A dream feed is something you can try before your baby is sleeping through the night to gently nudge them towards doing so. Before six months is a good time to try this, before they are weaned onto solids and will hopefully be eating and feeding well during the day.
So, after you’ve put your baby down to sleep in the early evening, between 6.30pm and 8pm you would give them another feed later on before you go to sleep, around 10pm – 11pm. The aim is to give your baby a few extra calories to try to see them through to the morning (or close to it) and avoid them waking during the night or early hours due to hunger. Here are some ways to do the dream feed effectively:
Keep the room dark and pick your baby up out of the crib while they are still asleep
No need to fully wake baby, they can take a feed if you just rouse them gently
They tend to take a bit less milk than a daytime feed so it may be a bit quicker than your usual feeds
Give their back a gentle rub with their head resting on your shoulder to burp them before putting them back into the crib.
Image: @mojkadrwidzenia