Why is feeding to sleep bad?

[mamatoizzybee]

I feed my 9 week old daughter to sleep because it works . She is breast fed and the only thing that comforts her is the boob ! (I don't know about other babies , but my daughter uses the boob massively for comfort throughout the day as well as before bed!)

Our rough night time routine is : bath, cuddles and soft chat , feeding , sleep . Why is this bad?
I aim to breastfeed for 6 months and then wean her to bottles. Will I have a harder time getting her to sleep when I don't want to breastfeed anymore? Will she associate sleep with being nursed ? Will she still want to comfort from me after 6months ?

Does breastfeeding hurt when babies have teeth ?

It’s not bad if it works for you and your DCs then crack on!!
Both of mine fed to sleep - DS still does at 2 and a half.

Might be a case of helping your baby recognise other sleep associations (story, blanket, white noise etc - whatever works!) when you switch to bottles that’s all.
In my experience, breastfeeding a baby with teeth is fine - sometimes can be a little uncomfortable when they are teething as they often adjust their latch to sooth their sore gums but that’s usually temporary I only ever had one instance of biting, and it was just as DS’s first tooth emerged - I gently unlatched him and relatched and it never happened again! I think the feeling of latching on with a tooth was weird for him too and it took him by surprise the first time maybe?!

It’s absolutely not bad at all, enjoy it , it’s lovely .
It can become tricky if baby only associates you with sleep but things change . Baby is still little , enjoy the cuddles x

It's fine until the 4 month regression, then you might get very sore and fed up. Hopefully you're one of the lucky ones who doesn't get hit with it.

We are just ‘fixing’ my 5 month old who feeds to sleep - tonight was first night of her going down with no boob. I don’t have a problem with feeding her to sleep at bedtime, I do have a slight problem feeding her to sleep 4 times a night!

I didn't realise it was bad. I did it with my now 11 month old and when he was about 8 months he stopped falling asleep and instead just went drowsy so I popped him in his cot when he was still awake now he has a little feed then gets himself off. Best of both worlds.

With my first I didn't feed to sleep and whilst he sleeps through on those bad nights hes a nightmare to get back. At least with my second if he wakes it's an easy fix.

Just do what works for you. You Might want to introduce the occasional bottle now though as "weaning onto bottles at six months" might not be as easy as you think.

Thank you all of you for your lovely replies . This was reallly reassured me. I think I need to stop reading so much stuff and just go with my instinct more. I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing and look for answers from books and really I shouldn't be doing that. Me and my daughter have a lovely bed time routine of cuddles and feeeing and she sleeps so well at night. I don't know why books have made me feel bad about that. I'm sat here in tears now as I feel like I'm such a bad mum for not being more in tune with my little girls needs !!

It wasn't bad for my 2, made them happy and they went to sleep other ways at nap time (in sling, pram or car - shoot me now.MN I have 2 DC who have never once slept in a cot at nap time.) Eventually they grow out of it, and infind at 16mo DH can get her to sleep quicker than me but hey ho.

Also please.regard your boobs as a super power. Your baby obviously does.

Nothing wrong with feeding to sleep, it only becomes a problem when it stops working. Unfortunately my toddler no longer falls asleep after his bed time feed. Teeth have not been a problem until the last month when I’ve really had to make sure he latches on correctly.
I did use a dummy from very early until he disappointingly stopped wanting it a few weeks ago.

@RangerLady - I love that comment ! Thank you so much! I do agree , boobs work like magic!! It's quite incredible ☺️☺️

I fed DS to sleep till he was 2 Purely because it seemed like the easiest option (although there were bad nights when he needed it a lot). He stopped easily enough and went on to be a very good sleeper. Not saying there's a connection - just that feeding to sleep doesn't seem to have messed him up.

depends, do you mind being woken up and being the only one who can put her back to sleep? If thwy have sleep regression this can be every forty mins or so (thanks ds1) do you mind being the only one who can put your child to bed? when you want to stop feeding at night what will you do when they wake up? Personally I found my babies that went to sleep with one eye awake some nighrs slept through much much earlier, and slept much better. But some people are ok with less sleep/don't mind being woken up and some babies aren't as bad sleepers as others no matter what.

I think people say it because if the baby wakes in the night they won't have learnt how to self settle so will wake you every time to feed them back to sleep. Also if you need / would like a night off then your dh would have a very hard time getting them to sleep.

As you can see from the replies, different babies work differently. Books can’t tel you what your baby will be like unfortunately. Just do what works, if it stops working then you can change it.
So right now, carry on feeding her to sleep :)

It's a problem when they wake up 5 million times a night and the only thing that can help them get back to sleep is feeding them. As long as that doesn't happen, you'll be fine.

It's the most natural thing in the world. Your milk makes your baby and you sleepy at night!

If you are on Facebook the Milk Meg page is your friend :)

I'm still feeding my DS 18 months to sleep and back to sleep when he wakes which is alot at the moment as hes teething and has a horrid cold. Normally he'll sleep through. If it works then it works 😊

It's not, what gets you sleep is good. VERY good.

I fed mine to sleep for over a year and it caused no probs. N=1 but it's not the evil thing it's made out to be

It’s absolutely fine at 9 weeks but by 9 months you may be sick of it. Particularly if they’re capable of sleeping through but due to habit every time they stir they want a nipple in their mouth (voice of experience). Personally though I happily fed to sleep for the first months then moved to feed then story at about six months.

Also, put the books down
A wise mumsnetter once said on another thread: “you can read all the baby books in the world, but your baby hasn’t read them!” - Sounds like you’re doing a great job just following your baby’s cues and giving her what she needs, whenever she needs it Don’t doubt your ability! We are all just winging it aren’t we??

Feeding to sleep is the best thing ever. The biological norm! Boobs send babies to sleep for a reason.

I wouldn’t give up our snuggly feeding cuddles for anything. When they come off with milk running down their chin. I’d hate my whole breastfeeding experience to be in a well lit room or whatever- I think it takes the whole bonding part of BF away.

Babies change so much anyway so just do what works. My 10 month old doesn’t feed to sleep much anymore and I miss it so much! It helped hugely in the 4 month sleep regression as I just had her in with me and went back to sleep. So much easier!

And yes to following milk meg! Very good breastfeeding page.

@IntoValhalla - thank you so much . I hope so , I am trying my best ! It's funny how I feel like I'm going through stages of motherhood - I've gone past the utterly exhausted post birth stage now and my daughter is sleeping pretty well at night which makes for a happy mummy - to now worrying and stressing about every little thing ! (I'm sure I'll look back in years to come and think what was I stressed about but that doesn't help right now haha!!)

I have been thinking about things tonight and realised as I was flicking through Facebook , how many baby pages appear as sponsors . A lot of the pages are promoting sleep programmes and bad sleeping patterns (Facebook frustratingly picks up on what I google search!) - I think I am seeing these and this is subconsciously making me question everything I am doing. Social media is horrible for that sort of thing .

On a plus though - milk meg as I have just searched looks very helpful and much more positive . Thank you to those recommending that :)