Is breastfeeding to sleep very bad?

[YellowSquirrel]

My baby is 3 months old. She fights all sleep. Either I breastfeed to sleep then carefully transfer to cot. Or I have to rock and shh pat a crying baby for up to an hour before every map (which only lasts 45 mins-arghh).
Easy option is feed to sleep. But everyone keeps saying this is a bad habit and should be stopping whilst she is still wee.

What age do babies self settle - should she be doing it at 3 months?

Of course your little one needs to BF to sleep!! DS1 BF to sleep until he was 2.8 years.

There's no such thing as a rod for your own back, breastfeeding is designed to help your baby drop off. Keep going, you're doing what nature intended :)

OP any time you have a BF query, dont't ask your relatives/friends (who are giving you bad advice), ask this amazing website:

www.kellymom.com

It's written by experts. Good luck!

I did it for a year with both DC and they grew out of it themselves. As far as I see BF to sleep is one of the biggest perks! Don't let anyone make it a problem when it's not.

If u don't intend to bf a toddler (my babies stopped on their own about 7 - 9 months) then try putting them down just as they drift off. Then if the do wake they are where they went to sleep and it's easier to self settle. I did a sleep programme through my gp and it was a great thing!!

Good advice. Hopefully she will fall asleep alone when she is ready (hopefully before she is 1). Just means I can't do baby whispere EASY routine...

Just change it round. Eat sleep yourself activity. That's what I did.

Mine both breastfed to sleep very frequently and I didn't have any issues with them/

I bf dd to sleep until she was about 15 months and it was great for us. No issues taking it away either - I think we had three or four days of grumpy bedtimes before she got the hang of it. Keep going if it works for you, and don't worry about doing a particular routine.

I'm so glad this thread exists. I've been feeling a bit of a failure that I always feed my 8 week old dd to sleep. We tried the EASY routine and found it anything but!

I don't know how to not do it. I bf them, they fall asleep, I put them to bed. I can't avoid it!

I'm reading this while bf 11mo ds2 to sleep

Ds1 quit of his own accord at 15m. I'm assuming this one will (in his own time) too although I might rethink if we're still here when he's 2! Milk contains melatonin which tells the brain if it's night or day - why do you think warm cows milk is recommended if you can't sleep ;)

Oh god I do this! I did with dd who's nearly 4 and she just stopped and she's an excellent sleeper. I do this to ds who's 7 weeks.

Why would you not? You need to do whatever works for you & your baby.

It is very, very good because you all get some sleep.

Mine didn't self settle until about 8-9 months!

I really don't understand why people think this is a problem. Unless it's a problem for you then it's fine. When it doesn't suit you or your baby any more then you can look at other options. I'm sure ds1 did it and ds2 definitely does at 6 months (hoping it's about to happen as soon much easier than when it doesn't!)

God no. Do whatever the hell works! 3 months is tiny. My son fed to sleep until much later than that and he settles completely on his own now. No sleep training, just patience.

My 14 month old doesn't self settle. She's feeding to sleep as I type this.

We did fall naturally into a sort of bedtime routine when she was about 8/9 months I think. So I don't mind feeding her to sleep for the time being. It's not forever.

Absolutely fine. Once teeth come through make sure they are scrupulously clean before final BF though.

It's very very natural. My 4 year old and 2 year old both fed to sleep for well over 12 months. They don't need me now to fall asleep. You carry on feeding your baby to sleepz

Sleepz?! I can only apologise for the random z there

Totally fine, but you might find that around 6 months she starts waking up and wanting to be fed more frequently, sometimes because of need, sometimes out of habit. That's also fine if it's not a problem for you. If it becomes a problem and you strongly suspect it's a habit, you could follow the Jay Gordon method (Google it) to give you a period of uninterrupted sleep.

Keep doing what you're doing, it's all great.

DS1 BF to sleep for years, DS2 self settled after BF of his own accord from a few months old. By the time we moved to having stories at bed time they didn't BF to sleep.

Awww I miss those days looks at 6 foot 17 year old

Oh and bollocks to spoiling the baby and rod for back crap...at 3 months old I really don't think they're that smart (no offence to your super clever baby of course!)!

It is a negative sleep habit for quite a lot of babies and it becomes apparent at the 4 month sleep regression when you get woken every sleep cycle to feed them back to sleep. Not all are effected but you won't know until you get there.

Easy encourages healthy sleep habits

I did this with dd. She's now 2.5 and perfectly capable of getting herself off to sleep without boob or a bottle, and has been for some time. We replaced the boob with a dummy - not ideal but worked well for us.

Also it is a right pain to be the only person who can get them to sleep. I have a friend who hasn't been away at bedtime ever and her ds is about 18 months old