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 the sleeping hours to ones that are more convenient, try the dream feed. We used the dream feed technique for several months (on three different babies) with great success.
Pssst, the Baby Whisperer also recommends it if her word is worth more to you.
Here’s how to do the Dream Feed!
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. Our baby did NOT need to burp after this feeding, I do not know why!
I hear that some people are able to do a full-on nursing session without waking the baby this way. I bow down to them.
