Hi all,
I had my first son in 2018 and he took to breastfeeding really well. I was so naive and new to babies so I used the boob for everything as I just assumed ‘breast was best’ and every time I fed him and felt that I was doing good by him. He never took a bottle for a year so I had to be with him day and night. He would go to sleep around 7 and wake at 11 and we would then co sleep with him in the boob all night until 5/6am.
I used the boob if he whined or cried. I used boob to send him off to sleep. I used it for snacking... it was just like a reflex. I couldn’t stand to hear him in discomfort and it always worked so easily... I never realised how much of a rod I was making for my own back and how much I was affecting his relationship to food. He’s a big boy and I understand now that I wasn’t able to give him enough of a feed for him to feel full. In hindsight I should have gotten him onto the bottle a starter formula from around 3/4 months.
I now have an incredibly lazy, picky eater who still wakes in the night and still needs a bottle to get off to sleep. He doesn’t understand about food and will just graze all day. I am at my wits end after another rejected dinner..he will eat grapes all day long and nothing else.
This has obviously led to sleep problems. He will wake up at around 3am, hungry. He will come into our bed and want a bottle of milk. I don’t know how many more sleepless nights I can take after two years of this. We now have another baby and taking care of both of them is impossible on broken sleep. The baby sleeps better than my toddler.
I feel so awful.. I’ve completely set him up to fail with food. I was so naive and just thought that breast milk trumped anything else. It’s really affected my ability as a Mum and my relationship with him. When I’m sleep deprived I can hardly talk, let alone play with him or take him out.
Has anyone else had this experience? I’m sorry for the long question .. I’m just at my wits end after another interrupted night
Thank you x
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2.5 Year Old Still Waking
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helloandthankyou · 17/04/2021 22:46
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