Feeding to sleep....

[itisnotacompetitionyouknow]

My DS is now 6 months old. I have mostly bfed him to sleep, at night time and when he seems to need a nap. There has been the occasional time when this wasn't neccessary (read a story, stroked to sleep, etc.), but not very often.

It has occurred to me (though should have sooner) that this has been quite a bad habit to get into because now I've got to break it at some point in his life.

Tried tonight to put him down awake after a big, long feed, so know he wasn't hungry. I stroked him but he was very determined to get up and crawl. So I lay on the bed whilst he crawled around his cot, occasionally hitting his head and crying, when I gave up and fed him again. He then fell asleep on the boob.

Will being fed to sleep have to be something I break deliberately, or can they grow out of it?

Is he going to be harder to put to bed at the moment as crawling is a new skill and maybe when he feels he's mastered it he won't want to crawl about when I put his to bed?

I don't really want to be doing any hard line sleep training, or does this end up being the only way??

You are not alone - most peple who feed to sleep have this panic.
DS was fed to sleep until about 2, then he just started being awake at the end of a feed. DD is 18 months and only feeds to sleep occasionally, she has a feed, then a daddy cuddle, when she sleeps.
Whatever you do will change,

Feeding to sleep is one of the big advantages to breastfeeding and yes they naturally grow out of it.

Sleep training is completely optional, it is something I don't use. I wait until my children sleep through on their own which can vary a lot (so far from 3 weeks to 16 months !) but is much easier IMO than trying make them sleep when they are not ready.

Personally I would keep doing it. I fed DS1 until he was 2, and could always use a BF to get him to nap if I needed to - but he would fall asleep without it in the evenings once he was about a year old.

You are right about the crawling thing being new and therefore he wants to practice it. DS1 was like that when he learned to stand up - for about a fortnight we would put him down to go to sleep, and he would immediately stand up again, laughing and refuse to lie down. It passed :)

Agree with everyone above. It stops working at some point, or they start going to sleep on their own more.

BF to sleep stopped working for naps (unless overtired) at 8 months for us. It still works at bedtime at 15 months, thankfully: DS and I both love it. DS can be rocked to sleep too though.

Recently DS has increasingly been wanting to go to sleep more independently, so when he wakes in the night he feeds, comes off the breast, rolls around till he's comfy and then goes to sleep. Before, I'd have to unlatch him when he was out cold.

As AliBaba says, it'll definitely be harder to get him to sleep at the moment with crawling.

If you do want to look at strategies to help him along going to sleep more independently, the No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley is helpful.