How do you dream feed?

I've seen the term 'dream feed' mentioned on here several times.

What is it exactly? I get the overall concept....that the baby/child is still sleeping when you feed them.

But do you take them out of their crib/bassinet to do this? How much do you give them? How do you go about burping them without waking them up? Or do you skip burping and put them back down right away?

My son is on formula now. Does this only work with BF babies?

Re: How do you dream feed?

I take her out of her bed, stir her a little by tickling her cheek and then let her latch on. If she's really too out of it, I'll change her diaper to wake her up a little.

I don't even burp her after - I just unlatch her and put her back to bed.

I read that when they are asleep they are much better at eating and don't take in as much air, so don't really need to burp anyway, which seems to be the case so far.

Re: How do you dream feed?

Thank you for explaining that.

I might start doing this to cut back on one of my son's middle of the night feedings.

Re: How do you dream feed?

We used to do dream feeds for Lily when she was little....really helped her sleep through the night.
She would fall asleep around 8ish in her swing, and then around 11, I would hold her and feed her a bottle, without waking her up...she would eat what she wanted...no burping necessary.
Then I'd change her diaper quickly without waking her and bring her upstairs to bed.

Re: How do you dream feed?

We do a dream fed every night and it works out great. I just pick DD up from sleep, give her a 4oz bottle, I try to burp her on my shoulder or I jiggle her a bit to get some gas out....sometimes some comes up and other times nothing. I put her right back down and she often doesn't miss a beat.