can you tell me how you moved from breast feeding to sleep?

[multicolourcat]

DD is 9MO and i still breastfeed to sleep. I kept going with this on purpose, mainly because it works so well for her, felt very natural and in the first 6 months of her life she had to live in 5 different places so i wanted to keep it as a consistent and close way of comforting and settling her within different environments. It still works fine and I really haven't been too worried about getting her into a habit, as I just figured that when the time comes we'll have to work to break the habit.

AND, the time has nearly come! I am going to start reducing breast feeds once she reaches 10 months, introducing formula in a tommee tippee beaker, with the aim of stopping breast feeding by 12 months. So, she will no longer have the comfort of my breast. Over these 2 months I need to stop her relying on my breast for getting to sleep and resettling in the night . I realise it is going to be tough and I just wondered if anyone has experience of this and any advice to offer?

Thanks muchly.

can i also ask, she won't take a bottle so I will use a freeflow for her milk in the daytime. But with this she dribbles and spills a lot, so if she is hungry in the night for milk i can't see it being very useful, it will probably wake her even more! Has anyone else had this problem? I suppose I was just expecting that she won't need any milk in the night from 12 months, and have only just now realised that she might

Hello, am kind of experiencing similar wants/needs. Dd is 11mtys. I'm still feeding to sleep. Mostly successfully still. She's presently waking on hitting the mattress but snoring like a banshee when on my lap.... She wakes without fail at least once a night and it's for a feed rather than playtime etc. I've no real help but wanted you to know you aren't alone. I've upped daytime water and dropped most daytime milks just really do first thing and overnight with a small bottle included. Wish the night waking would cease but I suppose things could be worse....

Will watch to see what else comes back. Good luck x

I BF DS until he was 2. He stopped feeding to sleep consistently quite a few months before (but older than 1). I didn't force it (well tried earlier and we always went back to it).

We also got DS used to a cup and beaker - by using them at every meal plus in between and letting him make a mess. By 9 months he could pick up the cup and drink and by 1 he was fine. At night, we'd try offering water in a beaker to avoid spillage but I usually fed for ease. Perhaps try different beakers - ones with integrated straws are much better for night feeds!

9 months is a tricky age anyway for night wakings. If you want to stop the night feeds - it's usually easier to get your partner to do the resettling.

Ciccolina why don't you give more milk in the day to see if that reduces the night feed? At that age, DS was on about 3-4 milk feeds a day plus plenty of solids. Although he didn't have any dairy.

This probably isn't helpful, but I thought I'd post in case it was reassuring. DS is 3 and I still feed him to sleep. It only takes 5-10 minutes now. He settles very easily with someone else - usually he doesn't even ask them to stay with him. If you decide to continue it won't necessarily be this big rod for your back like you may be imagining :)

My only tip to try and stop is if you have a partner who is around for bedtimes try swapping the order - milk downstairs with you, then hand over to Dad for stories and bed. If you do a bath you could add that stage before or after the milk feed.

DS did wake for milk much longer than a year though so no tips with that I'm afraid.

I fed DD to sleep and continued til she stopped falling asleep feeding- at about 9 months for us. She was having no milk whatsoever in the day...(as she messed around bf and knackered me- mastitis twice when we had no problems like that as a little baby). I still fed before bed til 12 months though.

Why is there such a definite deadline? If you want to stop, thats fine, I was just wondering if there was a different commitment that means you have to??

My friend fed to sleep til her DD gave it up naturally at about 15 months.

I was SO worried about the rod I was making for my back, but it all came to nothing... (tho I need my own thread now for sudden bedtime difficulties after 5 months of blissful ease!)

DS is 22 m.o. and doesn't bf to sleep any more. :( I have to rock him to sleep - and when he wakes at night which takes a lot longer. I wish I could still bf him.

One word: husband.

He took over putting dc to bed. Can't remember exactly when, maybe at around 7 months. I continued breastfeeding until 12 months but never to sleep after dh took over bedtime routine.

He puts both dc to bed. I love bedtime.

DS day-weaned himself at about 11 months and i carried on doing night feeds until 19 months. By that point it was just a quick feed at bedtme and I thought that was going to stop naturally in a few weeks. However I then had a two night stay in hospital (ectopic pregnancy) and DH had to get DS to sleep himself. When i was home again it seemed daft to start up again...

Angel have you tried putting him down and stroking him? Works for DS - stroke his back after a cuddle now (although that may have been driven by circumstance - too pregnant too rock!). DS also seemed to stop wanting rocking too - he needed some space which was nice but a bit odd.

Maybe I'll give that a go, Iggly - thanks. I'm keen to do something which means I still get the time to read a book while I do it! Bedtimes are fine but the night wakings are more gruelling. (Having said that, last night he went back off really quickly.)

I fed DS to sleep until he was 10 months at which point it kind of became obvious it wasn't working for him any longer - he was restless during that last pre-bed feed, wriggling, not comfy, nipping occasionally and generally fighting me, but he didn't know any other way to get to sleep so I started a bedtime routine then starting an hour before bed with bath, quiet play in his room, then a lullaby nightlight, into his sleeping bag then lay him in his bed with his bears. To begin with he used to protest loads, so I stayed with him, laying him down again repeatedly when he stood up to scream at me. The first night was awful, but it got easier & by night 3 he'd cracked it, dropping off after a few minutes and staying asleep for a good few hours (he previously woke every 3 or so hours for milk). I repeated the laying down thing when he woke during the night as I was ready to stop night feeds and he got the hang of it really easily - he now sleeps 13 hours no problem, whcih I thought would never happen for us!