Do babies eventually grow out of feeding back to sleep?

[Izzystar31]

My and my DD (8 months) have always coslept, we both get more sleep that way. I’ve never really minded being woken up 2 hourly as she only feeds for 2/3 mins then drops off back to sleep. I barely remember waking up.

However, whilst this is fine now, I worry that I have got her into this habit and it’ll be hard to ever break (I have visions of her being 3 years old and needing this still) I’ve enjoyed co sleeping so far but am aware that it limits me as she won’t be able to sleep at her grandparents and I won’t ever be able to be away at night and she needs the sucking motion to get back to sleep (she won’t take dummies either, tried really hard as well.)

I’m looking for any success stories of babies who would breastfeed all night long but grew out of it. What age were they and did they do it naturally or did you have to force them off?

No advice but following as this is my life too

Yes. My ds used to do this. He is 11 now, he doesn't do it anymore!
Seriously though, they do stop!

My DS is 7 months now and has fed hourly all night long since he was around 8-10 weeks old. We've ended up co-sleeping for the last couple of months out of my sheer desperation to get a bit more sleep... although it didn't change how often he woke. That is until the last couple of nights when he's had a cold/blocked nose and obviously struggled to breathe a bit when feeding so hasn't wanted it and has miraculously slept through. It could all go to pot once he's feeling better, but it has at least reassured me that it's possible for him to go without if needs must!

I'm in a similar boat, waking got really bad during teething every hour. Eventually.DP had to step in during some of the wake ups and he just kept trying to shush, stroke him and put his musical lullaby on. It worked far better when DP did this and I have to say after about a week he started waking less. Even though it's quicker to do a feed, I've really tried to not feed every wake up and it seems to have worked.

They must do because I’ve had four they are now between 15 and 9 and they all sleep in their own beds and now require a boob to sleep.

My advice is don’t stress about it they are babies for such a short amount of time, if they need to feed to sleep let them. Do what’s easiest to get you the most amount of sleep. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter

Agree with doadeer.

My dd is now 2.5 and is no longer breastfed. I had to stop co-sleeping around 15 months as I honestly thought I'd die if I didn't get some decent sleep. My dh was rubbish as comforting dd at night so I got my mum to stay for a week, cuddling/singing/etc dd back to sleep. She still woke once a night until I stopped breastfeeding completely at 18.5 months and then she slept through.

Didn’t expect to get so many good replies 😁
I keep psyching myself up for a night of “I’ll just pat her to sleep when she wakes” then being way too sleepy to actually do it.

Part of me is saying just let her carry on, I actually wake up feeling so refreshed in the morning, me and her both like it too. It’s just the future I’m worried about, eg Will she be doing it in 2 years time?

I enjoy being close to her at night for now, although not sure why but I NEVER admit how we sleep (breastfeeding to sleep and co sleeping) to other people, including my own mum! It’s not that I feel ashamed I just feel like it’s frowned upon generally to have a baby in your room and reliant on you to get back to sleep.

To the posters who said their babies grew out if it, was it all of a sudden or gradually?

For now, I think, I’ll just enjoy her wanting to be so close

Yes they do. Ds1 fed ALL THE TIME. Once he was 12 months I introduced a spouted cup of cows milk at bedtimes, and a month later did gradual retreat at bedtime with him falling to sleep in his cot. This really helped, he learnt how to resettle in the night and within a couple of months was sleeping 6.30pm to 4.30am. Into my bed for milk and doze back off.

Ds2 had a bedtime bottle from very eat, but co slept and fed back to sleep. He's 2.5 now and still climbs in Anytime after 4am (more often around 6) for milk. But hasn't had milk in the night for months

No advice, but following this thread. We have 12 month old twin boys and they still wake up for feeds in the night, they are ff though. They have slept through a few times (never both together of course! 😭) and there was a magical few weeks where they would feed at about 11pm then sleep until about 6.30am but now it's all over the place. Their sleep tends to be worse as well, lots of waking and needing comforting. Nothing has worked, we've tried water (waste of time), cuddling&soothing (works but to what end?), controlled crying (no one gets any sleep! 😂), reducing feeds (they just wake up sooner for another feed) and it all just seems like a waste of effort. My husband is getting annoyed with it now, particularly with people who say 'ooh shouldn't they be sleeping through now'!? 😳 At least our neighbours are in exactly the same boat....

I nightweaned DS very gently at 21 mo when he understood a little more
It was honestly the fastest and easiest thing to resettle until then.

He does sometimes sleep through now but it's still hit and miss (26mo)

Yes. Don't worry. Do what works for you now, and just remember, they won'tbe 15 and feeding to sleep :) It ends at some point.

Yeah my 2yo was like this. I got it down to two night feeds with some very gentle night weaning (essentially you pat/shush/cuddle for 10 mins after which time you feed if they are still awake - you'd be surprised how often they fall asleep within a couple of minutes without feeding!) and then at 18mo he just went cold turkey and stopped breastfeeding completely much to my surprise! I do still co-sleep with him though and don't have a problem with it, especially as I work ft so it's nice to have cuddles at night (plus easier/quicker to get him back to sleep when he does wake rather than prancing back and forth across the landing).

@Izzystar31 how did you get on with this? Xx