How did you stop feeding to sleep?

[JustLetMeSleep]

I bf DD2 to sleep at night, and I really like to stop. She's fed after bath and usually wakes up at least twice more. If I feed her and put her down and she wakes up she's wants to be fed again, cuddling, rockin etc. won't do it, and now she won't settle for DH rocking her either, she holds out for milk. I'm trying to wean her in the day (have only managed one feed so far, in the mid afternoon) and I really want to get away from the association so that someone else can settle her sometimes and I can give up bfing. She's 9mo, not crawling, but eating a fair bit of food and then still feeding like a 6mo!

I've been trying the Pantley pull off, which sown times works but I'm still no close to her falling asleep in arms, and I can't see how that translates to her falling asleep in the cot. She isn't interested in soft toys, doesn't suck her thumb, won't take a dummy. Any advice? I don't really want to do cc and it has to be something I can do because DH works full time and won't be able to get up multiple times a night to help.

Oh dear. Sorry about typos. sometimes, not sown times.

I kept her awake during that feed by reading stories and then put her down. She was cross the first night but I stayed by her stroking her and she went to sleep within 15 mins. Very soon she was happy to put herself to sleep.

But it made no difference to night wakings I'm afraid

Thank you. I don't mind if she wakes at night (well, prefer not, of course), but I cannot keep feeding her back to sleep when she's already fed and fallen asleep two minutes earlier. Did your DD fall asleep by herself once she'd woken in the night? What did you do in the night wen she woke?

I'm afraid not. I tried to drop the feeds one at a time but she wasn't having any of it, she got apoplectic very quickly. I'm not one for serious sleep training so I gave up. She wakes at least 5 times a night and is 1 But it might work for you, it does for many.

Hi justletmesleep I have an almost 8 month old who wakes at least twice a night at the moment and is fed back to sleep.

I have managed to get him to go into cot wide awake and get himself off to sleep - which I think was a lot to do with focussing on timing of naps as much as the bedtime routine. like glorious I keep him awake during the last feed. I also do it towards the start of the bedtime routine. I also read Pantleys NCSS and was quite rigid on the bedtime associations - same story , comforter, lullaby etc.
I can't really advise which thing worked but in the end we got there.
It took quite a while and lots of trial and error but he is pretty reliable now (unless ill / overtired)

That's the good news ...
The bad news is same as glorious it has made no difference at all to night wakings.
Will watch with interest for other advice.

I have only just managed this with 9 month old. Went cold turkey so to speak.

He was no longer feeding to sleep for naps (was pram or sling) so this week I thought I'd try him in cot for naps. First one he cried/fussed for 30 mins, I was right there with him sshing/patting and I felt he would sleep as lots of eye rubbing etc. Afternoon nap, no tears, 30 mins of faffing, groaning. That night I fed sitting up then moved him into cot and lay down with him and he went to sleep in ten minutes!

Some days for naps he's gone to sleep in 5 minutes no tears, other days he's faffed in cot for 40 minutes - but the night sleeps have been consistent - going to sleep in ten to twenty minutes no tears.

Wake ups I'm having mixed success - a few nights we've had we've had 7 minutes of brutal crying with me ssshing like mad and he'll settle. Other nights he's been teething and still needed feeding back to sleep.

It's not helped with night wakings yet though. I think he'll need to completely self settle for that.

I just felt he was ready to at least give it a try - feeding to sleep was becoming less successful. He was ill a few weeks back and I couldn't feed him to sleep so had to try other things - where he would conk out eventually because he was so unwell.

I'd given myself an hour limit in my head on first attempt and I would have given up sooner if I thought it didn't look like working.