transition from feeding to sleep to self soothing

[solenneguest]

Hi, my little boy is 10 weeks old and currently feeds to sleep. I am aware that I will soon need to encourage him to fall asleep in his own and I am dreading it as currently the only thing that gets him sleepy is feeding. I can't imagine he will put up with rocking / patting... Any tips from mums who used to feed to sleep and have successfully moved on to their lo self soothing? Thank you x

You've got ages before you even need to consider this. 10 weeks is tiny - just feed to sleep!

Ha I have same issue as you and my DS is 5 months! I certainly wasn't bothered about it at 10 weeks.

My current mission is moving said sleeping baby from my arms to his cot once asleep without waking him (during the day - at night this is no problem ) otherwise I end up sitting on the sofa for hours on end getting nothing done.

Eventually, around a year old DS stopped falling asleep as I fed him. I'd tried to stop feeding to sleep before, but gave up as I worked ft and really needed to just go back to sleep ASAP! So I took the easiest approach and fed him back to sleep whenever he woke.

He just stopped one day by himself, and then (eventually) stopped waking in the night.

So my advice is to save yourself the bother and trauma. At 3am, you do whatever is necessary to save your sanity. He won't be doing it at 17, I guarantee it.

Thank you for your advice. I'm clearly thinking a bit too far ahead lol. It is so easy to want a phase over and done with but i shall endeavour to enjoy my tiny boy being tiny :-(

Congratulations on your little one. We used the sensational baby sleep plan from 6 weeks and cut out the feeding to sleep, rocking etc from then. It's an excellent step by step guide but not for everyone. For what it's worth it taught our baby to self settle and she's an excellent sleeper. Good luck and enjoy Christmas with your little one.

Thank you scottishdiblet I will Google it. Happy Christmas to you too :-)

My DS is 2 and a half. He stopped feeding to sleep two months ago . Now he goes to sleep on his own just fine.

I agree - one day DS1 just stopped. Take the path of least resistance

Look at the four month sleep regression threads... now is the time

My tips;

Eat wake sleep routine
Shhh pat
Give the opportunity to settle

I stopped with d's in the day and rocked him to sleep but he was about 8 months when if he fell asleep feeding at night I'd wake him and put him in his cot, worked fine

I fed to sleep until DD stopped breastfeeding, just before her first birthday. We did shh-patting for a few days and now she goes down like a dream unless there's something wrong, such as teething. Don't even think about it for ages yet. If baby sleeps, enjoy it.

I just fed my 16m old to sleep. I wouldn't worry about it. its the 2 hour wake up at 4am when she won't feed to sleep that i want to sort!
my older dd stopped feeding to sleep just before 2 years when she just saud no to milk one night (and I breathed a sigh of relief) she now has a story from DH.

Ds1 fed to sleep until he night-weaned at 16mo. Ds2 is 10mo and feeds to sleep every night, and every time he wakes in the night.

It's fine. Honestly. 'Self soothing' cannot be taught. It's a myth. The ability to get to sleep alone is a developmental stage that different babies reach at different times. It's soooooo much easier to stop feeding to sleep once your baby no longer needs to (actual it's no effort at all because they just stop doing it).

Congratulations and enjoy your baby. They are such hard work and so magical

Thanks all should probably stop worrying and enjoy my baby!!

Definitely don't worry! Night-time breastmilk (yes it really is different from daytime breastmilk) is designed to release hormones in both you and your baby and make you both sleepy. It's nature's little trick that works in your favour so make the most of it.

Fwiw, I too worried about it at the time, had people saying I was making a rod for my own back etc. But it just worked so perfectly! So I carried on, with occasional frets. I really didn't need to worry though. When my ds eventually self-weaned, I did think 'Oh crap, how am I going to get him to sleep now?' but actually all that happened was that he refused the boob, nestled into me, let me put him down in his cot and then went straight to sleep. They know what they're doing, if you let them.