Feeding to sleep advice 14 weeks old

[newmumjc]

Hello

FTM to a lovely little 14 week old boy and just looking for some advice/experiences.

Since birth he has been fed to sleep almost 100% of the time (breast feeding on demand) just by chance really.. I was new to it all, he aways fell asleep on the breast and then I would contact nap or put him in basket.

My question is really should I be trying to phase this out anytime soon?? I really enjoy it and have no need to stop anytime soon but I am wondering if I am going to make things difficult for him in the future??

During the day for his naps he doesn't often feed to sleep anymore... more often than not though that is because he falls asleep in the pram on our walks or in car if we are running errands. Sometimes I rock/bounce him to sleep but at bedtime and through the night feeds he still feeds until asleep and then I put him down (and for the most part he stays asleep when down until next feeding) I really just want to make sure I am doing right by him.... I do feel he is still so little and it is natural but would like to hear some experiences from more experienced mums. I am aware that at some point he will need to sleep independently and I would like to make that as stress free for him as possible when the time comes.

Thank you for any help/advice

I could have written your post at 14 weeks! We had a good sleeper who seemed to be able to link cycles (e.g. 5 hour stretches at night), and naps seemed straightforward but always always fed to sleep then transferred. It worked for us, but I was so consumed by the idea of creating 'bad habits'. We're now 6 months down the line, and my baby has naturally moved towards self settling, sometimes needing to be rocked and sometimes needing to be fed e.g. if in a new unfamiliar environment of very over tired. My advice to you is do not overthink it - if it stops working, you can address it then. In our case she started to wake when being moved after falling asleep feeding, and we experienced many 'false starts' when fed to sleep from around 4 months. For now, focus on creating sleep cues and consistency in environment e.g. sleep mostly happens in the cot, a simple bedtime routine, maybe start going by wake windows. He will guide you when he's ready for more independence ❤

If you're enjoying it absolutely carry on. I don't really believe in bad habits. I fed to sleep my little one and contact naps too. I blinked he's now at school and doesn't get fed to sleep or nap at all! Cherish every single moment x

Nope, feed him to sleep! It works for a reason. There will come a time, probably just before a year, when it will no longer work and he will be a nightmare to get to sleep because of all the brain development around mobility. Until then, do it! We did it until it no longer worked and then we did something else. You need sleep now more than anything.

Thank you so much for the reassurance everyone! I will continue for as long as it continues to work. It feels natural for now :) thank you x

No keep going and keep up the good work 💪

DD fed to sleep until she was 13 months!

I was dreading the transition but it was so much easier than I expected.

I fed both mine to sleep til well over 2. And in the night if they wanted. No regrets, they were comforted, I enjoyed the snuggles, they are calm and happy kids.

You do have to be careful about teeth as it goes on, it's true - but I was fastidious about cleaning them morning and night, and so far no cavities into late primary school.

Feeding to sleep is perfectly natural. It's the perfect bedtime routine.

At some point you'll find it doesn't work as well as it used to and that's when your baby has outgrown the feed to sleep stage. It comes to a natural end - sadly! You will probably wish for the feed to sleep magic stage again when you are trying to get a wide awake toddler to just go to sleep for the 20th time in one evening.

Agree with this. I’ve just fed my 13 month old to sleep. He likes to do this at bedtime and it still works well for us both. He’s never really done it for naps. I fed my older two to sleep until 14/15 months and then they didn’t really fancy it any more.

I’m a big believer in doing what works for you and your baby and ignoring any books or instagram advice about what you “should” be doing. I tried so hard to stick with all of that with my eldest and nearly drove myself mad. He’s now five, doing well at school, and the time spent agonising over his “too short” naps was well and truly time wasted.

I fed both my to sleep, they are now 9 and 12 and definitely sleep independently and through the night! Try and ignore all the "should" things, block out what others do and enjoy being with your baby.

It works because it works! Miss those days, enjoy

He’s 14 weeks old.

I mean this kindly because I had the same worries. But he’s been here not even 4 months. There’s things in my freezer far older than him.just enjoy him, don’t worry about what you should be doing. Lots of people will tell you to not feed him to sleep because he needs to learn. But he also needs to learn to walk and talk, and live alone, and get a job, but we’re not worrying about those things today. And Ive yet to meet an adult who’s mum pops over to breastfeed them to sleep, so I’m confident your ds is gonna figure out sleeping without it at some point. Just do what works for you for now.

I would say definitely don’t worry about this if it’s working for you! I fed to sleep until it didn’t work anymore - unfortunately this was a lot earlier for us than a lot of people posting here; around 4.5 months. My baby went through the sleep maturation around this time (commonly known as the 4 month sleep regression, but it’s not a regression), and had a big drop in sleep needs and it didn’t work anymore - he would be awake immediately on unlatching.

After that point, sleep became a nightmare, with hours of rocking and shushing and him getting more and more angry before conking out from exhaustion, until I realised my DS actually wanted space to self settle. Worked out his sleep needs to make sure he was tired enough at bedtime, and sleep trained him at 5 months, with very little fuss and within 3 nights he was taking himself off to sleep in a couple of minutes with no upset. ETA: still did one or two feeds during the night after this til he self night weaned himself at 7 months.

hopefully feeding to sleep works for you for as long as you want! But if it does stop working for you, or you don’t want to do it anymore, don’t be afraid - there are ways to help your baby learn to sleep after the age of 4-5 months without feeding to sleep when the time comes!