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Baby in dreams: what it can mean

  • New beginnings
  • Family

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The short answer

Babies in dreams often stand for something new and fragile that needs care, or for responsibility itself. Forgetting or losing a baby is a common anxiety dream about being stretched too thin.

Your dream is not everyone's

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Three ways to read it

Psychology and research

Research

Continuity researchers note that the characters in our dreams reflect the people and concerns on our minds, so parents and people around small children dream of babies often. When there is no baby in your life, the image is commonly connected with something new you are responsible for, or with your own need to be looked after. Dreams of forgetting a baby somewhere tend to appear when people feel overloaded and afraid of dropping something important.

Folk tradition

Tradition, not science

Tradition: American popular dream books, around 1900

Dream books around 1900 split babies into good and bad omens: a lovely, healthy baby for love and friends, a crying or sick baby for disappointment. This is folklore, not a forecast.

Questions to ask yourself

  1. What new thing in your life needs protection or patience right now?
  2. Did you feel capable of caring for the baby, or overwhelmed?
  3. Is there a part of you that would like to be looked after?

Related symbols

Sources

Every reading on this page comes from these works. Page references have not all been checked yet; those still waiting are marked.

  1. G. William Domhoff (2001). A New Neurocognitive Theory of Dreams. Dreaming 11(1): 13-33.

    cited, not reproduced

    • Cited at: pp. 13-33 (dreams as simulations of personal concerns) (reference not yet checked)

    Dreams as embodied simulations of personal concerns (the continuity view). The backbone of our psychology lens.

  2. Calvin S. Hall, Robert L. Van de Castle (1966). The Content Analysis of Dreams. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

    cited, not reproduced

    • Cited at: coding categories: characters (reference not yet checked)

    The standard coding system for dream content (characters, social interactions, misfortunes, emotions, settings, objects) and its normative sample.

  3. Gustavus Hindman Miller (1901). What's in a Dream (later reissued as Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted).

    public domain

    • Cited at: entry: Baby (reference not yet checked)

    An American popular dream dictionary. Its entries are written as omens ("foretells"); we only report how people once read a symbol, never as a forecast.