11 weeks old to young to sleep train?

[ciao]

my 11 week old will not settle herself and can take upto an hour to go to sleep at night. She's definately not hungry because when I put her on my breast she comfort sucks for a couple of minutes and then falls asleep. If I then transfer her to her cot, she wakes up and screams. I have used a dummy but she often spits it out and if she does fall asleep with it, she wakes up often and we have to put it back in. I'm lucky if she sleeps for 3 hours at a time. She seems to need to suck all the time. Is she too young to leave her to cry for a bit? Help - I'm knackered!

personally i think you need to just go with her for a few more weeks, 12-14 weeks usually brings a more settled baby in my experience. have you tried letting her just sleep with/on you? just do what you can to get through the next few weeks, when it should all start to get easier.

yes, it most definitely is. Ferber, as recognised 'authority' on sleep in children and babies has recently amended his book from 6 months to no earlier than 12 months. he has finally moved in line with a host of sleep and mental health research in children and babies.

has she found her fingers yet? can't remember what age that happens, but i remember it helping a lot when they can suck on their fingers.
give her a muslin cloth too, many children use this to hold/snuggle/suck to go to sleep.

or a mobile over her cot?
i know many people think it stops them from falling asleep, but i found it helped mine to lie there, watch the rotating animals and doze off to sleep.

11 weeks is defo too young to expect too much - frustrating as it may feel now. i am longing for the day my ds falls asleep without a martathon suckathon and he is 17 weeks!!!

It will definitely help once she can find her thumb or fingers to suck - we used to help our DS to get his thumb and gently hold it in his mouth which was sometimes enough to get him to sleep. If she's not interested in her thumb maybe try swaddling - it makes them feel all womblike and cosy and can stop them waking themselves up when they wriggle around.

If DS fell asleep on me I used to lower him into his crib while he was still pressed against me so it still felt as though he was being held rather than flying through the air. Quite difficult as you end up virtually getting into the cot with them but it sometimes helped!

I agree 11 weeks is too long to leave her crying, but when we were feeling desperate and knackered we did sometimes leave DS just for a couple of mins and sometimes he did settle himself. If its proper upset crying obviously pick her up but if its just grumbly little crying she may settle herself. I think I used to pick DS up too soon ad actually make him more awake.

Good luck - over the next few weeks it'll definitely get better!

11 weeks too young to be expecting much in the way of sleep - though some babies do sleep through earlier.
Once she gets to about 16 weeks she should sleep better... hopefully! Then you can try this...
The important thing is to settle her with lights down low or off. Then when she wakes rub/stroke/pat her back - don't pick her up or talk to her.
We all wake every 45 - 60 mins - most of us are unaware of this as we settle straight back to sleep. This is what 'sleep training' is all about - letting your baby 'understand' that just because she 'wakes' it doesn't mean it's time to be 'awake'.

Thanks for tips. Thought it was too young but was feeling pretty desperate! Have taken away dummy tonight 'cos she spends more time spitting it out and she has been putting her fist up to her mouth recently. Letting her cry a little bit just now in case I have been jumping in too quickly. Roll on the next few weeks...

ciao, my DS is 13 weeks... He always cries when I put him down, but stops after 5 mins.. I try to make bedtime very calm, dark and boring, with loads of milk but no talking, and I also swaddle him. have done this since birth. It rends my heart when he cries but I know he's been fed enough, has clean nappy and is tired, and it really is just a bit of a whinge that he needs to have to wind down: not being cruel in my opinion to leave to cry a little bit if you're sure nothing else is wrong. If I kept offering the breast, he would prob carry on sucking, and if I kept picking him up again and again I think it would be much harder for him to get to sleep.

So in short, no I don't think it's too young but needs to be reasonable and making sure there's no cause for the crying e.g real hunger, dirty nappy, too hot/cold or whatever.

Best of luck!