Feeding to sleep

[charley3005]

FTM an I really wasn't aware I shouldn't feed my baby to sleep, DD is nearly 5 weeks old and every time I have fed her she has fallen asleep, we stayed in the hospital for a week and the midwives didn't mention this to me! Anyone got any tips how I can change this round?

[JohnLapsleyParlabane]

Feeding a 5 week old to sleep is fine! Please don't stress yourself out about it. Have a look on the Kellymom website.

[Philoslothy]

I often fed mine to sleep.

[NickyEds]

Don't. Your baby is tiny and it's perfectly normal to feed to sleep.

[Whenisittimeforwine]

I still feed DS to sleep and he's just turned one! I love it, it's calming, special, snuggly time and when he doesn't do it any more, I'll miss it. Just enjoy the special cuddles and don't let anyone tell you you "shouldn't" do it. Unless of course you want to stop feeding to sleep, in which case I'm not the best person to ask! IMHO, feeding to sleep is natural - if it wasn't meant to put the baby to sleep, it wouldn't work so well!

[LittleSausageFingers]

There's nothing wrong with feeding to sleep, it's totally natural and lovely! What makes you think you shouldn't be doing this? I fed my DD to sleep for 11 months, I still do for naps. We've recently night weaned her and she sleeps just fine. Falls asleep perfectly well for other people when I'm not there. Don't worry about it, especially not when she's so little! Just enjoy the sleepy snuggles

[ASqueakingInTheShrubbery]

I fed DD to sleep for a year, then all of a sudden she didn't want to breastfeed any more. Within a couple of weeks or less she was settling herself to sleep beautifully and still does now.

[StylishDuck]

At that age it's hard not to feed to sleep! When they're not feeding they're sleeping and they don't really do much else. I wouldn't stress about it too much so early on. Just enjoy it. You'll find as the awake times get longer that it's much easier to establish a routine.

Congratulations on your baby

[savagehk]

Another vote for feeding to sleep here. Works fantastically :) if you're happy and baby is happy why change?

[charley3005]

I have struggled to get any wind out of her from day one and when she's asleep it's 10times harder, HV mentioned it the other day that I should try not to feed her to sleep so it would be easier to get wind out of her and that it would be easier to get her to sleep at night as she currently stays awake for hours in the early hours,
Although I think this is down to reflux/colic/CMPI(recently changed her milk to see if this helps)
Motherhood is such a minefield and I don't know what to do for the best!
Should I be waking her for feeds during the day? She's FF

[user1471446433]

I just fed my 22month old back to sleep! It's brilliant & you will miss it when it doesn't work anymore.
My 8 year old put herself to bed tonight, she was fed to sleep until she didn't want to then cuddled to sleep until she wanted to fall asleep alone, which is what she does now.

Congratulations on your baby.

[Lindy2]

Feeding to sleep is great. What easier way to settle a baby? I also think breast milk has something in it to encourage sleep so nature was happy with it too.
Sadly they outgrow it after a while so simply make the most of it while you can and ignore anyone who says anything different!

[Bella1985]

I feel your pain charley. I'm also a FTM - DS is 2 and a half weeks old - and doesn't sleep at night. He feeds to sleep but we struggle to wind him and then he wakes up an hour or two later with trapped wind. Whenever we wind him properly after feeds, he then begins rooting (I bf) rather than go to sleep and we're back in the loop where he doesn't settle to sleep! HV told me he's spending too long at the breast and I should be taking him off after 40mins, putting him down to sleep and removing myself from the room until he settles...this seems a bit harsh for such a young baby! It goes against the message from the midwives at antenatal classes that we should feed on cue and follow the baby's lead...it is so frustrating not knowing what is the right/best thing to do, especially when everyone has their own opinion....

Hope things improve for both of us soon...!

[seven201]

I've been trying to stop the feeding to sleep as when I then move her off me she pings awake. So sometimes it's not a good thing. It is quite lovely very though. We also have the winding issue

If you want to try and stop it try the 'easy' routine from the baby whisperer
E - eat
A - activity - so don't let dc sleep
S - sleep - find a different way to get them to sleep. Self settling is the holy grail, but rocking etc is fine (didn't work for mine though)
Y - you time! Ha!!!

5 weeks is very little though. I'd be inclined to let your dc feed a lot then do a big concerted effort to burp then feed to sleep again.

My dd has silent reflux and cmpa too so I feel you pain with that!

[TheRealCurlySue]

I was always told that if baby is happy and content then don't try to get wind up. If you are breastfeeding then she shouldn't need winding anyway as they don't swallow the air formula fed babies do.

[MoreThanUs]

Yes to waking them during the day to feed them. There's no point in them sleeping 4-5 hours in the day - that's what you want at night. I'd be feeding every 3 hours during day, in hope that they're well fed and will have extended sleep periods at night.

[bluechameleon]

My bottle fed baby always fed to sleep - I think it's the most natural thing when they are little, however they are feeding.