Walking/feeding baby to sleep

[Djockey101]

Hi all,
We have a wonderful 6 month old baby girl who is generally a very laidback and happy baby. She is smiley and sociable and I feel so lucky for that. However, I’m worried I’ve made some bad habits. She sleeps really well in the pram and will fall asleep quickly if I walk her in it, and typically she falls asleep at night when breastfeeding.
I am now trying to get her used to sleeping in her cot for naps during the day, which is not going particularly well. I have to BF her to sleep and even then she will only do 10-30 mins max in her cot. I can’t put her down drowsy, she has to be asleep already. The same goes for nighttimes, which means I often spend hours BF to sleep and then transitioning when she’s already asleep. I realise this is not sustainable in the long term. I’ve tried putting her down awake and sitting quietly in the room/the Ferber method but neither seems to be working.
Any advice would be so appreciated 🙏🏻
Thank you

Get the Ferber sleep training book and follow its advice.

I fed my first baby to sleep and it turned out to be a big, big mistake.

I left the next three babies to fall asleep by themselves. One of them even slept through the night from 6 weeks, and all four of them were EBF for years.

And you have to persevere with Ferber and do exactly what the book says.
I ended up sleep training my first baby when she was 2 and a half.
Ferber worked by night number 3.

Personally I don’t see anything wrong with feeding to sleep. My son is breastfed and I’ve always fed him to sleep. He’s a great sleeper and has slept through the night pretty much from birth (not always consistently but most nights). When he was really little we had to wake him up to feed him. The only problem is naps. He will not sleep in his cot unless he knows it’s bedtime. He will sometimes nap in his pram but otherwise only on me. I don’t really mind this though. Contact naps are lovely for bonding and I will take no breaks during the day if it means I get a good nights sleep.

Why is the pram walk such a bad habit? Or feeding to sleep? She won't necessarily sleep longer if you get her to sleep a different way. PLEASE don't do Ferber. He recommends letting babies cry until they are sick. The book literally describes what to do if your baby gets so upset they vomit. It is absolutely disgusting and we will look back on this kind of 'sleep training' as the awful treatment it is in the future.

Sleeping downstairs or on the sofa with you or in the pram means more flexibility that she won’t only sleep in her cot/darkened room

Why does it matter? Surely sleeping in the pram is more convenient then having to be at home in a cot multiple times a day? She won’t be a baby forever. I’d personally be happy with your current situation and not want to risk upsetting her by trying Ferber.

Yeah he’s not really recommended for babies anymore. Grim.

https://www.wchc.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/SaferSleep_6-12months.pdf

fyi

NHS does not recommend it

I always fed to sleep- breast milk is designed to do that, it contains sleep inducing hormones. Eventually it got easier on its own. I wouldn't fret. That whole talk about bad habits and drowsy-but-awake is the kind of language the sleep training industry has made a thing. It's not actually necessary to follow those "rules". If your baby also falls asleep in the pram, it means she does not rely on feeding to be able to fall asleep.

Have you tried a sling too for naps?

Ferber is abusive.

Babies need closeness.

DD only ever fed to sleep or slept in the sling. She is now 6 and goes to bed happily and conks out herself. I was told so many times that I was getting her into bad habits and setting her up for a lifetime of sleep problems. If she sleeps in the pram when walked to sleep and it isn't causing you issues then it is all fine.