Night self soothe

[SYA23]

My 5 month old used to self soothe at night perfectly fine! Then last couple of nights he’s clearly woken in the night and unlike before where he would just nod back off he’s whining for over an hour (almost like a wake window) and by then his night feed is due.
im panicking because I’m getting the feeling he needs to be fed to sleep. Everywhere I read says to get them out of this habit asap else they’ll be reliant on it. Could it be that he’s become used to feed to sleep that he now can’t self settle if he wakes?
I keep being recommended a sleep consultant but just don’t know what to do! And yet earlier in the week he slept 12 hours straight! Help!

I’d guess it’s one of two things:

1. a developmental sleep regression from learning a new skill
2. teeth they're both annoying, but at least short lived. Personally, I’d hold off 2 weeks on the sleep consultant to see if it comes back

Both of mine went through this phase around 5-6 months and we just went with the flow and fed them an extra bottle if they needed it. They start getting quite hungry at that age! Both of them settled again after a few weeks and once they started weaning it massively helped too x

My second guess would be teeth though!

Feeding to sleep isn't necessarily a bad thing. Hate that narrative. If you weren't feeding to sleep you'd be rocking/cuddling/sushing etc so why is feeding to sleep any different? I don't know any adults that still feed to sleep (maybe me after a night out and a takeaway?). They'll stop doing it eventually, or you'll change how you support them to sleep if feeding to sleep is not what you want to do anymore.

Anyway if you don't want to feed to sleep you can find something else that works. Sleep is not linear and you'll find good and bad patches and that's all normal.

Thanks everyone. It’s really reassuring and I feel like I can stop pressurising myself as it feels like you’re being told a lot of do not feed to sleep but it’s like well it works for my little one is it so bad?

The thing with sleep is it goes up and down, so there will be times where they wake more for whatever reason and the easiest thing is just to go with it. Could he be thirsty and needing the fluids given that it’s so warm? Could it be that he’s about to learn something new? Teeth? Or a growth spurt?
i fed all of mine to sleep until they came off bottles at 12months. All manage to sleep just fine now!

I used to stress myself out so much worrying about creating bad habits or sleep associations, but with my second I went with my instincts more and I have cuddled, fed and rocked her to sleep and I hold her for some naps if I feel like we both need a cuddle. She's been a much better sleeper than my first so maybe the more laid back approach has rubbed off on her! Around 7 months she seemed to just enjoy going in her cot and taking herself off to sleep so she kind of did it under her own steam. Whatever you decide it's clear you're a lovely kind and caring mum so your little one will be just fine