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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

How to break pattern of feed before nap/sleep?????

9 replies

LuckyOwl28 · 28/01/2014 16:03

I have a 9.5 month old and she as been ebf but having 3 meals a day since about 7-8 months which is going well. I would appreciate any advice on what I should do to stop her being so reliant on me for a feed before sleep. Her pattern is generally this:

8am Wake
9am Porridge and water in sippy cup
10am Breastfeed and nap
11am Wake
12-1pm Dinner and water
230pm Breastfeed and nap
4pm Wake
5pm Tea and water
7pm Breastfeed and Bed
4-5am Breastfeed

If her naps are shorter she sometimes needs three, so has an extra feed.

Sometimes after a breastfeed I can put her down awake and she'll chatter herself off to sleep, so she doesn't fall asleep mid feed. But God help me if I try to put her down without that feed! I just don't know how to adapt her routine so that she doesn't rely on me so much before sleeps. I enjoy breastfeeding but just can't see it ever ending and feel guilty that I have to break a routine she's happy with. My husband looked after her for the day recently and she was rooting and became agitated before each sleep. She won't take a bottle and doesn't take enough from a sippy cup.

Sorry for the rambling post but would appreciate any tips!!

OP posts:

curlyclaz13 · 28/01/2014 16:08

I need to do the same. Similar routine at 7.5 months. Ds will fall asleep in pushchair or sling if not fed to sleep. I am back at work in five weeks so he needs to sleep without boob.

NickyEds · 28/01/2014 16:10

Controversial but -Dummy?? My nephew was the same and my sister gave him a dummy just for going off to sleep-worked a treat

weebairn · 28/01/2014 18:16

I was the same at this age, though I just bit the bullet and let DP take her out more, and she did learn to nap in other ways - pushchair or sling usually. Sometimes he rocked her to sleep. I continued to feed to sleep though and I still do at bedtime.

Lots of people say this forms bad habits but it's not been my experience. She is 16 months now and doesn't feed in the day and naps easily. I also feed her to sleep and she sleeps through the night which is amazing.

Maybe this post isn't that helpful, if you need to change things now and are finding the feeding hard. But if your worry is things will never change, that wasn't my experience - they just did, with age, quite naturally.

ps. I also was feeding her through the night at 10 months and then went to work and did night shifts and she was fine, needed some cuddles, but no hysterics. Sometimes they are more adaptable than we think….

Original poster

LuckyOwl28 · 28/01/2014 19:47

I've got nothing against dummies but would worry if she started relying on that it would be another thing to get rid of as she gets older. Will bear in mind though!

weebairn

I hope you're right and it all happens naturally!

OP posts:

NickyEds · 28/01/2014 20:38

There used to be this address- sort of like a "letter to Santa" address that you could send "the last dummy" to and they would return a Big Boy/Girl certificate for the little one. I think that's what my sister did- but come to think of it he probably was a bit old to still have his -2 maybe. It was a great idea though!!

Sunflower1985 · 28/01/2014 21:16

This is how things are with my 6 mo. Work is looming but I was hoping he'd naturally transition as we weaned.
He's bf and ff but just won't take a dummy. Been trying since birth as we read it reduces SIDS.
Anyway, so no tried and tested ideas. Perhaps swapping things around so it's feed play sleep. Start with a few minutes of play between feed and sleep and see how it goes from there???

Original poster

LuckyOwl28 · 29/01/2014 08:50

I may start giving her feed downstairs before taking her up to sleep. Once she turns 1 I'll try giving her cows milk in a sippy rather than feeding her myself. Does that sound like a reasonable plan??

Also do you think I'm feeding her too much??

OP posts:

weebairn · 29/01/2014 08:55

No i don't think you're feeding her too much. Babies vary anyway, but that sounds very appropriate for a 9 month old.

Personally I dropped the daytime / pre-nap feeds at 10 months, and I dropped the night feeds at 14 months. This was led by me and to do with work, but she was quite accepting of it. Now we just do morning and bedtime. I have other friends whose babies are 16 months or older and still feed many times in the day and night. If mums are ok with it, that's fine too. Some mums struggle with that, and so they work out ways to compromise.

I don't really think there is such a thing as feeding her too much. It's what she & you are happy with. Breastfeeding is a relationship -they don't all work the same way.

All your plans sound fine :)

naty1 · 29/01/2014 12:25

Yes i think it is better if they start to settle themselves to sleep.
I worried once i stopped she would never sleep.
As they get older they get more active and do tire out more naturally.
I do quakers porridge
Play then nap
Could you move breakfast earlier to sooner after getting up.
Or bf first so she gets that without falling asleep
Watch put for signs of tiredness i find within 3 hours of waking so eye rubbing or i find increasing naughtiness and grizzling and put them down then.
(I did resort to a bit of CC to get her used to settling without me.)
You are just taking the dummy away:)

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