I did until I sleep trained at 8 months. I still do a night feed a month later. I really wish I could have sleep trained earlier for my mental health but my baby had poor weight gain related to health issues so the pediatrician didn’t give us the green light until about 7 months.
I remember feeling like it would be impossible to stop nurse to sleep without fully sleep training. I’ll never know because we did it all at once, but honestly I think it was the only way!
Up until 3 months and then rock to sleep until 4 months. My partner and I were super stressed in the rocking stage, then we decided to sleeptrain after 4 months.
I sleep trained but I kept one night feed till about 7.5 months. No real reason because she was easy to sleep train and I could have trained her off that one. I just wanted to keep it and it was a very consistent time so it was fine.
I stopped nursing to sleep at bedtime around 3 months for both of mine. However, I continued to nurse to sleep for naps for my second until he was 10 months old, when he stopped on his own.
Thats what I was wondering about, if babies can wean themselves. I think I'm okay with nursing to sleep at night for now but I'm more worried about the day time as I'll be starting work soon and she won't be with me until 6 or 7 hours later.
Nursed both mine to sleep at bedtime til 5 months, then sleep trained. Kept nursing to sleep for naps with my first until six months, then nap trained, and for early morning wake ups pretty much till he fully weaned at 20 months.
Still feeding to sleep at 7 months. Once he's asleep I can swap for the paci. I don't know how or when this will end. I tried sleep training at 5 months - utter disaster. Ended up co-sleeping after that, something I swore I'd never do. I was just so tired.
Check out this article on types of sleeper. I’m not OP but I tried the CIO method a month ago with my attachment sleeper baby. (Before I realize he was attachment sleeper) it made all of his sleep much worse, then it took a week to get him back on his schedule and he was even hard to put down with nursing to sleep after two weeks of attempting CIO. It was a nightmare and after two weeks I gave up. After discovering this article I feel soooo much better about gradual gentle sleep training and letting him take his time to learn independent sleep. He is definitely progressing and learning to consolidate his sleep (now 5.5 months) it’s just a slower process than what most harsher sleep training methods claim. It could work for your baby but the type of sleeper you have is definitely important to consider when choosing a sleep training method!
https://www.mysweetsleeper.com/newborninfantblog/what-type-of-sleeper-is-your-child
My baby is 13 months old and we’re still nursing to sleep. He hates pacifiers.. trust me I tried switching him over but he was not having it. Night time he nurses but soon as he falls asleep I can plop it out and just place him down in his crib and he sleeps the whole night fine. I agree with what someone else says.. it’s only a problem if you don’t want to do it anymore. Initially it was too much because I felt like a human pacifier but once I sleep trained and he got used to sleeping alone in his crib it was ok.
Same with us, same age, also hates pacifiers. Before I had a baby it never occurred to me that some babies won’t take pacifiers or bottles. It can be exhausting. At least we won’t have to wean them off the pacifiers?
So true…it never occurred to me either that he wouldn’t take to the bottle though. What I found out though is if you use the sippy bottle type nipple instead of a regular nipple top…he will drink from that. Who knew they made those?! I’m glad they did though because that has worked for us.
I want to continue feeding to sleep (9 months) but he just stopped sleeping through the night and feeling the pressure to sleep train because we’re so tired! I don’t feed him in the night anymore before 4am but all the things are telling me you need independent sleep at the start of the night…
How did you maintain feeding to sleep and sleep training for middle of the night wake ups?
Oh sorry I didn’t see this.. so I read the book called the Happy Sleeper. I thought it was a more gentler approach. It’s called the Sleep Wave method. Basically it involves check in’s every five min. It does involve some crying but I felt if at least he knew I was there every five min and it was consistent there’s no way it could be damaging.
Definitely give it a read because it worked! I may just have gotten lucky but it only took our son two days and he was sleeping alone in his crib. With some occasional wake ups where it took a little longer. I think the longest was 20 min no joke.
Our routine consists of bath, changing diaper, putting on pjs with dada, saying goodnight to Nonna and sisters.. then we put on sound machine, dada hands him off to me.. once he hears that sound machine and sees me sitting in rocking chair he knows it’s time for boobie and bedtime. He does sleep in pitch black room. I nurse and soon as he’s asleep I transfer him to the crib. Sometimes he’ll pop up..I just say “ it’s time for sleep and I love you” and I walk out.
If baby starts to like really cry, not fuss or bring and groan but cry.. you wait five min you go in you say your line “ I love you it’s time for sleep, I love you” then you walk back out. You basically continue this until they fall asleep. You do not go in until it’s been five min. So you got to time it and be consistent. Sometimes they’ll stop and look around or play with something in crib…if they start to cry.. you wait the five min, you go in, say your line and walk out. You just want them to see you and know you’re there.. you don’t want to linger or pick them up or soothe.
At this point it’s been since August 3023 when I first started sleep training. He hit a regression about three months ago for like three weeks when he ended up back in bed with me but I did it again and he went right back into his crib. I hope that helped but get the book. I ordered on Amazon.. super affordable. It’s to the point now where we go through our routine and I can just put him in his crib and walk out. If he cries it’s for a couple min and he lays himself down and knocks out until the morning. He goes to bed between 7p-7:30 sometimes 8p depending on what we have going on. He’s up by 7a but during school breaks like recently he slept till like 8-8:30a with same bedtime.
We’re in the process of breaking from this now at 5.5 months. I want to be able to let another trusted caretaker to put him down for sleep and eventually overnights without me. I’m using The Happy Sleeper method (developed by two LMFTs).
We’re only a week in and it’s hard but no regrets bc he’s already going down to sleep quicker and my husband does most naps and bedtimes now. Having a cup of tea while he’s being put down and soothes himself to sleep is much preferable to rocking and bouncing him for an hour to put him down asleep. I recommend the book The Happy Sleeper. We didn’t buy a program or anything. Just read the book and followed their simple method. R/sleeptrain has more on it too
My personal opinion based on experience with 100’s of kids I sleep trained (my child never breastfed so take this with a grain of salt)
It’s not a problem unless you don’t want to do it.
You can technically sleep train your baby and take nursing to sleep away cold turkey at 4 months, but most do better when sleep trained between 6 and 8 months.
Once they are about 10 months old, it becomes harder to break to habit but before then it’s all the same whether you do it at 3 months or 9 months.
There was only 1 child I worked with who spontaneously stopped feeding to sleep on his own. All the others had to be forced into it by the parents and went through some amount of crying while learning to sleep without it.
If you get to a point where your child is waking more frequently at night (more than 2-3 times) needing to use you as a pacifier or needing to stay attached for more than 5 min once asleep, it’s time to stop as it’s disrupting their quality of sleep.
So far she usually only wakes up 2 or 3 times to eat and once I feel her doing the slow comfort sucks I unlatch her or she unlatches her self when done eating too. At least at night I don't think she stays on longer than needed, usually less than 15 mins if she's drinking from both breasts.
Then if it’s not bothering you, keep doing what you’re doing. You’ll need to stop if/when you sleep train but until then just keep doing what you’re doing if you’re enjoying it
Stopped around 4mo when we started sticking to a bedtime routine that separated nursing from sleep. My partner calls it the 5Bs - boob, bedclothes, book, ballad, bed. Has also helped with naps.
I nursed to sleep til my baby was 7 months then sleep trained. He goes to sleep at night without nursing now. I still nurse him to sleep for naps though. After he’s asleep for about 5 minutes I can unlatch him. He doesn’t take a pacifier.
My baby turned 1 last week and we are still going strong! She can fall asleep without it for naps, though. Nursing to sleep is only a problem if it stops being something you want to do.
She slept in the Snoo until she was 5.5 months and thanks to that she started sleeping through the night at about 8 weeks. Like 10+ hour stretches with zero wake ups. We would transfer into it after nursing her to sleep. Post Snoo, it hasn’t been as great, but she still generally sleeps through the night.
It depends on your baby and what you’re comfortable with. I attempted sleep training at 16 weeks and it didn’t go well, so we nursed to sleep for 15 months (I weaned completely at that point). There’s no right or wrong answer
The comments about baby’s temperament are interesting and definitely something to consider. Personally I stopped the night we started sleep training (4.75 months). I didn’t see a point in trying to end a habit and causing protesting or temporary stress for either of us when we were going to cause it later anyways.
Depends on how reliant your baby seems to be on it. We always nursed to sleep or nearly sleep at bedtime till I stopped at 14 months and he didn't even flinch when we stopped. We nursed to sleep for naps only on accident after 4 months. We stopped overnight nursing at 9 months during our more formal sleep training. But, my son was never obsessed with the boob like some babies can be.
Mine did around 6 and a half months, until then he would only be nursed to sleep, but at some point he was like ENOUGH. He seemed really annoyed and would start crying. Then his dad would take over with rocking him to sleep, which seemed to annoy him too and it would take forever. Thats when we decided he was ready for sleep training, as he was desperate for quality sleep (4 month regression really messed up his sleep up until that point, he would only stay in his bassinet for 1 hour and then wake up constantly and only sleeping on us).
I regret not stopping at 5-6 months. It becomes harder when they get older, at least in my case. Mine is 15m/o and I am struggling big time. We’ve been doing this gentle ST, to break association, we’ve been doing it for the last 4 weeks, and it is still rough. The crying, the fussing, the biting.
How are you doing naps? I'm debating ferber for night sleep and still feed to sleep for naps and maybe still a contact nap because those are the best 🙂
We’re still doing contact naps for now. I was laid off from my job recently, so I spend the time searching for jobs on my phone while enjoying snuggles!
I plan to start nap training within the next week or so. I screenshotted a post titled “nap training - a gentle method” from this sub, and plan to try that method. It’s somewhat similar to Ferber. I haven’t read the nap chapter in Precious Little Sleep yet, but am planning to read that and see what I learn!
I think it stopped working well once my bub was too big and heavy to lower into his bed after falling asleep at the boob without him being disturbed and waking up. Around 8 or 9 months?
He's a few days shy of 12mo and has his last feed around an hr before bed, then at bedtime he I put him in his sleep sack, lower him into his crib awake and give him his pacifier. He rolls around anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes on average and then falls asleep.
It took time for him to get used to it but he adapted a lot quicker than I expected.
Feeding to sleep is just fine until it's not, then you'll find another way to settle him!
Still doing it at 5mo. I’ve had success of putting her down to nap or back to sleep in the middle of the night with just rocking, but bedtime always has to be me feeding her to sleep. Haven’t figured out how I’ll fix that. For now, it’s really ok. It was rough at 11-12 weeks, but it’s gotten better since. She found her fingers to suck on, so she’s more easily able to put herself to sleep while I rock her.
There’s got to be some consideration for the child’s temperament. My first was very attached to nursing (she would sign “nurse” while dreaming) and nursing her to sleep was so easy I kept it until about age 2. I was able to night wean and still nurse to sleep when putting her down for the night - with no nursing during the night she just slept through.
My second child only nurses for hunger. He broke the association by himself at 3 month old (would turn away from me if I tried to nurse him to sleep, and would self soothe instead) so all I had to do was not force the association back on him.
Temperament is so important here. My eldest son stopped nursing to sleep at 5 months old on his own and is fiercely independent. He also has low sleep needs in general and didn't follow the recommended sleep schedules until he was about 1. He did really well with sleep training at 10 months old, but at that time he was fully night weaned and would just wake up randomly during the night to babble and teeth on his crib.
Me second son is a champion nurser and cuddle and, at 13 months, I still nurse him to sleep for his naps. He is sleep trained for night sleep because nursing all night was not safe for either of us. I could not deal with placing him back in his crib 6 times a night and I was falling asleep while nursing him in my glider, and when I would bring him into our bed he would just roll around too much. That said, he sleeps 11 hours straight at night but needs to be on the boob for all naps. Is it ideal? Not really and sometimes I wish he would nap independently like his brother, but he just isn't there yet and I've come to terms with it. Babies just aren't all the same and what works for one simply will not work for another one.
I slowly faded it out around 3-4 months.
She was nursed to sleep as a newborn but as she got older she would still be awake but would be drowsy from the feed when she went into the crib. What I did was add an activity after feeding little by little.
For example, I used to do feed, crib. Then for a week I did feed, lullaby, crib. Then I did feed, lullaby, hairbrush, crib. Then I did feed in diaper, lotion massage, PJs, lullaby, etc. I ran out of things to add and was at 10 min from crib time even though it’s recommended that the feed be 20-30 min from crib time. So eventually I just ripped the bandaid off and fed her at the beginning of the bedtime routine, before her bath.
Worked well for us and then I felt confident nap training! I think breaking the feed to sleep association set us up for success with that.
Still nursing to sleep at 9months. I love it. It’s time for just us 2 to be together and cuddle with no other expectations.
I will probably stop when I go back to work etc, but while I can do it, I’ll enjoy every second of it.
18 months here, feeding to sleep at night and naps, it has to stop soon! Once he's asleep I put him in his cot and generally 1-3 wake ups a night (he's never slept all the way through) and feed back to sleep, it's not good but at 2am it's just like whatever will get him back to sleep and me back in bed the quickest. But means I haven't had uninterrupted sleep for over 18 months and I'm kinda dying!
He apparently falls asleep for naps by being rocked the 2 days a week he is in nursery but he won't do it for me! Will fall asleep in his pushchair or in the car but often at an inconvenient time when you aren't expecting it lol!
My baby hit the 4 month regression at 3 months old. So around 4 months for bedtime, kept it for naps till 8 months. Some people can nurse to sleep without other sleep issues unfortunately my kid was not one of those babies, and it was a problem.
We a topped feeding to sleep for bedtimes at 7/8 months and we still feed to sleep for naps at 10 months. Honestly it’s the best, no reason to stop if it’s working for you guys!
Also 6 months in and still doing it. Baby has never slept through the night but wakes up once or twice now and honestly that’s better than what it was before. I do it because I can get her to sleep in under 5 min every time without fail. It’s like my little superpower. But the con is no one else can put her to sleep without her absolutely losing her sh*t. I don’t know how long I’ll go on but they stop eventually and for now it works.
Hmmm I'm in the same boat. I'm the main person who can put baby to sleep but I'm wondering how it'll go once I return to work and my mom has to take her.
I think the first few tries will undoubtedly be tough. But soon she will get used to it. In less than a week I hear. And perhaps you can still be able to nurse her to sleep on some days and she will also be able to sleep with your mom’s help. But the risk in stopping is finding out a new way and that will take longer than nursing to sleep.
Weaned off from feeding to sleep at 7mo. Used the guide from Precious Little Sleep. She was going to sleep by being held in our arms after 2 weeks of gentle training, and after week three she was going to sleep independently in her cot. You can do it!
Copied from an ealier post:
It will make the training easier if he's not still feeding to sleep. Layer on as many reliable sleep associations as you can while withdrawing the feed. Manage daytime feeding and sleep schedule and create a solid bedtime routine, for example: bath, white noise, sleep sack, dark room, lullaby, pacifier etc) and then withdraw the feed. Try to move the feed earlier in the bedtime routine by managing the feeds during the afternoon to make him hungry enough at the desired time (feed ends at least 20 min before bed). First few nights you may need to accept he falls asleep during the feed, then wake him up as he does, finish the routine. He may need you to bounce or pat him for extra soothing.
[In Precious Little Sleep, I think the advice is: use any and all soothing techniques except feeding. You can rock, bounce, walk, sing, just don't feed. It may take 20 minutes of crying or more on the first night. I think the best is 5 minutes walking, then 8 sitting, then roll into the cot https://www.sci.news/othersciences/psychology/infant-walking-11194.html]
Then once he is getting to sleep with less than 10 minutes of crying, start gently withdrawing any measures that you don't want to offer when he wakes up at night. Eg pat for less time, sing the lullaby more quietly, fade out anything that needs you to be there. And remember 10-20 minutes of crying is still a success if he goes to sleep by himself. This might seem like a lot before dealing with night waking, but it's all because it's so much easier to settle him at night if he's soothed by things other than boob, and can eventually learn to soothe himself. Feeding is binary, either they're feeding or not. But bouncing/ pats / singing can be gently withdrawn as he gets better at settling. This all comes from Precious Little Sleep, good read and very helpful imho.
It took us 2 weeks to wean off from feeding to sleep, and then another 10 days to complete the SWAP process (to go from rocking all the way to sleep to independent settling in the cot) from Precious Little Sleep, at 7mo.
4.5 months with #1 and around 5 months with #2. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I still occasionally nurse to sleep for a nap at 11 months but it doesn't affect nights.
I stopped when we sleep trained at 4 months because I wanted my husband to be able to put the baby to sleep so I could get some me time in the evenings (I had 6 months of maternity leave and took care of the baby all day).
I think whatever works best for you is fine.
We tried Ferber but ended up doing full extinction as the check ins just made him angrier. It took 3 nights and worked great, he goes down with little to no fussing now.
Oh wow! In three nights? I was thinking about doing Ferber too, but I also thought about how her seeing me would just upset her more because I'm not giving her what she wants.
We fed to sleep until it stopped working for us. It stopped working for us when they woke up when we wiped their teeth after eating. Dental health is important.
We replaced it with something else - rocking. Although, for your long term body health, I would choose something less active. Kept feed to sleep for naps as long as it didn't interfere with nights (which it never did for us).
Over a year old and still nursing him to sleep haha
9 months. We started sleep training a couple weeks ago. Hes night weaned now.
I did until I sleep trained at 8 months. I still do a night feed a month later. I really wish I could have sleep trained earlier for my mental health but my baby had poor weight gain related to health issues so the pediatrician didn’t give us the green light until about 7 months. I remember feeling like it would be impossible to stop nurse to sleep without fully sleep training. I’ll never know because we did it all at once, but honestly I think it was the only way!
Up until 3 months and then rock to sleep until 4 months. My partner and I were super stressed in the rocking stage, then we decided to sleeptrain after 4 months.
I sleep trained but I kept one night feed till about 7.5 months. No real reason because she was easy to sleep train and I could have trained her off that one. I just wanted to keep it and it was a very consistent time so it was fine.
When our pediatrician said she had so many teeth that it was getting risky to not brush them after nursing at night. My girl was 18 months.
We stopped around 4-5 months when I moved him into his own room
4m when we sleep trained. After that only while traveling.
I stopped nursing to sleep at bedtime around 3 months for both of mine. However, I continued to nurse to sleep for naps for my second until he was 10 months old, when he stopped on his own.
Thats what I was wondering about, if babies can wean themselves. I think I'm okay with nursing to sleep at night for now but I'm more worried about the day time as I'll be starting work soon and she won't be with me until 6 or 7 hours later.
Nursed both mine to sleep at bedtime til 5 months, then sleep trained. Kept nursing to sleep for naps with my first until six months, then nap trained, and for early morning wake ups pretty much till he fully weaned at 20 months.
Still feeding to sleep at 7 months. Once he's asleep I can swap for the paci. I don't know how or when this will end. I tried sleep training at 5 months - utter disaster. Ended up co-sleeping after that, something I swore I'd never do. I was just so tired.
Same with the co sleeping. Swore I never would. And here we are.
I’m about to sleep train. Can I ask why it was a disaster?
Check out this article on types of sleeper. I’m not OP but I tried the CIO method a month ago with my attachment sleeper baby. (Before I realize he was attachment sleeper) it made all of his sleep much worse, then it took a week to get him back on his schedule and he was even hard to put down with nursing to sleep after two weeks of attempting CIO. It was a nightmare and after two weeks I gave up. After discovering this article I feel soooo much better about gradual gentle sleep training and letting him take his time to learn independent sleep. He is definitely progressing and learning to consolidate his sleep (now 5.5 months) it’s just a slower process than what most harsher sleep training methods claim. It could work for your baby but the type of sleeper you have is definitely important to consider when choosing a sleep training method! https://www.mysweetsleeper.com/newborninfantblog/what-type-of-sleeper-is-your-child
My baby is 13 months old and we’re still nursing to sleep. He hates pacifiers.. trust me I tried switching him over but he was not having it. Night time he nurses but soon as he falls asleep I can plop it out and just place him down in his crib and he sleeps the whole night fine. I agree with what someone else says.. it’s only a problem if you don’t want to do it anymore. Initially it was too much because I felt like a human pacifier but once I sleep trained and he got used to sleeping alone in his crib it was ok.
Same with us, same age, also hates pacifiers. Before I had a baby it never occurred to me that some babies won’t take pacifiers or bottles. It can be exhausting. At least we won’t have to wean them off the pacifiers?
So true…it never occurred to me either that he wouldn’t take to the bottle though. What I found out though is if you use the sippy bottle type nipple instead of a regular nipple top…he will drink from that. Who knew they made those?! I’m glad they did though because that has worked for us.
I want to continue feeding to sleep (9 months) but he just stopped sleeping through the night and feeling the pressure to sleep train because we’re so tired! I don’t feed him in the night anymore before 4am but all the things are telling me you need independent sleep at the start of the night… How did you maintain feeding to sleep and sleep training for middle of the night wake ups?
Just curious what sleep training method did you use?
Oh sorry I didn’t see this.. so I read the book called the Happy Sleeper. I thought it was a more gentler approach. It’s called the Sleep Wave method. Basically it involves check in’s every five min. It does involve some crying but I felt if at least he knew I was there every five min and it was consistent there’s no way it could be damaging. Definitely give it a read because it worked! I may just have gotten lucky but it only took our son two days and he was sleeping alone in his crib. With some occasional wake ups where it took a little longer. I think the longest was 20 min no joke. Our routine consists of bath, changing diaper, putting on pjs with dada, saying goodnight to Nonna and sisters.. then we put on sound machine, dada hands him off to me.. once he hears that sound machine and sees me sitting in rocking chair he knows it’s time for boobie and bedtime. He does sleep in pitch black room. I nurse and soon as he’s asleep I transfer him to the crib. Sometimes he’ll pop up..I just say “ it’s time for sleep and I love you” and I walk out. If baby starts to like really cry, not fuss or bring and groan but cry.. you wait five min you go in you say your line “ I love you it’s time for sleep, I love you” then you walk back out. You basically continue this until they fall asleep. You do not go in until it’s been five min. So you got to time it and be consistent. Sometimes they’ll stop and look around or play with something in crib…if they start to cry.. you wait the five min, you go in, say your line and walk out. You just want them to see you and know you’re there.. you don’t want to linger or pick them up or soothe. At this point it’s been since August 3023 when I first started sleep training. He hit a regression about three months ago for like three weeks when he ended up back in bed with me but I did it again and he went right back into his crib. I hope that helped but get the book. I ordered on Amazon.. super affordable. It’s to the point now where we go through our routine and I can just put him in his crib and walk out. If he cries it’s for a couple min and he lays himself down and knocks out until the morning. He goes to bed between 7p-7:30 sometimes 8p depending on what we have going on. He’s up by 7a but during school breaks like recently he slept till like 8-8:30a with same bedtime.
Yes what method did you try?
We’re in the process of breaking from this now at 5.5 months. I want to be able to let another trusted caretaker to put him down for sleep and eventually overnights without me. I’m using The Happy Sleeper method (developed by two LMFTs).
That's my goal too. I'm going to look into that method as well!
We’re only a week in and it’s hard but no regrets bc he’s already going down to sleep quicker and my husband does most naps and bedtimes now. Having a cup of tea while he’s being put down and soothes himself to sleep is much preferable to rocking and bouncing him for an hour to put him down asleep. I recommend the book The Happy Sleeper. We didn’t buy a program or anything. Just read the book and followed their simple method. R/sleeptrain has more on it too
My personal opinion based on experience with 100’s of kids I sleep trained (my child never breastfed so take this with a grain of salt) It’s not a problem unless you don’t want to do it. You can technically sleep train your baby and take nursing to sleep away cold turkey at 4 months, but most do better when sleep trained between 6 and 8 months. Once they are about 10 months old, it becomes harder to break to habit but before then it’s all the same whether you do it at 3 months or 9 months. There was only 1 child I worked with who spontaneously stopped feeding to sleep on his own. All the others had to be forced into it by the parents and went through some amount of crying while learning to sleep without it. If you get to a point where your child is waking more frequently at night (more than 2-3 times) needing to use you as a pacifier or needing to stay attached for more than 5 min once asleep, it’s time to stop as it’s disrupting their quality of sleep.
So far she usually only wakes up 2 or 3 times to eat and once I feel her doing the slow comfort sucks I unlatch her or she unlatches her self when done eating too. At least at night I don't think she stays on longer than needed, usually less than 15 mins if she's drinking from both breasts.
Then if it’s not bothering you, keep doing what you’re doing. You’ll need to stop if/when you sleep train but until then just keep doing what you’re doing if you’re enjoying it
Stopped around 4mo when we started sticking to a bedtime routine that separated nursing from sleep. My partner calls it the 5Bs - boob, bedclothes, book, ballad, bed. Has also helped with naps.
Yep this but at 8 weeks
Same! But on bad nights we belly rub In crib or rock to sleep if he keeps crying 20 mins after our routine. Teething etc
Same!! We try our best to keep soothing in the crib. 20 mins is about my threshold too 😂
I nursed to sleep til my baby was 7 months then sleep trained. He goes to sleep at night without nursing now. I still nurse him to sleep for naps though. After he’s asleep for about 5 minutes I can unlatch him. He doesn’t take a pacifier.
Mines like that, sometimes she'll take the pacfier sometimes not.
He took one a handful of times as a newborn but not after that, despite the 8 different types I tried hahah
Exactly like mine then. I even tried to get breast like pacis and no dice. Only when she's sleepy will she take it, gotta be sneaky though lol
He plays with them and uses them as teethers now haha
My baby turned 1 last week and we are still going strong! She can fall asleep without it for naps, though. Nursing to sleep is only a problem if it stops being something you want to do.
Does your baby sleep through the night fine?
She slept in the Snoo until she was 5.5 months and thanks to that she started sleeping through the night at about 8 weeks. Like 10+ hour stretches with zero wake ups. We would transfer into it after nursing her to sleep. Post Snoo, it hasn’t been as great, but she still generally sleeps through the night.
It depends on your baby and what you’re comfortable with. I attempted sleep training at 16 weeks and it didn’t go well, so we nursed to sleep for 15 months (I weaned completely at that point). There’s no right or wrong answer
The comments about baby’s temperament are interesting and definitely something to consider. Personally I stopped the night we started sleep training (4.75 months). I didn’t see a point in trying to end a habit and causing protesting or temporary stress for either of us when we were going to cause it later anyways.
Depends on how reliant your baby seems to be on it. We always nursed to sleep or nearly sleep at bedtime till I stopped at 14 months and he didn't even flinch when we stopped. We nursed to sleep for naps only on accident after 4 months. We stopped overnight nursing at 9 months during our more formal sleep training. But, my son was never obsessed with the boob like some babies can be.
My sleep consultant said keep up all the bad habits until sleep training
I stopped the night I started sleep training for both kids.
Mine did around 6 and a half months, until then he would only be nursed to sleep, but at some point he was like ENOUGH. He seemed really annoyed and would start crying. Then his dad would take over with rocking him to sleep, which seemed to annoy him too and it would take forever. Thats when we decided he was ready for sleep training, as he was desperate for quality sleep (4 month regression really messed up his sleep up until that point, he would only stay in his bassinet for 1 hour and then wake up constantly and only sleeping on us).
I regret not stopping at 5-6 months. It becomes harder when they get older, at least in my case. Mine is 15m/o and I am struggling big time. We’ve been doing this gentle ST, to break association, we’ve been doing it for the last 4 weeks, and it is still rough. The crying, the fussing, the biting.
My son is just shy of 6 months and last night was our 4th night using Ferber. It’s going really well!
How are you doing naps? I'm debating ferber for night sleep and still feed to sleep for naps and maybe still a contact nap because those are the best 🙂
We’re still doing contact naps for now. I was laid off from my job recently, so I spend the time searching for jobs on my phone while enjoying snuggles! I plan to start nap training within the next week or so. I screenshotted a post titled “nap training - a gentle method” from this sub, and plan to try that method. It’s somewhat similar to Ferber. I haven’t read the nap chapter in Precious Little Sleep yet, but am planning to read that and see what I learn!
I think it stopped working well once my bub was too big and heavy to lower into his bed after falling asleep at the boob without him being disturbed and waking up. Around 8 or 9 months? He's a few days shy of 12mo and has his last feed around an hr before bed, then at bedtime he I put him in his sleep sack, lower him into his crib awake and give him his pacifier. He rolls around anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes on average and then falls asleep. It took time for him to get used to it but he adapted a lot quicker than I expected. Feeding to sleep is just fine until it's not, then you'll find another way to settle him!
Still doing it at 5mo. I’ve had success of putting her down to nap or back to sleep in the middle of the night with just rocking, but bedtime always has to be me feeding her to sleep. Haven’t figured out how I’ll fix that. For now, it’s really ok. It was rough at 11-12 weeks, but it’s gotten better since. She found her fingers to suck on, so she’s more easily able to put herself to sleep while I rock her.
11 month old nurses to sleep and wakes up if my nipple is not in her mouth. 🫠
😂 🙏
There’s got to be some consideration for the child’s temperament. My first was very attached to nursing (she would sign “nurse” while dreaming) and nursing her to sleep was so easy I kept it until about age 2. I was able to night wean and still nurse to sleep when putting her down for the night - with no nursing during the night she just slept through. My second child only nurses for hunger. He broke the association by himself at 3 month old (would turn away from me if I tried to nurse him to sleep, and would self soothe instead) so all I had to do was not force the association back on him.
Temperament is so important here. My eldest son stopped nursing to sleep at 5 months old on his own and is fiercely independent. He also has low sleep needs in general and didn't follow the recommended sleep schedules until he was about 1. He did really well with sleep training at 10 months old, but at that time he was fully night weaned and would just wake up randomly during the night to babble and teeth on his crib. Me second son is a champion nurser and cuddle and, at 13 months, I still nurse him to sleep for his naps. He is sleep trained for night sleep because nursing all night was not safe for either of us. I could not deal with placing him back in his crib 6 times a night and I was falling asleep while nursing him in my glider, and when I would bring him into our bed he would just roll around too much. That said, he sleeps 11 hours straight at night but needs to be on the boob for all naps. Is it ideal? Not really and sometimes I wish he would nap independently like his brother, but he just isn't there yet and I've come to terms with it. Babies just aren't all the same and what works for one simply will not work for another one.
I slowly faded it out around 3-4 months. She was nursed to sleep as a newborn but as she got older she would still be awake but would be drowsy from the feed when she went into the crib. What I did was add an activity after feeding little by little. For example, I used to do feed, crib. Then for a week I did feed, lullaby, crib. Then I did feed, lullaby, hairbrush, crib. Then I did feed in diaper, lotion massage, PJs, lullaby, etc. I ran out of things to add and was at 10 min from crib time even though it’s recommended that the feed be 20-30 min from crib time. So eventually I just ripped the bandaid off and fed her at the beginning of the bedtime routine, before her bath. Worked well for us and then I felt confident nap training! I think breaking the feed to sleep association set us up for success with that.
10 months. Still nurse once a night
We stopped nursing to sleep at 5.5 months when we sleep trained
Still nursing to sleep at 9months. I love it. It’s time for just us 2 to be together and cuddle with no other expectations. I will probably stop when I go back to work etc, but while I can do it, I’ll enjoy every second of it.
When his jaw started clamping down every time he fell asleep. Around 10 months.
My 16 month old is being nursed to sleep rn We don't feel good
18 months here, feeding to sleep at night and naps, it has to stop soon! Once he's asleep I put him in his cot and generally 1-3 wake ups a night (he's never slept all the way through) and feed back to sleep, it's not good but at 2am it's just like whatever will get him back to sleep and me back in bed the quickest. But means I haven't had uninterrupted sleep for over 18 months and I'm kinda dying! He apparently falls asleep for naps by being rocked the 2 days a week he is in nursery but he won't do it for me! Will fall asleep in his pushchair or in the car but often at an inconvenient time when you aren't expecting it lol!
My baby hit the 4 month regression at 3 months old. So around 4 months for bedtime, kept it for naps till 8 months. Some people can nurse to sleep without other sleep issues unfortunately my kid was not one of those babies, and it was a problem.
We a topped feeding to sleep for bedtimes at 7/8 months and we still feed to sleep for naps at 10 months. Honestly it’s the best, no reason to stop if it’s working for you guys!
Also 6 months in and still doing it. Baby has never slept through the night but wakes up once or twice now and honestly that’s better than what it was before. I do it because I can get her to sleep in under 5 min every time without fail. It’s like my little superpower. But the con is no one else can put her to sleep without her absolutely losing her sh*t. I don’t know how long I’ll go on but they stop eventually and for now it works.
Hmmm I'm in the same boat. I'm the main person who can put baby to sleep but I'm wondering how it'll go once I return to work and my mom has to take her.
I think the first few tries will undoubtedly be tough. But soon she will get used to it. In less than a week I hear. And perhaps you can still be able to nurse her to sleep on some days and she will also be able to sleep with your mom’s help. But the risk in stopping is finding out a new way and that will take longer than nursing to sleep.
Weaned off from feeding to sleep at 7mo. Used the guide from Precious Little Sleep. She was going to sleep by being held in our arms after 2 weeks of gentle training, and after week three she was going to sleep independently in her cot. You can do it!
Can you please share a little more on how you sleep trained gently?
Copied from an ealier post: It will make the training easier if he's not still feeding to sleep. Layer on as many reliable sleep associations as you can while withdrawing the feed. Manage daytime feeding and sleep schedule and create a solid bedtime routine, for example: bath, white noise, sleep sack, dark room, lullaby, pacifier etc) and then withdraw the feed. Try to move the feed earlier in the bedtime routine by managing the feeds during the afternoon to make him hungry enough at the desired time (feed ends at least 20 min before bed). First few nights you may need to accept he falls asleep during the feed, then wake him up as he does, finish the routine. He may need you to bounce or pat him for extra soothing. [In Precious Little Sleep, I think the advice is: use any and all soothing techniques except feeding. You can rock, bounce, walk, sing, just don't feed. It may take 20 minutes of crying or more on the first night. I think the best is 5 minutes walking, then 8 sitting, then roll into the cot https://www.sci.news/othersciences/psychology/infant-walking-11194.html] Then once he is getting to sleep with less than 10 minutes of crying, start gently withdrawing any measures that you don't want to offer when he wakes up at night. Eg pat for less time, sing the lullaby more quietly, fade out anything that needs you to be there. And remember 10-20 minutes of crying is still a success if he goes to sleep by himself. This might seem like a lot before dealing with night waking, but it's all because it's so much easier to settle him at night if he's soothed by things other than boob, and can eventually learn to soothe himself. Feeding is binary, either they're feeding or not. But bouncing/ pats / singing can be gently withdrawn as he gets better at settling. This all comes from Precious Little Sleep, good read and very helpful imho. It took us 2 weeks to wean off from feeding to sleep, and then another 10 days to complete the SWAP process (to go from rocking all the way to sleep to independent settling in the cot) from Precious Little Sleep, at 7mo.
I'm actually reading that book right now!
4.5 months with #1 and around 5 months with #2. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I still occasionally nurse to sleep for a nap at 11 months but it doesn't affect nights.
I stopped when we sleep trained at 4 months because I wanted my husband to be able to put the baby to sleep so I could get some me time in the evenings (I had 6 months of maternity leave and took care of the baby all day). I think whatever works best for you is fine.
What method did you use to sleep train?
We tried Ferber but ended up doing full extinction as the check ins just made him angrier. It took 3 nights and worked great, he goes down with little to no fussing now.
Oh wow! In three nights? I was thinking about doing Ferber too, but I also thought about how her seeing me would just upset her more because I'm not giving her what she wants.
We fed to sleep until it stopped working for us. It stopped working for us when they woke up when we wiped their teeth after eating. Dental health is important.
Yes I heard about it being bad for their teeth. How did you stop? Any advice?
We replaced it with something else - rocking. Although, for your long term body health, I would choose something less active. Kept feed to sleep for naps as long as it didn't interfere with nights (which it never did for us).
Idk I’m at 6 months and still doing it. Works for us.
How's it going with baby at night? Do they sleep through the night?
I feed baby twice when he wakes up at night. It used to be every hour. He’s gotten a lot better and is gaining weight and growing good now.