What is wrong with feeding to sleep?

[jmarm]

Would be interested to hear people's thoughts on this.

I feed my 20 week old DS to sleep. It was the only way to get him to go to sleep & now it works beautifully.

However, there is a nagging voice in my head saying that is a BAAAD thing to do.. All the books say put the baby down sleepy but awake - sounds perfect in theory but never works for me. But because of the general idea that feeding to sleep is bad I am now getting guilt feelings that I shouldn't be feeding him to sleep anymore.

My mum says I need to relax - she says babies grow out of everything & that he will be able to go to sleep on his own at some point!

Would be v interested to hear if others have breastfed to sleep and at what age your babies didn't need the boob to drop off!

I fed my DS to sleep, now 10 months. Not intentionally, he always just fell asleep while he was there, and I wasn't going to wake him just to put him back again! He now goes to sleep on his own when needed, or just with a quick cuddle first to settle him. He sometimes still drops off with his last bf before bed, but often not.

I wouldn't feel guilty if I was you - what could be more natural than a baby falling asleep at the boob, all safe and warm in his mummy's arms? The whole thing is beautifully designed for that reason.

Mine started dropping off of his own accord at about 8 months, as weaning was getting more established I think. However, we have only really just got him to sleep through, which was a similar issue. He was waking for night feeds until about a month ago, when I said I couldn't keep doing them. So he got a cuddle and some water and put back down, until he finally went back to sleep. Took a couple of nights, but he stopped waking.

So I'd say your mum sounds v sensible to me! All things pass, and babies are constantly adjusting to new things, and they just get on with it when the time is right.

HTH:)