The Dreamfeed

To do the dreamfeed, you gently pick up your sleeping baby, place the bottle or breast on his lower lip and allow him to drink, taking care not to wake him. When finished, sit him upright for a few minutes to allow wind to escape. Babies are usually so relaxed at this feed, they don’t gulp air and so don’t have much wind.

The reason I recommend the dreamfeed, is to try to avoid you having to get up more than once in the night. When your baby is about eight weeks old, I recommend the dreamfeed at 10:30 at night. If you followed the routine but didn’t have the dreamfeed, your baby would go to sleep at 7pm and maybe wake between 11pm and 1am for the next feed. Let’s say your baby woke at 1:30am, you would get up and feed your baby. Maybe your baby would be back in bed asleep at 2:30am, but he might wake again at 5:30am for another feed. Then, by the time you have him asleep again, it would be time to get up and start the day. With the dreamfeed, your baby may sleep until let’s say 2am and then when back in bed; he is more likely to sleep until 7am. This means you have only had to get up once in the night.

The other thing we are hoping for is the 2am wake will become 2:30am then 3am then 3:30am, until your baby is getting to 7am by himself. I get a lot of clients contacting me when their baby is sleeping until 6am. I always tell them don’t make your baby wait until 7am for the feed. They have done so well over night, and should be rewarded with their feed. Feed your baby at 6am and then top him up just before you would have usually finished the 7am feed. So he is full at the usual time and can get to 11am for the next feed.

Related Baby Routine Articles:

• Why Baby Routines?
• When to start a baby routine
• Growth spurts while following my baby routines
• Getting out and about on a routine
• Routine FAQs

Best regards,
Tizzie Hall
Director