Feeding to sleep...

[Laurappo]

Nearly 5 month olds naps have gone to total shit. Night time isn't much better but naps are the worst.

I bottle feed and the only way I can get him to settle is to give him a bit of milk. He has about 1 or 2 oz then dozes off. I've tried upping his other feeds by an oz but he isn't interested. Tried moving his feeds to just before a nap but timing means I have to make him cry because he is hungry or tired before that point - which I won't do. Also he doesn't sleep too well if it's just after a big bottle

My HV said this was not good and I need to try other ways. Is it THAT bad? I know it may develop an association which I don't want to do obviously.

I'm just a little deflated at the moment. It's literally the only way I can get him to nap without him getting absolutely massively over tired and going down so upset.

Just wanted thoughts/experiences... he won't entertain a dummy at all.

It’s up to you how bad it is, because the trade off from doing it is yours to handle.

I ended up with a baby who would wake in the night and need 1oz to get back to sleep so I’d be up and down making bottles. It wasn’t too bad because I preferred it to the alternative.

But… I had to sleep train it out of her and it was a pretty horrific week. I did promise myself I wouldn’t do the same again with my second but sometimes you’ve just got to survive.

It depends how long you're happy to do it for. In my experience, once a baby gets into the habit of needing a tiny feed to get back to sleep (IE not waking from hunger) they'll do that until they're 2 or 3 unless you actively train them out of it.

SO if you're happy to do this for the next several years, then keep at it.

But if you think that you're gonna need to stop this in the near to medium future, I'd stop it now. It is MUCH harder to wean or sleep train a 1yr old than it is to do it with a 6m old. And you want to do it before you're desperate.

The alternative doesn't have to be sleep training.

You can layer other associations such as rocking, singing, patting, etc and then gradually ditch the bottle unless they're genuinely hungry.

They'll cry initially but as long as you're there to support them, you're helping them regulate rather than not responding whatsoever.