Does pumping your infant full of food right before bed help him sleep longer? Many mamas claim this is true. Whether they follow an on-demand feeding regimen or a more scheduled one, lots opt to rouse their lil ones right before mom and pops are ready to call it a night and stick a bottle or nipple in the babe's mouth for one last feeding. Most tot's sucking reflex is so strong that they can down an entire feeding without ever opening their eyes to see what they are doing. Parents that opt to go this route say it helps train the baby to sleep during the overnight hours while giving the grown-ups a good stretch of shut-eye.
A colleague told me that the dream feed was one of her most cherished hours once she returned to work, saying:
I continued dream-feeding my son for at least a month longer than I needed to because it was such a special time for me. My husband was asleep, my son was in my arms quiet and happily sucking away and I could take in his changing features and wonderful baby scent without the phone ringing or someone asking me for something. It was only after the doctor told me he was getting plenty of milk during his awake hours that I finally gave it up reluctantly.
Did you dream-feed your baby?
Elizabeth Arden
Yes, we did for this awhile (fed him at 10 or 10:30 PM) in hopes he would sleep through the night (it helped, but didn't totally work--and he STILL wakes up to eat some nights at 17 months!). But I could hardly call it dreamfeeding because my son would actually wake up when we got him out of the crib and suck his bottle down, fully conscious. But he'd go right back to sleep once in the crib. So it was just more of a final bedtime feeding.
1I'm a firm believer in the dream feed! I would feed my son his "final" feeding for the night at 9 (the one with the bedtime story and a good night song) and then go in around 11:45 or so and give him one more feeding. Around 3 months old that midnight feeding started holding him until 5:30 or 6. It may have been that he was just an easy baby, but I like to credit the dream feed with helping him to sleep so well!
2Schnappy I can hardly believe your little one is 17 months now!
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