How can I stop breastfeeding my baby to sleep?

[Naomi95]

Hi, I have a 17 month old son. I've breastfed him since birth. He still breastfeeds now at night time, in fact it's the only way I can get him to sleep at night. Currently I have to climb into his cot and breastfeed him to sleep in the evenings and then when he wakes up overnight he ends up co-sleeping with us and I breastfeed him whenever he wakes overnight.

However recently he has started biting, sure he has bitten me before but it was only occasionally and didn't hurt much but now he bites all the time and it's becoming so painful, I'm getting extremely sore.

I feel it's come to a time I want to stop breastfeeding him, but our problem is that we don't know how else to get him to sleep. We have tried rocking and sitting in his room with him, singing and reading stories. He just cries and cries and we hate to see him cry. He gets himself so worked up. Occasionally it will work if we walk up and down with him in our arms but it takes a long time and very tiring for me as I'm small and he's getting a big boy now! I also work night shifts sometimes and my partner really struggles with him to get him to sleep with both of them normally having to stay up a lot at night.

Basically I need to stop taking the easy route and using the breastfeeding to get him to sleep, but I just want some advice on what I can do to replace the breastfeeding. Are there any success stories? How can I help him to get to sleep on his own without my having to let him cry it out?

Sorry for the long question. Thank you

Hi, I could have written your post a month ago! I was feeding to sleep then co sleeping with my 12 month old who was waking to comfort feed several times a night. Like you I didn't want to sleep train as I couldn't sit and listen to him cry and get so worked up.

It has been a slow slow process but I think we are getting somewhere now. My husband took a few days off work and for 3 nights only he saw to him in the night. The first couple of nights he was up pretty much every hour, and we gave him a bottle when he was really upset. But the 3rd night he seemed to have got the idea and would fall asleep whilst cuddling us reading a book.

We then gave him one bottle a night and reduced the amount by 1oz each night

Now 3 weeks in he stays in his cot all night and wakes up once, needs a cuddle then goes back down easily! I would never have thought it possible a month ago so please know you can do it if you are ready.

We still have some way to go with getting him to fall asleep by himself not cuddling us but just stopping breastfeeding has made such a huge difference to his sleep.

Good luck!!!

I breastfed ds until he was over 2.5 years and he suddenly developed a chewy latch.
I now cuddle him to sleep and then transfer him into his bed. It was a no tears process I explained that there was only milk for babies and he wasn’t a baby anymore. I let him have a pouch of baby food at bedtime instead and that lasted about 8 weeks and now he has his supper downstairs and then just cuddles in bed.
We had quite a few weeks when he’d only feed every second or third night. It was a gradual tail off.
It can take a long time to get him to sleep but he’s never been a good sleeper.
Other people I know have bribed with ice cream or sweets.

It took me about 3 months in total to fully wean ds and unfortunately it’s not made much difference to his sleep as he still wakes me up twice a night

Similar ish here. My baby turned 1 in March. I was BF to sleep and during the night, once or twice back to sleep. Then end April/beginning of May my partner settled him to sleep 2 nights running at 10/11pm and those night he didn’t wake for milk after. So I took the opportunity and the next few nights he did wake I didn’t feed him just cuddled him/lay in spare bed then put him down with his white noise. I also increased evening meal to something heavier. Since then he has slept through...no milk in night. He does still have BF before bed-yet to crack that one!!