Is feeding to sleep so bad?

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Just want to know if anyone has fed to sleep after 6 months and not ended up with a sleep nightmare situation? Stopping just seems like such hard work... And the PPO just makes me laugh every time I say it out loud...

It depends on the baby. My 5mo dd will only go to sleep on the boob, and will wake constantly to do so. She can't self settle at all. This isn't ok, I'm going crazy with sleep deprivation so we're starting some gentle sleep training.

vichill I flirt with the idea of reading those sleep books but never follow through as I don't think I could handle sleep training. ILoveUBaby what do u mean by 'gentle sleep training'??

I wish I could still feed them to sleep! At one point I could get both twins from wide awake to fast asleep in less than 15 minutes :)

I fed my twins to 2yrs 6mo and 2yrs 9mo, and both of them weaned at a bedtime feed. They stopped feeding to sleep somewhere along the line, but would still feed at bedtime, lying down, and then unlatch and roll over to sleep within few minutes.

We don't have any major sleep issues now (at 3yrs 9mo). We have had patches where bedtime has been a battle, or night waking, but TBH I think that's just young children rather than a result of feeding to sleep.

Enjoy those snuggles (and easy bedtimes!) while they last. If you have problems later then try not to 'blame' something you used to do; the problem probably would have happened anyway :)

I still feed my 15mo to sleep. It's what gives everyone the most sleep and I'm all for the easy option! The majority of the time she sleeps through but like tonight, teething is disrupting that. (Poor mites got at least 4 coming at once.)

Dd's got 6 full teeth at the minute, 4 top 2 bottom and we have had issues with biting, and sometimes she will delatch with my nipple still between her teeth. Which is a bit painful, but not sure I can stop it as she does it all of a sudden!

Oh and if she wakes in the night, I'd say7/10 times she will self settle back to sleep and that's with no sleep training at all.

I love you, I ended up in same situation. Couldn't settle DD2 at all unless I was in bed with her so she could use me as a dummy. Fine after 11pm but at 8 in evening it wasn't very convenient! And naps were impossible. I'd started feeding to sleep coz I thought it would be easier and lovely and it ended up being really stressful for all involved. If I ever do this again (which is unlikely!) I'd stop BFing to sleep after the first few weeks.

This is a refreshing thread to read. :-)

Sorry pickle - it was more about cleaning teeth rather than biting.

Both mine fed to sleep. It took a little while to get them out of the habit as toddlers, but it was by no means awful. They're now 3 and 5 and excellent sleepers.

DD1 still has a cup of warm milk as part of her bedtime routine though!

koothrapanties no i'm not the OP, I just happened to stumble across this thread but I have been quite worried about my DS (21 wo)' recent need to be breastfed to sleep. My HV always asks me if he falls asleep at the breast, but in the past 3/4 weeks he has wanted to be fed to sleep and has started waking up more often at nights (1-2hours) for a feed. I'm due to see the HV in the next couple of weeks, and I'm hoping DS will be better, I.e not thinking that my name is dairy crest or arla.

I'm having the same concerns, I've been feeding to sleep and dd used to sleep very well, all night from about 10-18 weeks, then the sleep regression kicked in. I don't know if this is in part cos I feed to sleep. I have now sort of stopped feeding to sleep at night, that is once she's drowsy and not really feeding any more I take get off, let her burp, then give her a cuddle to sleep. Some nights I think it helps, others I'm not so sure and it takes longer. I'm thinking about just going back to feeding to sleep as she is obviously happy doing it, I just don't like being up and down all night if it's my feeding her that's causing it

At the end of the day breast feeding is about more than just feeding your child milk, it's also about love, soothing, reassurance, bonding etc and the act of breast feeding is such a natural biological and physiological thing to do that honesty I can't think how you will spoil your child or do some wrong, when you whip one out to help baby settle. I do check nappy and cuddle for a few minutes is waking at night but don't wait long before offering boobie as ultimately that is what works. I read a really good book called Babysense which was really helpful and doesn't advocate breast as an answer to all but my mom who has raised 4 kids and helped with 7 other grandchildren told me to put the book down and follow my instinct, that looking forward to 10 or 20 years I will never have this chance so hold and cuddle as much as possible, and if that involves the boobie then so be it. Also google Wonder Weeks pretty accurate!!