What is dream feeding?

Dream feeding has been defined as the practice of feeding a sleeping infant, with the aim of encouraging the baby to sleep longer.

Tracey Hogg, who first coined the term, defines dream feeding as feeding a young infant while he or she sleeps.

To accomplish this, you gently hold your sleeping baby in a feeding position, and try to stimulate the rooting reflex by stroking your baby's mouth and offering it breast or bottle. Many babies can feed this way without waking up (Hogg and Blau 2005).

Please note, that you still have to burp the baby and only after you can put them back to sleep.

What if the baby wakes up?

Just gently rock, pat or shush the baby back to sleep.

When should you dream feed?

Dream feeding usually works best between around 11 o’clock in the evening and midnight, or just before you go to sleep. This will aid in stretching your baby’s first sleep of the night, and it also gives you more time for a longer rest.

In my experience, this method works with at least 80% of the babies, so why not give it a try?