8mo DD hysterical crying to sleep

[Rainbowfish42]

Help please! 8mo DD sleeps at least 10 hours through the night and is able to settle herself when she wakes, however will only fall asleep whilst bf ing or in car. Decided to tackle this and stop feeding her to sleep this week. We have a good bedtime routine and she is in bed by 7. When I put her in her cot she is calm and sleepy, I am then sitting by her cot as she falls asleep. My thought was I would calm her if she got upset, but not take her out of the cot, and move further away from the cot as she needed less help to sleep. The problem is that after she plays in her cot for a couple of minutes she seems sleepy, but will then cry hysterically (till covered in snot, sitting up and flinging herself into the sides of the cot). The past few nights I have managed to get her to sleep by patting and shushing her, but she was still effectively crying herself to sleep. I have just fed her to sleep now as not even getting her out of her cot for a cuddle helped :( do you think she will learn to fall asleep without crying? What can I do to help her?

I can't really help with the stopping her from crying to sleep. I can say that my dd was fed to sleep until nearly 12 months, then as milk became a smaller part of her diet I started feeding her before our evening walk and she would fall asleep in the pram/sling. Gradually she has stopped going to sleep while we are out, but as she's nice and sleepy when we get in I just pop her in bed and she happily drifts off on her own.
All babies are different and maybe I've just been super lucky, but feeding to sleep for a year didn't stopped my 18 month dd from learning to self settle without tears so if now doesn't feel right then it can always wait.

^ wss
I fed DD to sleep for a year and eventually she grew out of it and didn't need it. She goes down really well ATM and she's 18months old. Do whatever is easiest, I say!

It's good to hear that - thanks! I guess she will probably just decide she doesn't need to do it one day. Feeding her to sleep at night is ok really (though it would be nice if other people could get her to sleep), but I'm going back to work soon and her grandma will have to get her to nap during the day - it would be really nice if she didn't cry to sleep! i was working on the theory that stopping all feeding to sleep might be best for this? also, when i feed her so she naps she is really difficult to transfer to cot without waking up and my back is in great need of a break from a napping baby :)

babies do things for other people that they won't do for us, don't worry. Am sure your mum will be fine. When my LO goes to nursery apparently she will be napping on a floor mat! I CANNOT imagine this happening but they are the experts and am sure it will be fine :o)