Feeding to sleep

[cath]

Hi everyone,
I have realised that over the last month or so I have started a bad habit with my 14 weeks old son of breastfeeding him to sleep. We broke the bad habit of my husband having to let him fall asleep on his chest from about 6-10 weeks but now we have this new bad sleep habit. I know it is bad because it means that a babysitter (or even my husband) won't be able to settle Patrick to sleep. Has anyone else fallen into this habit and then broken it? I guess I might just have to be strong and start a new sleep routine and put up with the tears while he gets used to it (but it breaks my heart when he is crying). Any tips on what I should do?
I did just get him back into bed without having to feed him but he was already half asleep so I don't feel that victorious about it. I was holding him while on the computer after he had woken crying because of a burp he needed to do.I looked at him after 5 minutes and he had his eyes closed so put him back in bed and put my hand on his chest until he stopped squirming and grunting and seemed happy to be there. I really want to be able to put him in bed with his eyes open and be able to get him to sleep. How do I break the feeding to sleep pattern?

Cath

[BJelly]

I got into bad habits early on too - my baby found it very difficult to learn to relax and go to sleep. I did what I had the strength to do on any given day. Sometimes I had the energy to spend a couple of hours trying to settle her sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I could get her to sleep by rocking her basinette, but it didn't always work.

I ended up waiting until she was 7 months old and got some help by going to a day hospital place where they did controlled crying. This was great for me as I felt terrible letting her cry at home, but the nurse was very caring and that made me feel confident in the technique - ie there wasn't anything wrong with her that was making her cry.

This worked really well for us, she learnt really quickly once I had the confidence to stick with the technique. I have found that we needed to reteach her when she learnt to crawl as she'd wake up in a different position to the one she fell asleep in, and again when she started walking.

Don't be too hard on yourself, you'll get there when your ready.

Edited to say, on rereading my post I think I should make it clear that I also had to breast feed my baby to sleep. And most experts say not to do controlled crying until 6mths at the earliest - I guess I wanted to say, don't beat yourself up about BF to sleep - sometimes that's the only thing that works.

[k&Hmum]

im in this same position with my 15 week old. she has to suck to sleep and even if she wakes up ten minutes later she has to have another feed to get herself back to sleep. I want to break this habbit but dont want to resort to letting her cry.

sorry not any help but at least you know your not alone on this one.

[bec79]

Cath and Tracey I too am in the same boat. I've tried a few different techniques but nothing seems to work for me. I've even resorted to letting dd cry it out, but she only got that worked up she vomited. Not a good situation!
I'll be watching this thread with interest.

[cath]

Hi again,
nice to know I'm not alone. Tracey, I had the waking up 10 minutes later problem last night which is quite common here(I feed him to sleep, rock him for a couple of minutes in case he needs to burp then put him in bed - if he wakes up 10 minutes later I pick him up and 90% of the time he has woken up because he needs to burp). However last night instead of feeding him again to get him back to sleep I managed to get him back to sleep without feeding -woohoo!! He woke up crying so I burped him, changed a wet nappy and then held him and patted his back and rocked for a bit but he was whinging and squirming and not going to sleep so I put him in bed and turned the light off so his room was dark. He was still whinging and not happy so I turned on a musical bear that plays a lullaby and that seemed to distract him from crying for a bit. I then knelt down next to the cot and just patted his chest and kept re-playing the music (those things never play for long enough). He still kept whinging so I stuck my finger in his mouth and he sucked on that for a bit then I took it out and he found his own hand and eventually started sucking on his thumb (the whole time he was thrashing around and making all sorts of grunty, whingy noises). After quite a bit of patting and him sucking on his thumb and moving around he finally went still and quieter and I left the room with him still sucking on his thumb and he got himslef to sleep!! I am going to try the same thing with the musical bear and the patting tonight and see how it goes. I am going out for dinner tomorrow night and leaving Patrick with my husband and some expressed milk so it will be interesting to see if he can get him to sleep - I really hope so. I am looking forward to hearing any other ideas. I don't think I have it fixed yet (Paddy has just woken up from a nap after being asleep for all of 20 minutes and I am struggling to get him back to sleep).

Cath

[mummy22]

i have this problem too!
he is now 13 months

oh no hes awake

[jarrahsmumma]

Try reading Elizabeth Pantleys' book "The No Cry Sleep Solution" It give lots of gentle ways to settle your baby, without resorting to CC.

And who says it is a bad habit to feed your tiny babe to sleep? They are not going to need it forever, so if you make it a positive thing, spending time with your baby, resting, having a cuddle, you will see it differently. If they wont sleep with out sucking, get a sling! An Ergo or a Hugabub would be ideal, they are well supprted in a safe position and can feed if they need to. Your body movement will soothe them and you can still get things done if you need to.:D

[Madi]

The ABA website has a interesting article that made me feel a lot better about breastfeeding to sleep. Towards the bottom of the page it discusses the hormones that induce sleep that breastmilk contains.

http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/control.html

My little man still does it sometimes - other times he puts himself to sleep. Unless it's a serious problem, I think it's best to do what feels right. You may also find that when there's someone doing the settling who doesn't smell of wonderous milk:) it suddenly becomes a non issue!

Madi.

[MyL&S]

cath: I too have this problem, over the xmas break it was just so natural and easy to lie down with DD and BF her to sleep. Now we have gotten into the routine that almost 3 of her feeds a during the day she puts herself to sleep on the boob. and if she wakes up at night she comes into bed with me.

I have the same issue that noone esle can settle her and and i have been told "im making a rod for my own back".. She wont take a dummy or a bottle.
I am thankfull but i wanted to make the 3 month mark with BF and still going at 7 months

You could ask your nurse as i have but thats the best advice i could give as i just wanted to say that i would like some tips as well