“Just give your baby a feed while they sleep before you go to bed and they will sleep through until morning” – This sounds like a DREAM indeed, right?! I don’t know a single parent of a young baby who wouldn’t love for this to work. In theory, dreamfeeds are amazing but unfortunately the reality is that the majority of the time I find that dreamfeeds just do not work. 

The goal of a dreamfeed is to get a baby onto the same schedule as their parent. Essentially we are trying to ‘tank them up’ so they achieve a long stretch of sleep when you go to bed for the night, rather than from when they do. Despite how tired we are as new parents, going to bed each night when the baby does just isn’t a viable option for most, so aligning out babies longest stretch of sleep with our own sounds incredible. 

As an example, say your little one manages a 6 hour stretch of sleep at night and goes to sleep at 6:30pm. This would mean that they are due to wake for a feed at 12:30am – most likely only a couple of hours after you have dragged your already exhausted self to bed for the night. Now I don’t need to tell you that broken sleep is TOUGH and I certainly don’t believe anyone wants to be woken up a mere 2 hours after heading to bed for the night.

With a successful dreamfeed you would feed your little one before you go to bed, so around 9:30 or 10pm, and ideally they will sleep that 6 hour stretch from the end of that feed. Hoping that baby wouldn’t wake for another feed until 4am – AMAZING. 

For a baby that weighs over 6.5kgs they could potentially even sleep right through until morning on just this dreamfeed, meaning that you get a whole night of uninterrupted sleep too. 

I know what you are thinking - when can we start? Right? How perfect, aligning our baby’s longest stretch of sleep with our own so that we don’t have to go to bed at 6:30pm as well. 

Unfortunately it’s not always as simple as that – in fact, more often than not. For some babies, disturbing them in that deepest phase of sleep can result in more wake ups or difficulty getting back to sleep if the dreamfeed wakes them up completely. A lot of babies do better on the chance to really rest and digest for this long stretch. Reflux babies especially do well . 

For a lot of little ones, particularly breastfeed babies younger than four months of age, they just won’t be able to wake enough to take a proper feed. And for others taking a feed at this time it just won’t make the slightest bit of difference and they will still wake a few hours later expecting another full feed. We find that dreamfeeds can sometimes exacerbate a feeding to sleep association. So rather than achieving a longer stretch of sleep after the dreamfeed (or ideally sleeping through the rest of the night) you can find your baby is up again 2-3 hours after the dreamfeed looking for another feed.  

If you want to try the dreamfeed, give it a go for a week and see how you’re little one responds. Keep an eye on them while they feed – are they feeding efficiently or just comfort sucking? If after a week they are still waking around 1-2am then it’s a good indication that this method isn’t working for your bub. You could try again in a couple of weeks or just try to get to bed earlier yourself and let your baby demand feed overnight. 

If you have implemented the dreamfeed and your baby is sleeping until 4, 5, 6 or even 7am then the dreamfeed is indeed a DREAM like it was for my son. Some little ones will manage on just this dreamfeed and then sleeping until morning until they are ready to completely wean overnight. 

How does the dreamfeed work? Gently lift your little one from their cot or bassinet. Keep the lights low and any stimulation to a minimum. Your baby may wake up a little bit and that’s okay. Gentle run the nipple of the bottle or breast on their lower lip to encourage them to take a feed. Please, please do not leave your baby in the bassinet to feed if they are on a bottle, this just isn’t safe. 

So: the rules of dreamfeeding. I’ve heard people saying that you must unswaddle to encourage a good feed, or finish with a nappy change. In my opinion - do what works: if you need to unswaddle, do that, if not, don’t. If your little one will wake later because of a wet nappy then yes, change them, if not, don’t. Many little ones won’t need a burp after a dreamfeed as during their sleepy feed they didn’t take in any excess air, but some still will. Do what works for you and your little one.

Dreamfeeds are most effective after 3 or 4 months of age when our little ones are more capable of taking a feed while sleepy. Once your bub is over 6 months, established on solids and their growth is on track, you can consider weaning the dreamfeed. Whether you are breastfeeding or bottle feeding we recommend the gradual reduction method to night weaning.

If your baby is over 6 months and still waking multiple times per night call us. By this age you can definitely achieve some better stretches of sleep.