dream feed is between 10 and 11:30 p.m., at least 3 hours from the bedtime feeding or longer. This is based on the assumption your baby is going to sleep between 6 and 8 p.m. and you plan to go to bed between 10 and 11:30 p.m.
As you can imagine, if your baby goes to bed around 8 p.m. and you go to bed around 9 p.m., you will not likely be able to do an early night feeding.
However, some parents will do a dream feed between 4 and 6 a.m. if they are trying to stop their baby from waking up too early. For example, your baby might be able to sleep through the night until 5 a.m. but then wakes up for the day. Way too early! You might set an alarm to feed the baby at 3 or 4 a.m. such that your baby sleeps through 6 or 7 a.m.
Full or Partial Feeding? How Many Ounces?
Should you offer a full or partial feeding as your dream feed?
A partial feeding might be just fine if your baby is only missing a few ounces of milk during the daytime. Perhaps they don’t need a big feeding and will sleep through the night afterward. In that scenario, it’s just fine to give your baby a partial feeding.
For a breastfed baby, that might mean a 5-minute feeding or just one breast. For a formula-fed baby, that might be a half-bottle which is usually around 3 ounces. If your baby needs less than this then it’s probably time to drop the dream feed (see below.)
However, in some cases, a partial feeding could mean the dream feed won’t work and your baby will wake later in the night or too early in the morning. In general, if your baby still needs a night feeding then you want your Dream Feed to be a full feeding.
A full feeding usually means a full 6-7-ounce formula bottle, a 4-5-ounce breastmilk bottle, or two breasts if breastfeeding. If your baby is younger and not yet taking larger feedings, then their feeding will be smaller. In other words, the Dream Feed should be the same size as a typical daytime feeding.
Do You Pick Up the Baby?
If you are breastfeeding, you will, of course, need to pick up the baby unless you are quite the acrobat!
If your baby is taking a bottle of breastmilk or formula, some babies will stay in their bed, finish a bottle, and continue sleeping. So, there is no need to pick them up, and it helps keep them asleep.
But, it’s not mandatory that you NOT pick up the baby. Most babies will be fine to be picked up. You should do whatever will keep the baby asleep and get the feeding done as fast as possible.
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Do You Burp the Baby?
Yes, you will still burp the baby as usual. Keep in mind that as babies get older, they don’t always need help burping so you may not actually get a burp out of them. But, spend the normal amount of time you would burp the baby at a regular feeding time.
Do Dream Feeds Work?
Sometimes, yes. Unfortunately, not always.
As I explained how babies sleep at 4 months old, the first part of the night is the deepest sleep of the night for all babies and children over 4 months (approximately). Therefore, it might be very difficult to rouse your baby enough to feed any time you want to.
Some babies will awaken just enough to eat and stay asleep, but others might not wake up enough, and others will wake up too much. This might make them cranky that you woke them up (especially if they aren’t hungry!).
Dream feeds also seem to have a bit of an “expiration” date – generally speaking, they are most helpful for babies under 6 months old who may still require multiple night feedings.
Another way they sometimes “don’t work” is when you feed your baby before turning in for the night and they STILL wakes up an hour or two later.
Some babies also tend to wake up even more frequently after the initial night feeding, so dream feeding does the opposite of what is intended.
Should You Dream Feed?
I don’t recommend dream feeds as a solution for ALL families, but they do work well for some babies. And, in the end, we need to find the “right” solution for each unique baby even within the same family.
Some people believe it goes against the idea of demand-feeding and is not respecting the baby to force a meal on him. If it feels “wrong” to you, then skip it. If you view it as helping your baby as much as it helps you, give it a try!
A baby’s tummy is small and as I always say, there are many adults who can’t go 11-12 hours without eating, so I am not sure why we expect our babies to.
If you decide not to try it, or it doesn’t work, I typically recommend night-weaning to the appropriate number of night feedings for a baby your age and according to your baby’s capabilities.
How to Drop a Dream Feed
When you feel your baby is ready to drop the dream feed which is usually between 6 and 10 months old, it’s usually easiest to gradually make the dream feed smaller over a period of days and then stop it altogether. For example, if you are bottle-feeding, you might reduce the Dream Feed by one ounce per night for 3-4 nights and then stop offering it. If you are breastfeeding, try unlatching one minute earlier every night for a few nights.
The idea behind this method is they will curb their hunger with a smaller feeding but not get full. Then, they will adjust and eat more during the day to the point they won’t need the Dream Feed at all.
I hope this article has helped you decide whether you want to try a dream feed. Good luck!
Christine says
Hi my baby slept ‘through the night’ from birth from 11.30 – 5.30 ish We used to keep him downstairs with him feeding on demand and cuddling etc i didn’t really notice how often he slept. Went to bed around 11 -12 fed and then he would sleep for 5-6hrs straight through. Then around 3 weeks he became colicky it was a nightmare from 6.30-10pm with him getting grumpy at 4.30. He is a lovely baby in the day. I decided to do a relaxing routine around his worst colic time, bath, massage feed etc and this cured the colic. Only problem is now he sleeps from 7.30ish – 1am and once he wakes he has a feed ( sometimes very frantic which can be upsetting) he then doesn’t settle well at all and wakes every 1 1/2 -2hrs. It’s a bit like his colic hs moved to the nighttime I can hear him struggling with wind 9 altough I spend much more time trying to wind him than he feeds). It’s like he’s having his deep sleep early and then light sleep when we want our deep sleep! I tried a ‘dream feed’ at 11pm ( as this is close to when he previosly got a feed) this didn’t make any difference. I am considering going back to keeping him with us in the evening rather than putting him to bed but I suspect he’ll just sleep (that had started to happen around 9pm previous to us starting the bath thing) and I’m afraid his colic will return. Shall I try to do his bath routine later so he gets his 5 hrs later? Or shall I try dream feeding again? Or shall I just get on with being woken every 2 hours. He is 5 1/2 weeks old and his sleeping at night is getting worse! He sleeps tonnes in the morning I don’t want to impose heavy routines on him in the day but I can’t believe he used to sleep through and now doesn’t! Evil child LOL Any advise? I’m getting so little sleep I am becoming physically wobbly in the day!
lisha says
Hi,
I did dream feed with my eldest who is now 4 yrs and she used to sleep through the night from when she was 4 months old. I gradually stopped it around 7 months when she had established solids. My second one who is now 5 months old, doesn’t drink much milk during the day or night. She seems to be in deep sleep for her dream feed at 10Pm and drinks little. . She now sleeps through the night. However when I tried to stop the dream feed, she would wake up at erratic times during the night hungry. So I guess for my kids they seem to help.
Nicole says
@Lisha Thank you for sharing your dream-feed story! All kids are truly different. 🙂
Jason says
Here’s one for the masses. My wife and I have a 13month old daughter who will only take a bottle when sleeping period. She will only pick at solids and will not take a bottle awake at all. Milk in a sippy no way put water in yes. A doctor told us only feed her when she’s awake.4 day’s 6oz a day and a fight to get that. has anyone heard of this.
Nicole says
@Jason I have heard other parents with this particular issue before. I don’t think it will be as simple as not feeding her except at daytime. That sounds like it will be a lot of tears at night!! I would try something more gradual, but would try to get her more on milk during the day (in a sippie). Good luck!
Claire says
I am doing dream feeding slightly differently and it seems to be working. My 6 week old daughter began to wake at 4 every morning and it was taking me 2 hours to get her back down.
Instead of making the last feed before bed a dream feed, i am getting up quickly as soon as i hear her stir at around 4am and giving her a dream feed. It means that instead of a 2 hour ordeal, its only taking me 25 minutes or so and i can get back to bed quickly.
Nicole says
@Claire Sounds like it’s working for you. That’s great! Good luck!
Meghan says
I was just recommended to dream sleep by a friend. I’m going to try it, my 3 month old wakes up every 2-3 hours during the night. I’m hoping dreamfeeding may elongate her sleep so that I can get some rest, I’ll let you know how it goes!
Nicole says
@Meghan Let us know how it goes! Good luck!
wasen says
Hi all
I tried the dream feed over a week and I had the same result as Emma above wrote!
Think it disrupted his sleep and now I’m stuck! How long will it take to get back to his past sleep cycle?
Nicole says
@wasen Some people do get stuck for quite awhile, but I think on average it takes about a week or two. Good luck!
Emma says
I tried the dream-feed, but it was a disaster. My daughter is 4 months old. She was sleeping from 9pm to 5am (continuously, without waking up). Then she would have a feed at 5am and sleep again until 8:30 am. That was fine for us, but a friend of mine told me about the dream-feed so I decided to try it (it sounded so good).
I followed the recomendation: put the baby to bed at 7pm, give the dream-feed at 11pm, and feed again at 7am. Well, my daughter started sleeping worse! I would give her the dream-feed at 11pm, and at 3am she would wake up… I would make her sleep again using a dummy, but at 4am she would wake up again…. And the same at 5am and 6am… This happened for several days, until I gave up and went back to our old routine. Now she is sleeping well, without interruptions. My impression is that the dream-feed was actually disrupting her sleep cycle. This is why she was waking up so many times during the night.
Anyway, it didn’t work for her. I think the dream-feed doesn’t work for all babies. It might be a difference in sleep cycles.
Nicole says
@Emma Having my second child, I think it’s also the baby’s ability to slip back into sleep mode and how they sleep. My 2nd son can be playing super happy and hard and then sleep soundly 5 minutes later. My first needs 30+ minutes of down time before he can really slip into sleep mode, so disruptions for him are just that much “bigger”. I agree with you that the dream feed works great for some and not others just because of their uniqueness. Thanks for commenting!
Gina says
I am a huge advocate of the dream-feed! I didn’t even know that it didn’t work for some babies! I tell everyone about the dream-feed hoping they too can have their babies sleeping completely through the night by 4 months.
In my case I had to dream-feed both my boys because they go to bed at 5pm and do not wake up until 7am. My oldest one slept from 5-7 from 4 months to 16 months. For being so little I needed to feed them some how. After 12 months I stopped the dream-feed and my oldest still slept that long, my little one is still 9 months…
Nicole says
@Gina Thanks for sharing your story. I have heard many times how it’s a God-send for many families. I’m glad it worked for you!
Aruni says
I am certainly guilty of dream feeding…mostly our son because he seemed to wake up more often. I would occasionally due it with my daughter. However, often when I was breastfeeding both of my babies would fall asleep half way through. 🙂
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Wendy says
Hi Nicole,
The dream feed seemed to work with my first child, but my second child who is now 11 weeks old wakes up all the time regardless if we fed him at 10. Now he is actually waking himself up before 10 and he seems hungry so we feed him. I guess it might work for some babies, but now for my 11 week old, he wakes almost every hour sometimes or every 2-3 hours at night. We have stopped the dream feed for the last week now.
Nicole says
@Wendy Just goes to show all babies are indeed different! Thanks for sharing.
@Aruni No need to feed “guilty”. 😀 If it works, it works!