Help - baby won't sleep unless fed to sleep

[Bonnieb168]

Hello,
My little girl is 5 months and ebf at mo. I am really worried because I have to go back to work in a few months and she will only nap if out in pram or if I feed her to sleep. My DH can't get her to nap if I'm not there and she just has meltdown ! She won't take a bottle or a dummy as a substitute and im so worried that she'll just cry at nursery and won't nap without me! Any advice please as to how I can get her to settle without me?! Thanks x

If returning to work and baby going to nursery you need to get a plan now and gradually build up to it.

She will have started weaning by then but may not be established. Do you continue to BF and pump at work? If so, she will
need to take a bottle or some sort of silly cup/bottle if old enough.

Advise on the sleep would be to break the feed to sleep cycle now, starting gradually. Build her day around a routine where she feeds upon waking, some playtime and then sleep. At 5 months, she’ll be going what maybe 1.5/2 hours of awake time between feeds??

It’ll be hard but you’ll get there. As a newborn/young baby everything is on demand but now is the time for routine.

Meant sippy cup...

I returned to work when ds was 9 months old. He is ebf and won't take dummy or bottle. I worried loads before hand but I needn't have. He adapted fine. I work 3 long days per week (out of the house 15 hours). He now will take a bit of formula out of a free flow sippy cup and eats food. He manages fine with the childminder and will even go to sleep for dh - he just sits on the bed with him and he falls asleep. I feed him when I get in (I am nearly bursting as don't have time to express), through the night and then on demand on my days off.
Yes, try to get into a routine if that will help, but if you don't manage, don't worry - you will both be fine.

Don't worry about it. Nursery nurses have magical powers.

DD was EBF and although she took a bottle she still fed to sleep for naps and night until she went to nursery at 11 months, but she just napped without for them. She also slept in a cot at nursery, when we were still doing the sidecar cot cuddle to sleep and slide away thing.

Actually at 2 she still feeds to sleep for most sleeps (now with a bottle - awful parenting but a battle I'm not willing to fight), except at nursery, they get the mats out and off she goes!

Firstly, don't panic.

I don't think you have to crack this now as so much is likely to change over the next few months before you go back to work.

Plus many a Mumsnetter will tell you that nursery staff have seen all of this before and have magical powers when it comes to settling little ones to sleep.

I went back to work when DS1 was 11 months. He refused a bottle. No dummy. No comforter. BFed to sleep for every nap and bedtime. Held in arms for most naps too because he needed me there. Needless to say I was worried about how he would sleep when I was away from him.

Fortunately he would sleep in the buggy. That's how his childminder would get him to nap in the day until she eventually got him settling with a bottle of cows milk and sleeping in a cot with all the other children. Didn't change how he napped/did bedtime with us at home as I continued to BF to sleep for a few more months until he self-weaned.

Honestly don't worry. I had/have a breast-fed, crap sleeper. Dropped him off for his first morning with the child minder and within 10 minutes she had him asleep in a cot. Swear to god that child has never ever ever settled in a cot for me or DH and he was usually breastfed to sleep (or walked in his buggy) up until that point. All will be fine!

Thank you so much everyone for all your words of advice/reassurance! Feel much less worried about it. Will work on the day time routine over next few months to help make things easier and hopefully the nursery people will be able to work their magic with her too when the time comes!! X

You should just feed to sleep