Stopping breastfeeding - how can I get her to sleep?

[JoanneGeorge]

I'm trying to slowly phase out breastfeeding, but our 9 month old will only sleep at the breast. She hates being cuddled/held. Once asleep and in bed, she will get through 50% of nights, sometimes waking up when she rolls - a quick nuzzle, or sometime just a warm shoulder, and she's off to sleep again, until her usual 6:30 start (Thats not a problem as my hubby is an early riser too)...

Even when she's dog tired in the daytime, she just won't drop off until I give her a little bit.

Can I do anything differently? !!

If breastfeeding is so useful in getting baby to sleep, why are you trying to stop?

my DS2 was like this. Eventually I stopped when we went out for the day and he fell asleep on the way home so I just put him in bed when we got in. During the night I sent DH in to deal with him and to put him to bed for the next few days.

He's never had any milk before bed since though - not bothered by it at all.

It must have worked but I can't rememeber all the details - sorry!

I had exactly the same 'problem' with my two (felt under pressure to stop bfeeding with first) but eventually thought 'sod it, what harm am I really doing?' and fed them both until 18 months. They both eventually didn't need it in the night at all and I'm now glad I carried on - they are only so little for such a short time after all.
Hope that's helpful!

I'd just carry on bf, tbh.

Do you want to stop bf altogether? Even if you stop during the day could you just carry on with the night-time feeds? If it's any consolation, my ds is 19mo and still goes to sleep this way (night-time and day-time naps). I don't want to give up bf yet, but even if I did, I would find weaning very difficult at this age. I think it's just easier to wait until the child is ready.

we've swapped boob for bottle, so we bath, bottle, story, bed, I'm hoping when we get to 12mths, story will be the sleep cue!

You just need to be consistent. When I put ds into his own room to sleep he hated that he was by himself, and had to fall asleep alone. He was 4 months at the time. But he would always fall asleep in his cradle in our room, and would scream bloody murder if he went to sleep in one place and woke up in another. I have no problem letting him scream himself to sleep. It took two months for him to get the message, but he soon learned that crib meant sleep. At 15 months he knows that the drill and it doesn't phase him.

Whatever it is, be consistent and dd will learn.

Hi JG,
I'm going through the same transistion slowly from breast to bottle - fortunately, my DD (also 9nths) also falls asleep on the bottle! So, that takes the worry out of getting her to sleep and at the moment I still b/feed her if she wakes in the night but this tends to be getting less frequent so I'm not going too worry too much about it for now. Maybe at some point I'll start offering her water and see how that goes.

I used to worry that feeding to sleep was a bad habit but recently started to chill out - really, SO WHAT? I

Hi JG
I'm currently trying to reduce BF ready for my return to work and my DD could only get to sleep by being BF!
I now have changed bedtime routine slightly give her a HUGE bottle of formula and let her drink as much as she can, wind her and offer her more!!
Then if this hasn't made her nod off put her in cot and sit with her with my hand on her, and if neccessary talk softly to her!
Have to be persistant and its sooo hard but in my case shes got to learn other ways to get to sleep because of nursery impending
It does get easier though had great two nights now where she has settled herself!
Hope this helps!

I've actually got a valid medical reason for stopping feeding - so it is important that I can make the change, but having read your replies, I'm slightly more relaxed about when we have to change...

I'm also less worried about the weaning side of things, we've be as good as force feeding her solids that she's obviously not enjoying. Books eh - who needs them !

Thanks all

I think that if you keep breastfeeding just for getting dd to sleep, she won't be taking very much and the milk will gradually peter out. Have you started her on finger foods yet? Some babies solids a lot more once they can hold them. Doesn't matter whether she has many teeth.

No, she hasn't really. She doesn't really enjoy lumpy food yet - she tends to spit out the lumps, and eat the sauces. She thriving though, and is unbelievably happy and content in every other way, just not feeding times !

She hasn't got any teeth yet either, though I don't think they are far away. Maybe she'll enjoy lumpy foods more then.

i was worried about this too as ds was hard to get to take formula at first after just breast feeding last thing at night then through the night and for the first feed of the day he would then have solids and juice all day, he started to have formula mid morning, when it came to trying at bed time i found he got to sleep better than with breast feeding had been i think i must have produced less and he wasnt satisfied anymore

Sorry, the typo in my last posting made it unclear. I meant to say some babies enjoy solid food more when they can hold it. Things like little pieces of bread, spread with whatever you want to put on it (mine enjoyed hoummus). This is a different experience for baby than taking food from a spoon. It's great to hear your baby is thriving, JG so no need to worry too much about the milk issue. Better sleeping at night is good news too Henrysmum but can be due to many different factors, not just milk.