Will a fed to sleep baby ever sleep through?

[Russell19]

My baby is 4 months old, has always fed to sleep at night (first time mum, ebf baby, now being told it's a bad habit etc).

He was going to sleep around 8pm and waking around 12 and 3 for feeds. Now he's asleep at 8pm but wakes at 8.30pm and then near enough every hour all night long. I am shattered. If I feed him he will sleep very quickly but wakes within an hour again. I have tried other means for him to sleep again, shush, pat, white noise, cuddling, husband taking over, nothing else seems to work.

I am sure he's doing it for comfort not because he's hungry, he doesn't wake up crying he is just kicking around groaning.

This has been going on around 3 weeks, please give me some advice or tell me he will sleep for longer soon! Haha. I don't mind feeding to sleep if he slept for longer in the night but will that ever happen?

@Russell19 my little one is still in my room in a cot bed over the far side as I found if she was next to me in the crib she would wake because she smelt my milk. She started sleeping better then.

She's eight months old and it may be time for her to go in her own room as she is getting disturbed by my husband being restless and also my dog. I plan to have a blow up bed in her room to stay for a while then gradually retreat as I am with you, I feel like I'd be up and down all the time

In answer to your question we did move him to his own room at 6 months but only because he'd outgrown his next to me crib! There is a spare bed in his room if need be but not needed these days.

Safe co-sleeping will be your saviour. If necessary kick husband out the bed to facilitate this. Make sure you use a bed guard or next to me cot to keep little one safe. Firm mattress, no alcohol etc etc....you will hardly wake as baby snuggles. (I fed to sleep ds1 - he's now a strapping lad who sleeps well )

OP we had a double bed in DDs room, so when she was 6m(ish) I'd feed her to sleep, put her in her cot, try and have an evening with my DH, and whenever she woke in the night I'd go through to her and we'd both get into the big bed and I'd feed or cuddle her to sleep.

We only got rid of the big bed at about 4y when we had a big rearrange of furniture. Tbh we hardly used it for the last 18m, only when she was ill.

It worked really well for us, she never 'came into our room' which we heard lots of people bemoaning, and since about 3y she's slept very well (apart from periods of illness).

@DragonOnFire love your post thank you so much!

Hi! Resurrecting this thread to ask if anyone has switched from breastfeeding to formula when your baby has previously fed to sleep. I want to switch at 6 months (ish) but have no idea how I'll get my baby to sleep! Losing my mind!

I've tried a bit of mixed feeding with my little one when he was around 3-4 months old. We tried giving the hungry baby formula at around 10pm, husband gave it and would usually hold baby to sleep on his shoulder. Made no difference to his frequent night wakings. Husband had one nightmare of a night getting him down (whilst I slept peacefully unawares) and told me next morning that he couldn't be up till 1am trying to get the little one down again!!
Went back to co-sleeping so I can breastfeed LO to sleep and we've been doing it ever since.
As an update, he is 7 months old and in full time nursery as we are both back at work FT.
His daytime naps are spot on- he has 3 good naps with a 2 hour lunch-time kip. He comes home and I feed him to sleep at 6pm, dream feed him at 10pm and again at 2am. I have a watch that monitors my sleep and my night time waking is minimal (less than 10 minutes over the night) so I'm getting enough to sleep to keep up with my work.
I had a meal out with my colleagues last week, husband gave the LO 8oz of formula and there was no mahicaly change in his sleep pattern. Guessing it's ingrained now.
So many formula fed babies seem to sleep better, but my LO settles quickly and the disturbance is minimal. Recently switching to pampers nappies at night has helped him settle even more quickly.
Hope someone has some positive advice about formula, if that's what you want to do then maybe your LO will eventually adapt and settle & sleep for you!?!

This is the four month sleep regression. It’s utter hell.

I have a 6 nearly 7 month old. So it’s still fresh in my mind...

Most babies feed to sleep. It’s normal and has no bearing on how they will sleep in the long run. My first was ff. She fed to sleep until around 6 months, dropped all night feeds on her own at 9 months, but didn’t sleep through the night until 3.5. My 2nd was bf and fed to sleep until about 13 months. He has always been by far a better sleeper. He doesn’t sleep through most nights but at nearly 2, he wakes once, is super easy and hasn’t had a night feed since about 13/14 months. They are all different but you do what works while it works and no formula won’t make it magically easier.

Feeding to sleep is the best tool an ebf mother has, it is actual magic. Go with it, 4 months is bad regardless

Whatever you hear about bad habits is complete crap. Women have been feeding babies to sleep for thousands of years! Both my children were frequent wakers with DD sleeping through around 2 years old and DS around 1. They would wake anywhere from 2-8 times a night without fail.

Thanks everyone, my main concern is that my baby won't sleep when I go back to work. My husband will have to do some bed times on his own and it seems unfair that I'm removing the only way he knows how to get to sleep. I don't mind the feeding to sleep but I don't want to feel like I'm abandoning him and that he will be crying all night

@Russell19 - completely understand your concern, I had the same.

If it’s of any consolation, when my husband does bedtime with our son, he’s pretty quick to fall asleep (ie without being fed to sleep). The crux, for us, is that my son is perfectly happy to be settled by his papa when I’m not in the house; however, when I am here, only I will do. :)

OP, I'm still feeding to sleep my 6-month-old; we're somewhere between 4 and 4 million wake-ups a night... And doing nothing about it! Join us here if you'd like:

Waiting it out www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/3695769-waiting-it-out

Babies are adaptable and if you're not available at bedtime, will likely fall asleep for dad in a different way. Keep the routine the same – books, bath, etc – then dad can rock or cuddle. Our daughter is 99% fed to sleep at bedtime but will accept being waltzed by her dad at bedtime; it just takes longer. On the other hand in the middle of the night her feeds now take ages – too much fun, I guess – whereas he can hold her to sleep in 2 minutes flat.

My 17mo son is still fed to sleep if he is with me, and he sleeps through most nights now. If I’m not there he falls asleep happily by himself (so for his father, grandparents, nursery etc). His dad was able to get him to sleep in the sling from quite a young age, and from 7/8mo ish he could be cuddled to sleep by others and then transferred to the cot, and now he goes into the cot awake and settles himself down. With me he wouldn’t accept anything except the sling or feeding to sleep but I was fine with that.

Some great posts thanks! Maybe I just need to bite the bullet and go out and let my husband figure something out! I don't think I'm giving him chance as I jump in straight away.

Yes.
Dc1 at 11 months
Dc2 at 3 years
Dc3 at 14 months
Wouldn't change it for the world. Fed to sleep is such a special thing.