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Breaking feed to sleep habit

2 replies

Yunabrasca · 27/07/2021 22:04

My baby who is nearly 7 months now is always breast fed to sleep. It gets him to sleep very quickly now and he sleeps in his own room and everything, but he will not go to sleep unless I feed him. We have an established bedtime routine which I know he’s used to now of bath, book, breast and bed. I’ve tried feeding before the book but it doesn’t seem to work. He’ll just gurgle away for ages and then start waking and more and then crying. He’ll then be inconsolable till he gets fed again. I’ve tried a dummy (different types) and he’s rejected them all. I’ve tried switching to a bottle but he’s rejected that. No amount of shushing , singing, rocking , stroking works. In fact it just riles him up more.

I wouldn’t mind so much, it’s just that it means since he’s been born I’ve not had a night to myself. My partner isn’t able to help me get him to sleep so I feel stuck and exhausted of having to be the only one getting him to sleep. And it means my day is essentially over when he goes to bed coz if he wakes up again I just have to keep going up or just simply stay there with him.

Has anyone else had this and been able to break the cycle? Everyone always says to try these other things but they they just make him more upset and more awake. They don’t work at all. I don’t really know what to do

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mayblossominapril · 27/07/2021 22:22

They just grow out of it at some point. Ds was about 2 when he stopped feeding to sleep. Dd is showing signs at a year of breaking the habit.
I don’t put dd to bed until I go to bed, I just leave her rolling round the living room floor playing whilst I watch tv.

Yunabrasca · 27/07/2021 23:01

Mmmm ok. Yeah, I know he will eventually grow out of it. My issue though is that I have to go back to work soon and my work is mostly evenings. So if he won’t sleep unless I’m there to feed him it’s going to be a nightmare for my partner. We did try it once where I went out for a couple hours in the evening, but came back to them just getting back in the car coz he woke up and screamed the entire time I was gone ! Apparently it was a disaster, and the last option to try and get him to stop screaming without me there was to drive him around.

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