Dream feed formula fed baby

What is a dream feed—and how do I do it?

For some breastfeeding babies, a “dream feed” may be the answer to getting them to sleep through the night. Here’s how it works.

If it’s your dream to have your baby sleep through the night, a “dream feed” may be one way to make that happen. 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.

How do dream feeds work?

If you want to give your baby a dream feed, put them down for bed at the time you normally would. Then, around 10 or 11 p.m., gently get your baby out of their crib and put them at your breast or give them a bottle, all without waking them up. “The great thing about babies is that they have a natural instinct to suck if they’re at a nipple,” says Jason Freedman, co-author of the book The Dream Feed Method.

When you pick up your sleeping baby for the feed, the key is to minimize stimulation—don’t turn on the lights, sing or change their diaper unless there’s poop in it. When the feed is done, gently place your baby back in bed and slip out of the room.

“It can work beautifully for some kids,” says Alanna McGinn, a sleep consultant and founder of Good Night Sleep Site, “but for some babies, it won’t work.” While some babies will take that full tummy and sleep until morning, others will wake up fully at a dream feed and have difficulty getting back to sleep. For others, the feed might go well, but they will still wake up throughout the night, so it doesn’t accomplish its purpose. Your baby may also start waking up frequently at 3 or 4 a.m.—another sign that dream feeds aren’t working, says McGinn. “Because we’ve disturbed the sleep pattern, they might have trouble getting back into a regular rhythm,” she explains.

Dream feeds also won’t work for all parents—you may prefer to go to bed at 8 or 9 p. m. and sleep through until your baby’s first natural wake-up. That’s OK, too, says McGinn. But if you want to try a dream feed, you could have dad (or a non-breastfeeding parent) give the dream feed with a bottle of pumped breastmilk or formula and allow mom to continue to sleep through until the next waking. “It’s a great way to split up the feeds between parents,” says McGinn.

When can you start dream feeds?

Dream feeds can start at any age and go on for as long as you’re willing and as long they’re working. But when McGinn is working with clients to improve their baby’s sleep, she typically suggests weaning them off dream feeds by about eight months, as most babies should be able to sleep through the night without feeding at that age. Their bellies will typically be large enough that they can drink enough milk before bed and it will carry them through the night. Still, check with your baby’s doctor to make sure that they are otherwise healthy and don’t need a night-time feed for nutritional reasons. If your baby is less than eight months old and you’re embarking on a sleep training plan, a dream feed can be a helpful tool, particularly if you’re worried about your baby getting enough calories in the night.

How do dream feeds work on newborns?

Although dream feeding most often refers to one late-night feed to get your baby through until morning, in The Dream Feed Method, co-authors Freedman and Stacy Karol say that incorporating dream feeds all night long can be an effective way to encourage very young babies—less than four months old—to sleep through the night. By pre-emptively getting up and feeding your newborn at, say, 1 and 4 a.m., Freedman says you can reduce the amount your baby cries. If you follow a schedule, as outlined in the book, where you gradually move up the timing of the feeds, you can have your baby sleeping through the night by four months. While Freedman says that this method won’t work for all babies, he and his wife used the dream feed method for their three children with great success. With Freedman taking on the night-time feeds, his wife was able to sleep from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Now that’s dreamy.

Stay in touch

Subscribe to Today's Parent's daily newsletter for our best parenting news, tips, essays and recipes.

Email*
CAPTCHA
Consent*
Yes, I would like to receive Today's Parent's newsletter. I understand I can unsubscribe at any time.**

FILED UNDER: baby sleep Bottle-feeding Breastfeeding Newborn care Newborn sleep service seo

What Is Dream Feeding? And How Do I Dream Feed? – Happiest Baby

By Dr. Harvey Karp, MD, FAAP

Newborn babies eat a lot. Breastfed infants eat about every two to three hours and formula-fed babies hit the bottle every three to four hours…and that doesn’t stop when bedtime calls. In fact, bottle-fed babies often continue night feedings until they’re around 6 months old, whereas breastfed babies may continue up to a year. But that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing you can do to tame night-waking. If your little one wakes up hungry each night, it’s smart to increase daytime milk (research shows that infants who received more milk or solid feeds during the day are less likely to feed at night) and boost their evening calories by way of a dream feed. Think of a dream feed as topping off your car’s gas tank...so there's no need to refuel during the journey ahead. Offering your baby a dream feed will eliminate—or at least delay—one of the top reasons babies wake through the night: a rumbling tummy.

What is dream feeding?

Dream feeding is when you rouse your baby—without fully waking them up—to feed them one more time before you turn in for the night. Babies who go to sleep between 6pm and 8pm often wake out of hunger in the middle of the night. But research has shown that sneaking in an extra feed between 10pm and midnight can reduce night wakings, helping babies stay asleep until a more “reasonable” time of the morning. This can become part of your little one’s regular sleep schedule.

How do I dream feed?

The goal of a dream feed is to offer your little one more meal before you hit the hay, so that you and your baby’s schedule sync better…and you both sleep better. Ready to try it? Follow these steps:

Step 1: Gently take your baby out of the bassinet or crib between 10pm and 12am, or whenever when you go to bed. Keep the room dim and quiet, except for white noise. Doing this during Baby’s more active REM sleep is ideal. During REM sleep your baby may flutter their eyelids, make little squeaks and squawks, or move around more than usual.
Step 2: Keep your baby swaddled. There’s no need to unswaddle—or change your baby’s diaper—if they’ll take the feed that way and their diaper isn’t soiled. (If your baby is super sleepy, you may need to rouse them a bit by gently tickling their toes.)
Step 3: Touch Baby’s cheek with your breast or bottle. Placing your breast or bottle on your baby's cheek or lower lip will wake up their rooting reflex and get your baby to start eating.
Step 4: Offer a brief feed. Encourage nursing for 5 to 10 minutes on each side. For bottle-fed babies, try for about 3 ounces.
Step 5: Burp your baby. 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.

How to get a baby back to sleep after a dream feed:

Oftentimes, a baby who has just enjoyed a dream feed can be returned to their bassinet with nary a wakeup. But if your little one has woken up during or after a dream feed, you can get them back down with the help of the 5 S’s: Swaddling, Side/Stomach, Shushing, Swinging, Sucking.

First, if you haven’t already, swaddle your baby and put on some rumbly white noise. I recommend playing white noise all night, but you can turn up the volume as you’re putting your baby back down. The most effective white noise for sleep is continuous, monotonous, and at a low-pitch, like my SNOO sounds download or SNOObear, Happiest Baby’s white noise lovey.

At the same time, gentle rhythmic motion can help lull babies to sleep. In fact, a 2019 study in the journal PLOS ONE found that the magical mix of swaddling, white noise, and rocking “evokes an immediate calming response” when caregivers soothe their infants and when they use SNOO, my responsive bassinet. SNOO uses womb-like white noise and motion (and a built-in swaddle!) to quickly settle babies back to sleep after a feed…usually adding sleep for the whole family.

Other time-tested tricks to help a baby sleep after a dream feed include rocking in a rocking chair, walking with your baby in your arms, bouncing on an exercise ball, and offering a pacifier, which fulfills the Sucking portion of the 5 S’s. As an added bonus, research suggests a bedtime paci helps lower the risk of sudden infant sleep death, or SIDS.

As you put your little one back into their bassinet, do my quick wake-and-sleep trick, which teaches your baby to fall asleep on their own. Here’s the gist: Right after you put your baby down, gently rouse them with a gentle tickle on their feet until they barely open their eyes. After a few seconds, they’ll close their eyes again and slide back to sleep. If your little one fusses, pick them up for a feed or a cuddle, then repeat the gentle-tickle-to-wake routine.

Set your baby up for dream feed success:

As I mentioned earlier, the one-two punch of adding daytime calories and dream feeds can really work wonders to help babies sleep longer. Try offering cluster feeds from about 4pm till bedtime. Cluster feeds are a series of quick milky meals given to Baby every one to two hours. They’re meant to load your little one’s system with calories to keep them well stocked with nutrition through the night. At the same time, put your little one down for night-night safely swaddled with your trusted white noise on. Consider this another “dream team” to help Baby sleep better!

Why dream feeds are great for your infant:

A wonderful thing about dream feeding is that doesn’t interfere with your little one’s need to feed at night. Instead, dream feeding simply shifts your baby’s feeding schedule just a bit so that it’s more conducive to your sleep schedule, too. Plus, dream feeding means that…

Your baby will get the extra calories they need to sleep better.
Your baby is eating a meal at a convenient time, so you can sleep longer, too.
You’re not responding to your baby’s crying with food, which is important because reacting to cries with a feed can inadvertently encourage your baby to eat more at night.
Your baby will eat less during the night and therefore be hungrier in the morning, which will boost daytime eating.

Should I wake my baby for a second dream feed?

If your baby frequently wakes around 3:30am despite having an earlier dream feed and using strong, rumbly white noise, consider setting your alarm and giving one more dream feed at 3am. Again, it’s best to keep the lights dim and to not talk or cuddle too much at this hour. You want to be loving when you feed your baby, but you don’t want your little one to think that it’s time to play! The idea is to pick up and feed your little one before they wake you, so you’re giving your baby the nourishment they need, but not rewarding them for waking and crying.

If you must do this early-morning dream feed, every three days, reduce the 3am feed a bit more by giving a little less milk than usual. If you’re nursing, just feed on one side for the second dream feed. If you’re bottle-feeding, you can try doubling the amount of water the formula directions suggest—for just ONE feeding and ONLY for a couple days. This is very important: It’s dangerous to dilute baby formula for meals. It can cause serious health problems. Diluting for this ONE wee-hour feed for a brief period of time is different. The purpose of the extra water is to fill your baby’s stomach with enough ounces, but fewer calories. This can help babies sleep through to morning…when they will be hungry and ready to eat their full bottle again. Again, this is a temporary fix only to be used for the 3am dream feed—and only for a couple of nights.

When should I stop dream feeding?

All babies are different, so there is no specific age recommendation for stopping a dream feed. My general rule is that you can bid adieu to the dream feed 2 to 4 weeks after your baby is sleeping well from the time of your dream feed on through to the morning. (Learn when your baby might start sleeping through the night.) Of course, if the dream feed isn’t working for you, there’s no need to continue!

Final Thoughts on the Dream Feed and Other Sleep Tips

Offering a dream feed to your snoozing baby before you declare “lights out” may give you a chance to catch more precious ZZZs, which, of course, is fantastic! Giving a dream feed can also help train your sweet pea to stay asleep for longer stretches…and that skill can carry over to better night sleeps down the road, too. Beyond dream feeding, if your newborn baby is having difficulty sleeping, you may need a little extra help lulling them to dreamland. This is where I hope SNOO can help exhausted families by automatically soothing fussing with gentle rocking and white noise. You can learn more about SNOO and find other great sleep resources below:

SNOO Success Stories
All About Your Baby’s Wake Windows
What to Do When Your Baby Won't Sleep in a Bassinet
How to Turn On Baby’s “On Switch” for Sleep
Sleep Regression 101

About Dr. Harvey Karp

Dr. Harvey Karp, one of America’s most trusted pediatricians, is the founder of Happiest Baby and the inventor of the groundbreaking SNOO Smart Sleeper. After years of treating patients in Los Angeles, Dr. Karp vaulted to global prominence with the release of the bestselling Happiest Baby on the Block and Happiest Toddler on the Block. His celebrated books and videos have since become standard pediatric practice, translated into more than 20 languages and have helped millions of parents. Dr. Karp’s landmark methods, including the 5 S’s for soothing babies, guide parents to understand and nurture their children and relieve stressful issues, like new-parent exhaustion, infant crying, and toddler tantrums.

View more posts tagged, feeding

Have questions about a Happiest Baby product? Our consultants would be happy to help! Connect with us at [email protected].

Disclaimer: The information on our site is NOT medical advice for any specific person or condition. It is only meant as general information. If you have any medical questions and concerns about your child or yourself, please contact your health provider.

is it possible to refuse breastfeeding

These are comments from readers from the Community. Collected into one material, carefully edited and formatted according to editorial standards.

Julia Konyakhina

studied the opinion of readers

Author profile

According to WHO, only 40% of children under six months of age are exclusively breastfed. The rest are on artificial or mixed feeding.

We asked readers to tell us which way of feeding they have chosen for their children and why. A discussion unfolded in the comments: there were arguments both in defense of artificial mixtures and in favor of breastfeeding. We carefully studied the opinions of readers and chose arguments for switching to mixtures and against. nine0003

👍 For: mixtures help out when mom is not around

Evgeny Kulakov
experienced father

In October 2020, when the youngest child was six months old, the wife contracted the coronavirus and was admitted to the hospital for 10 days. And the mixture saved me, if not my life, then my nervous system for sure. Although the baby was already given complementary foods, he was not yet weaned from the breast. I had to urgently order a mixture, or rather a lot of a mixture. So he got off his chest.

The eldest himself refused breast milk at six months. The doctor recommended that we switch to a mixture to avoid a lack of vitamins. nine0003

/papa-mozhet/

How can a man go on maternity leave

As for the pros and cons of formulas for children, no difference was noticed with breast milk. And the family benefited from not breastfeeding. Despite the restrictions during the pandemic, we became more mobile with the younger one: we were able to travel long distances and walk longer in nature.

👎 Against: breast milk is healthier for the baby

Zhenya
nursed two

She breastfed two daughters, although both times were not easy. The older one could not be properly attached to the chest. It was very painful, the milk stagnated in the ducts, the child did not gain weight well. She called breastfeeding specialists to the house: they helped, showed me how to feed properly. She fed her daughter for up to a year and seven months, then she quite easily refused to breastfeed.

I don't regret choosing to breastfeed. My daughter was a little sick, now she also easily tolerates SARS. Initially, she was anxious, and breastfeeding helped her calm down and fall asleep. nine0003

There was a lot of milk from the youngest, and I again suffered from severe lactostasis. Again she called a specialist: they strained her chest, albeit through tears. But then everything was perfect, fed up to a year and a half. There was a moment when the child tried to refuse the breast, but we managed to overcome it.

It seems inconvenient to me to feed with mixtures: you need to fiddle with jars, sterilize them, and heat them up. You may be allergic to the mixture. Breastfeeding is much easier: I put on a special apron and fed anywhere. I believe that mixtures are an extreme measure that can be taken only out of hopelessness. nine0003

Verunchik Gavrikova
passed the GV course

Initially, she was determined to breastfeed her baby. I read a lot, watched videos on YouTube about the best position to feed, how to properly attach the baby to the breast, what to do in case of lactostasis, mastitis, how to decant in an emergency with your hands. My friends gave me breast pumps, I bought absorbent breast pads.

I chose the GV-friendly maternity hospital, where after giving birth a consultant came to me and showed me how to apply the baby. I also took a special training course: it was not only about feeding, but also about the features of caring for children. nine0003

I can’t say that I am a fan of breastfeeding, but I think that this is the best option for a child. Nature has provided that the composition of milk varies depending on the age and needs of the baby. Through milk, he receives antibodies. That is, if a mother gets sick with SARS, the child will be protected. After all, it's free, it's the bond between mother and child. At night, mom can sleep while the baby eats while sleeping together. As a result, everyone gets enough sleep.

/spi-moya-radost/

How to solve baby sleep problems

Evgewa
breastfed for 2 years

There was not even a choice how to feed. She knew that there would be only breastfeeding, despite the fact that the child was born prematurely and spent a total of a month on nursing, of which one week was in intensive care.

The neonatologist said that at least a drop, but you need to give breast milk to the child. For several weeks, until it was impossible to go to the ward with him, I pumped every three hours and carried the milk. She did not feed only during the resuscitation period, where the child got two weeks after birth. nine0003

After discharge, already at home, feeding was established, which lasted up to two years without a single problem. I remember this time as the happiest.

👍 For: when there is not enough milk, with a formula the child is more satisfying, and the mother is calmer

Lera Kotova
for the child to be full

In my family, all the women had little milk. Therefore, I prepared for the fact that I would have the same. She breastfed the eldest for up to five months, squeezing some miserable drops out of herself, and at the same time supplemented her with formula. I fed the younger one for a month and a half, but then I got tired of lying for hours with a breast in my mouth and no visible effect, so I switched him to a mixture in a week, and everyone felt good and satisfying. nine0003

Elena Goncharova
switched to the mixture and has no regrets

I fed my son formula. It didn't work out for me with breastfeeding. I don’t know how it really is, but it felt like there wasn’t enough milk in the first week. I drank and lactation pills, and tea with milk, and ate often, but my chest quickly became empty, my son hung on it for an hour and a half and, as it seemed to me, did not eat enough.

I expressed some crumbs, got nervous, cried that I couldn't feed my son. It still hurt. Although it seemed like she tried to apply, as they taught in the maternity hospital. In the end, looking at my suffering, my sister said a very correct phrase: “Your task is to feed the child. And what is a secondary question. So we switched to a mixture. I don't regret. nine0003

We fed our son together with her husband: sometimes he, sometimes me. Walked longer, slept better. Until almost two years old, the child did not get sick with anything, constipation, and did not suffer from allergies. The only negative was only the price of the mixture. It turned out that a good one is not cheap.

/baby-cost-calc/

Calculator: How much will you spend per child in the first year

Perhaps with the second child I will immediately begin to feed the mixture, or maybe I will try breastfeeding again. But this will be my personal decision, I will not listen to anyone else on this issue. nine0003

👎 Against: contact with a child is priceless

Olga Rulich
had no problems with breastfeeding

It turned out to be difficult for me to wean the children from the breast. With the first child, this happened at two years and two months, with the second - at one year and eight months.

The process of establishing feeding and feeding itself was problem-free. I did not take medicines, there were no force majeure. Contact with the baby during feeding is invaluable.

👍 Pros: formula feeding is more convenient

Polina Kalmykova
weighed all the pros and cons and chose the mixture

Both children spent the first weeks after birth in the hospital. In order not to lose breastfeeding, I had to work hard: first, around the clock every three hours, go to the intensive care unit and express into the syringe, then sit in the hospital in the breast pumping room with ten more of the same mothers and prepare food. All this was bleak: they don’t even give a child in their arms, after giving birth emotions rage, and here you are sitting - either you cry, or a neighbor. nine0003

After the hospital, my son did not want to breastfeed, she still suffered with breastplates: I remember, to be honest, all this with a shudder. As a result, I breastfed him for up to a year, and my daughter refused at four months: I was forced to switch to treatment that was incompatible with breastfeeding, and after a bottle, my daughter stopped breastfeeding. Probably, it was possible to find a consultant, try to fix something, but I had no particular desire.

A month before, a gastroenterologist from a polyclinic put me on the most rigid diet literally without anything, because my daughter had reflux. I decided it would be best for everyone to switch to a special blend. Later, however, it turned out that reflux absolutely fit into the physiological norm and there was no need to torment me like that. nine0003

Community 06/22/21

How to eat properly while breastfeeding?

Now my daughter is already a year old and I can compare breastfeeding and formula. Brief conclusion: the mixture is much more convenient. My daughter very quickly switched to a full night's sleep. Sometimes, of course, he wakes up at night, but this cannot be compared with how his son slept on GV: he woke up three to five times during the night. It is also easier to put to bed: the daughter easily falls asleep with a bottle, and the son's connection "HV - sleep" quickly ceased. nine0003

Weaning our son from GV was also stressful for us: I tried to turn it all over for more than a month. With my daughter, there are no problems with weaning from the bottle. My children and I often go to different public places, and, of course, bottle feeding there is much easier than breastfeeding: you don’t have to look for feeding rooms, wrap yourself in snoods, or prepare for public censure. I am no longer ready to pump into a bottle after weeks in the hospital. Well, in general, it’s more comfortable for me to live when there is no milk in my breast: nothing presses, nothing swells, nothing leaks. nine0003

True, I also noticed the disadvantages. It seems that breastfeeding really has a better effect on the child's immunity: the son did not get sick at all in the first year, the daughter fell ill several times, once she even ended up in the hospital with bronchitis. Another point is cost. We used a can of 600 g of not the most expensive mixture in a few days, a month it turned out from 10,000 R and more. GV, of course, is much more economical.

👎 Against: breastfeeding is more physiological and cheaper0003

She breastfed both daughters. At first there were difficulties, but I struggled with them. Thanks to perseverance, she overcame all problems.

Feed each for over a year. I believe that this process is inherent in us by nature, and it is better not to interfere in the affairs of nature. I did not feel any inconvenience or deprivation due to breastfeeding. Thanks to small adjustments in nutrition, after two months I had a slim figure.

/life/laktaciya/

How much does breastfeeding cost

From a financial point of view, GW is even more economical. During the feeding periods, I spent only on a breast pump and a visit to a paid doctor.

👍 For: mixtures free mother and give her the opportunity to sleep

Valeria Kushnir
sees only pluses in mixtures

I fed only formula and I am very happy. I could move away from the child, slept well - from all points of view there were only pluses. Is that oblique glances sometimes met. I haven't even tried breastfeeding and I don't regret it at all. nine

Tell your story One of the causes of concern for the mother is the baby's hiccups. Most often, it occurs after feeding, passes quickly and does not cause much alarm, but sometimes the child hiccups for quite a long time. Elena Bondareva, a pediatrician and leading specialist of the Semeynaya clinic network, spoke about whether it is necessary to worry and how to help the baby in her Gazeta.Ru column. nine0003

Why newborn babies hiccup

Even during pregnancy, a woman can feel that her baby hiccups. This is due to the baby swallowing amniotic fluid or preparing for respiratory movements.

Hiccups are caused by synchronous contractions of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles, which imitate inhalation, but no air enters, as the airways are closed by the epiglottis, and a strangled sound occurs due to the sharp closing of the glottis.

Most often, hiccups occur when the vagus and phrenic nerves are irritated, which cause contractions of the diaphragm. nine0019 With fast, hasty, restless sucking at the breast, if the baby is breastfed, or bottles, if he is on mixed or artificial feeding, he can swallow air and overeat, this causes distension of the stomach and irritates the vagus nerve.

With regular regurgitation in a newborn, the contents of the stomach can irritate the esophageal mucosa and also stimulate the nearby vagus nerve.

Another reason may be hypothermia. nine0003

Is hiccups dangerous for a child?

It must be understood that such a condition does not harm the child. If the baby is active, feels good, you should not worry.
If the child cries, feels unwell, sleep and appetite are disturbed, if hiccups accompany vomiting, it is necessary to contact the pediatrician to determine the causes of the ailment. nine0003

"Low-calorie, but quickly satisfy hunger": what are the benefits and dangers of tomatoes

What are the benefits of tomatoes, how to choose the right quality vegetables, at what age can you give tomatoes. ..

July 20 09:45

If a newborn spits up due to overeating and this is accompanied by hiccups, this is not dangerous and is not a problem. If, against the background of regurgitation, the child is healthy, gains weight and height well, this is a variant of the norm. If regurgitation is abundant, regular, vomiting occurs, the baby is not gaining weight well, you should definitely consult a doctor. nine0003

In case of hypothermia, if the child is wet or cold, he can also hiccup, then it is enough to change clothes and warm the baby so that the hiccups stop.

Other causes can also cause hiccups, including diseases of various organs, but this still applies more to adults, in children such conditions are very rare, only if the hiccups last for a long time, you can’t stop it, it makes sense to be examined by a pediatrician.

100%

How to stop hiccups in a newborn baby

First check if the child is wet or cold. The legs and arms may be cool, this is normal, so touch the body in the chest area, the skin should be warm. If this is the reason, the child needs to be changed and warmed up. If the child has overeaten or air has entered the stomach during feeding, hold it in a column, pat lightly on the back until the air bubble is discharged.

If the abdomen is swollen due to increased growth, a clockwise massage of the abdomen can be done to help the gas pass. nine0019 If the baby is formula-fed, hold the bottle while feeding so that there is no air, only milk. The hole in the nipple should not be too large so that it does not choke.

If the newborn is breastfeeding, feed in a 30 degree elevated position to reduce the chance of spitting up.

If the hiccups persist and the previous methods did not help, you can apply to the chest for a minute or give some water to drink.

So, hiccups is a physiological condition, not dangerous for a child. Your task is to find the cause and, if possible, eliminate it. If the hiccups last too long, the baby is restless, he has pronounced spitting up or vomiting, consult a doctor for help.