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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

how bad is feeding to sleep at 4 months old?

21 replies

Moulesfrites · 21/05/2011 18:51

Am I, to adopt one of my most hated cliches, making "a rod for my own back"? DS does go to sleep without being fed for daytime naps etc but on an evening our routine is bath, lullaby music on, bf, during which he invariably falls asleep.

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cece · 21/05/2011 18:54

I BF DS2 to sleep till he was 20 months old. He is 24 months now and goes down fine - the transition was OK.

Spagbolagain · 21/05/2011 19:03

I fed to sleep till we stopped at 13 months. And then he went down just fine after a beaker of cows milk instead.
You are doing something which is wonderfully comforting and soothing for your baby, and will work a charm for getting them to sleep until they are old enough to have a proper routine established. It's brilliant :)

And in any case if you are getting him down without during the day, he's doing really well!

Original poster

Moulesfrites · 21/05/2011 19:09

ok thank you both that is reassuring!!

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Rosemallow · 21/05/2011 19:13

Another one who fed DD to sleep until she was 18 months old. The transition was absolutely fine, no problems at all.
As it happens, DS (3.5 months) rarely feeds to sleep but when he does I'm fine with it.

tiredfeet · 21/05/2011 19:19

I fed ds to sleep (at night and all naps where he wasn't in pushvhair!) until he was about six months old, when he decided of his own accord that he wanted to go to sleep on his own so keep doing what you're doing if it works for you.

Adair · 21/05/2011 19:20

Gawd, ds2 is 4mths and I haven't even begun to put him down yet! Amazed you can get him down for naps at all, let alone without feeding.

Alibabaandthe80nappies · 21/05/2011 19:23

Not bad at all.

I used to feed DS1 to sleep until he was about 20 months. Not always at bedtime - it was an incredibly useful tool for getting him to nap in a strange place during the day if I needed to.

Do it for as long as possible!

DS2 (8 weeks) pings awake again after a feed atm, even if he falls asleep feeding. I am hoping he will cotton on soon, it will make my life a lot easier

whydobirdssuddenlyappear · 21/05/2011 19:25

What everyone else said. I fed DS to sleep till he was 16 months old, at which point he decided he preferred milk from a cup. DD I fed to sleep until she was about 2 and a quarter. Hasn't caused me any problems at all.

LostInTransmogrification · 21/05/2011 19:55

Still feeding DS to sleep at nearly 12 months and will do so till he doesn't want to anymore. I wouldn't worry about creating a rod for your back, I worried for months and it's such a waste of time!

Original poster

Moulesfrites · 21/05/2011 19:57

adair, don't worry, this is a fairly recent development! He was still with us downstairs until a few weeks ago, when the cluster feeding just seemed to stop quite suddenly...

OP posts:

Adair · 21/05/2011 20:02

I keep meaning to try putting him to bed... !

Dd we tried a bedtime routine from 3mths and I tried to put her to sleep awake from 7mths or so... was a right faff.

Ds just fed him to sleep til he didn't anymore. He was downstairs with me til 6mths - slept WAY better!

So ds2 we will just go with flow again. i know what you mean about the cluster feeding - hadn't noticed before, but actually in the last week or so ds is happier to stay asleep in the evening. Fingers crossed.

culturemulcher · 21/05/2011 20:04

It's not bad at all! I fed to sleep for the first 6 - 7 months with both DC, then stopped and after that, they slept straight through the night from then on.

Give yourself a break. When you're ready to try putting them down awake, they'll probably be ready too.

cerealqueen · 21/05/2011 20:07

I fed DD to sleep till she was mine months old, I was told the same things about rod for your back, you are a human dummy (er no, the dummy replicates the comfort a child gets) and was happy to do it. Your Ds can settle himself for naps so I really wouldn't worry about it if I were you. Everybody finds there own way and you will too.

sdotg · 21/05/2011 20:16

Don't worry, still feeding to sleep at night at 16 months.
Nursery manage to get him to sleep without milk and just a few pats on the back...bah ha...no chance for me

sdotg · 21/05/2011 20:17

Also meant to say 4 months is still v little, enjoy the bonding time togeather. I follow the 3 days to make a bad habit and 3 days to break it...

TuttoRhino · 21/05/2011 20:21

Still feeding to sleep at 23 months - not always as she often chats to her self after she's finished feeding while I lie there. It is a lovely gentle way for her to drop off to sleep. She'll grow out of it soon and it will have been at her own pace.

SardineJam · 21/05/2011 20:25

Same as cece , I think that as ds is no longer a baby now, he understands and there was no fuss and bother about stopping bf'ing, and he goes to sleep okay now. Do what feels right for you

Wallace · 21/05/2011 20:32

not bad it's good :)

PartialToACupOfMilo · 21/05/2011 22:28

What a reassuring thread - we're still doing this at 18 months and have no plans to stop!

Funnily enough I was also paranoid about the 'rod for back' message and for the first six months tried to follow the baby whisperer sleep routines. To be fair they were pretty good for bedtime, but I must have spents days (in total obviously!) patting dd's back for daytime naps, each of which lasted about 20 minutes on average. Anyway when we started weaning I suddenly didn't have any other time to put her last BF other than right before bed. Survived about 2 nights maximum of waking her up between feed and sleep, then gave up and fed her to sleep - now wonder why I didn't just do it from the beginning... these books have a lot to answer for!

brettgirl2 · 22/05/2011 16:33

The important thing is that they go to sleep, not how you get there.

OhNoNotTheHoneyBabies · 24/05/2011 09:10

I fed DS to sleep and fed him during the night until we stopped BFing at 2yo. I don't see that there's any problem with it and it's a lovely way to fall asleep for them. All that 'rod for your own back' stuff is a load of tosh IMO.

Just go with whatever you feel in your gut as being the right thing.

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