Fed to sleep

[GreenGooner]

Morning all. Well sleep has gone to shit in this house. For about a month now my 7 month old has become dependent on being fed to sleep. He used to be able to self settle and often slept through but now that's gone to shit. I think he's initially been asking for a feed for comfort so I've been giving it to him (teething) and now think I've made a big mistake. Each time he wakes (every 2-3) hours now, he can't settle without it.

The big issue is that if I don't give it to him, he gets himself so worked up that he's sick. Nothing else will comfort him. Other times, if he finishes a bottle and hadn't quite managed to drop off, again he gets so worked up that he's sick. Once he's sick he takes a bottle again 🤷‍♀️ it's like he's made room for more milk which I know sounds ridiculous.

Please help me break this cycle 😬

Just to add he won't take a dummy. He doesn't respond to any form of other comfort at all either x

Hi OP, mama of two little ones here. I used to always be looking for solutions to things but gave up in the end and just went with the flow. Both of mine were fed to sleep because it was their preference so I just went with it, at 7 months I'd expect that he would be up more frequently in the night because he will be having a growth spurt. Whether it's comfort or he actually needs the milk I'd just go with it - then one night it'll just change again and he'll sleep more.
Sleep deprivation is honestly the worst, both of mine were up last night so I could sleep standing up today.
Sorry might not be what you want to hear but it's honest lol x

Thank you @ombre123 I do try and go with it mainly. It's just the sickness really. So if he's not quite asleep but full up, he'll have a full on meltdown making himself sick. So then it's full on changing of clothes and bedding. By this point he's then fully awake and it all starts again 😭

Hrs only 7 months, just go with it. Ds is now 4 a d most nights still feeds to sleep! Up until 2.5 if he woke in the night I would settle him with a feed. It's what I'd always done and always worked. I've never had one bad night with him because boobs seem to fix everything. Magic milk my mum calls it. There's so much pressure and nonsense about sleeping through and spoiling them by "giving in to what they want." It makes me really angry as they are little babies who operate in very simple terms of need. If your baby settles on the breast then that's great as that's what breasts are for to babies: comfort and food. Ds if really upset about something or is not well will ask for extra milk. He's knows once he's at school we are stopping though. Good luck

@DtPeabodysLoosePants I'm happy to feed him what he needs, but as I said earlier, this becomes problematic when he's not hungry and overtired as this creates the cycle of him getting so worked up that he's sick.

He's not breastfed and won't fall asleep on me at all. I hate seeing him so upset but he's so heavily reliant on the bottle that it's the only way he will drop off.

Sorry, I missed that important bit!

I’d night wean.

@missanony is that where you start to water down the milk? Or is that something else? X

One way or another. You can either cut down the ounces or refuse to feed before a time. Oz works well because it’s less thought!