Do babies grow out of falling asleep on the breast...?

[DevonDevon]

...because I think mine has and I don't know what to do!! DD 6 months always used to feed to sleep for naps, at bedtime and during the night, but for the last few weeks she has stopped feeding to sleep for naps altogether, and is very hit and miss about feeding to sleep at bedtime (it can take up to 2 hours of feeding, rocking, feeding whilst rocking, shushing, bum patting etc to get her to fall asleep, regardless of whether she's overtired or just sleepy, some nights she just won't feed to sleep at all).

During the night will shortly be the subject of another thread but basically we're cosleeping at the moment because she wakes up the minute we try to transfer her to the cosleeper cot... she generally falls asleep by 8pm, wakes at 9pm, 10/11pm, 2/3am, 4am, 5am, 6am and 7am then awake for the day at 7.30/7.45am. I usually try to feed her back to sleep (as I'm bloody knackered!!) but sometimes it doesn't work

Is this just a phase that babies go through or do some just grow out of falling asleep feeding?

Anybody else had this?

Hiya love, sounds like a tough time at the moment. The long bedtimes are a killer. I had them with my first daughter, now 2.5, my 7 month old baby has been much easier on that front., but she sometimes likes to guzzle milk all night.

My older girl always fell asleep feeding but my younger one hardly ever does.

I don't know if someone else will come along with various tips and tricks in a minute.

I have found with both of mine they go through phases - some good, some bad - and they always come out of them in the end. So I am more of the ride-it-out school of thinking, and when my baby is being hard at night (the toddler sleeps through consistently) I try and work around the problem - more help in the day, co-sleeping - until it passes.

I don't know if that's helpful at all but I wanted you to know you're not alone. And that these things always pass. They do.

Just a thought but has she started on solids yet, just wondering if she could be hungry?

My DD fed to sleep, she had odd patches where it wouldn't work for some reason. It always seemed to be the case that just when I was at my wits end or thought of a solution the issue resolved itself and something else cropped up!

It's exhausting isn't it, I always think an hour at night feels like two or three in the day!

DD got more reliant on the dummy and that broke her feeding to sleep. I don't think a dummy is necessarily the ideal solution though, we've got to get rid of it at some point!

We used to have to rock her for hours, it was crap. I gradually managed to get it so we would sit on the bed cuddling her, then sit next to her with a hand on her chest. Still took ages though, she isn't quick to fall asleep!

forgive me for taking a different view, but don't you actually want her to grow out of falling asleep while feeding? you can't carry on with that forever so seems an ideal opportunity to move on and towards a more independent bed time

I was coming to this thread to respond 'not yet and mine just turned two' because I thought you were asking a diferrent question.

I would have fed my 6 mth old lying down on the bed, so no sushing, patting or rocking and I honestly can't remember how long it took.

The answer is always 'it's just a phase' because nothing really stays constant in the first year.

Sounds really stressful. Hope it passes for you soon.

Yeah feeding to sleep sort of stopped working routinely for us at this age. I never fed to sleep at bedtime (rocked and bounced, mostly) but during night he would generally doze straight back after a feed. Then that stopped happening so much, leading to nighttime rocking/bouncing stints and my knees not being able to take it anymore!

We did PUPD to try to break the rocking habit - not a miracle cure, but I put him down awake now and shush-pat/cuddle him to sleep - he does tend to protest a bit, he just won't settle peacefully unless rocked, but frankly the physical cost to be joints was too great to keep that up!

Thanks so much everyone for your replies. I do keep telling myself that it won't be like this forever but it's hard to believe at 3am!! We started on solids a few weeks ago (doing BLW) and it doesn't seem to have affected her sleep. She was pretty bad for a good few weeks before starting weaning tbh

Plateofcrumbs I know what you mean about your knees, my back and knees are buggered from all the rocking and carrying...

waiting78 yes maybe I should take this as an opportunity to help DD learn to fall asleep in other ways. I won't always be home for bedtime if I go back to work at 12 months

I'd take the opportunity to let her fall asleep alone if she doesn't get too upset by it. You never know, she might do it without too much difficulty. My ds1 stopped feeding to sleep for naps at 4 months and bed time at 8 months. I was horrified as it had been such an easy way of getting him to sleep, but after a few days In decided to see if he'd settle alone. I would feed him, he'd be a bit sleepy but definitely awake, then I'd start singing a lullaby and put him in his cot and leave. The first time he cried so I went back straight away, fed him more and he slept. I did the same thing each time - if he just grizzled or was quiet I left him to it but if he cried I went right back in. He was falling asleep easily by himself within a few weeks and I never had to leave him to properly cry. Amazing! (He didn't sleep through though...still woke once a night until well over one...sorry!)