At full feedings®, we believe that feeding your baby fully, in every cycle, is one of the most important ingredients for healthy growth — and consistent sleep.

While snacking for adults can be a fun thing to do on the couch while watching a movie, snacking for babies can lead to inconsistent feeds, less overall milk intake, and more nighttime waking.

Feeding your baby fully in every cycle allows them to take in enough milk to stay comfortably full between feeds and settle into good, restorative sleep. It’s one of the most powerful — and gentle — ways to support both daytime naps and nighttime sleep.

In the early days, your main goal is simply to work toward full feedings, because this sets the stage for long-term feeding and sleep success. Newborns are often sleepy and distracted at the breast or bottle, so keeping them awake long enough to eat fully can take a little effort — but it’s worth it. Once babies learn to feed fully, they naturally begin to space out feeds every 2–3 hours, supporting on-demand feeding while maintaining an age-appropriate nap routine.

As your baby grows, they become more efficient eaters, but the importance of full feedings® remains the same — and their intake must grow as they do. To sleep longer stretches overnight, babies need enough milk during the day to meet their age-appropriate needs — because your baby simply can’t sleep longer on less milk.

If milk intake doesn’t increase as your baby grows, you may see “regressions,” where they start waking again at night to make up for those missed calories. The Full Feedings Method® was created to help you prevent this and maintain restful, consistent sleep as your baby develops.

full feedings® are just one of the key infant sleep ingredients we teach inside our Online Programs, where parents learn how to gently align feeding, sleep, and wake windows — to establish and maintain consistent nighttime sleep, without ever having to CRY-IT-OUT.