Helping baby sleep

[hannjocelyn]

My little man is 6 months old now and he seems to always want to go to sleep with a bottle. Even if he's not due a feed, the minute he gets a bottle in his mouth he will go to sleep. Has anyone tried the timer tippee pacifiers? Are they any good?.

He doesn't seem to like dummies. Any that I have bought him he really doesn't take to them so just wondering cause they are teat like he may take to them.

I have tried teddies and blanket but nothing seems to work apart from a bottle.

Any ideas would be appreciated

You could try different dummies, maybe he would take better to a particular type? We use Phillips Avent and DD took to them straight away but not all babies take to dummies unfortunately. I wouldn't worry too much about sleeping on the bottle yet, he is still v young. Maybe in the meantime you could try water in a bottle if he's not due for a feed when you want him to have the bottle to go to sleep? Not as bad for his teeth as milk (altho if he doesn't have any teeth yet then not an issue just yet anyway). Will he sleep in the car or pram without a bottle? Or being rocked? I know you might not want to replace one habit with another tho. Honestly he's so little though his sleep will change loads over the next 6 months I wouldn't worry.

Thank you for your reply.

He does go to sleep in the pram and car without a bottle. The problem seems to be more at night time. I don't want him getting used to going in the car to go to sleep. I have tried different dummies but he just doesn't take to them so I don't force him.

I try with water sometimes but he knows it's not milk so he won't drink it, he just plays with the bottle.

Sometimes I get my baby to sleep when I'm singing softly and I am assuming I have a beautiful voice haha

You could try gradual retreat type method with the bottle - No Cry Sleep Solution is a good guide to that. I attempted it for a short while with DD's dummy at around that age or maybe a bit younger and it wasn't going to work at all as she instantly got super upset so gave up. but we used the principle again to get her to go to sleep without being rocked on us to on her own in her cotbed and that took months as we took it at her pace to minimise tears and it worked really well for that. So might be worth a look. But honestly don't stress about it, your DC is still soooo young. Chances are he will just stop doing it of his own accord as he gets bigger anyway.

Ewan the dream sleep helps us loads