Advice on when your baby stopped feeding to sleep

[Lullabies2Paralyze]

I EBF and I still 9/10 times feed by baby to sleep. 6 months now and is waking every 2 hrs. It was just moaning but currently screaming house down (definitely teething!) so I am finding it easiest to just feed him so he doesn’t disturb partner who works.

wanting advice on;

• if your baby still woke every couple of hrs and you fed to sleep, did you keep them in your room till they got out of this phase or move them? His room will be on a different floor to us and I don’t look forward to traipsing down stairs in freezing winter nights every 2-3hrs

• if you carried on feeding to sleep, at what age/weight did they grow out of this or at least start sleeping longer and only waking once? I read somewhere once they are 16lbs they sleep better, my DS is currently 15lbs9 at last recent weigh.

thanks. Any other advice appreciated. Past 2 nights I tried CIO as partner was away but this resulted in him hysterically crying himself awake and also kept me awake so I was more tired than quickly getting him and feeding him after letting him moan/cry for a minute or 2.

Hi there! Currently working on sleep with my 7m old, she's my second, also EBF and fed to sleep most of the time.

I moved her into her own room at 5ish months, because she was waking every 2 hours but I wasn't getting any sleep in between because of snorty baby noises - also, my favourite part of the day is lying in bed with my husband before going to sleep, having a chat and a cuddle and a reconnect, and that was impossible with a baby in the room. So out she went. Trekking round the house was a small price to pay!

I can't really comment on when she grew out of feeding to sleep, because I didn't wait that long and we did CC to break the habit and now she self settles for bedtime and naps with just a bit of whining. She's down to maybe one or two feeds overnight now, and she's nowhere near 16lbs, she's absolutely tiny. I have a rule where I don't feed her before midnight unless she really needs it, IE I go in, pat and shhhh, do CC check ins etc, and try and push that first feed as far back as I possibly can. It's been a few weeks and most of the time it's working, some nights she even wakes, has a brief yell and then puts herself back to sleep, which is cool. I'm not fussed about losing that last feed just yet, she's a titch so I reckon her tummy is too small to stay full all night, I'll probably cut that one out in a month or so. In the night she's mostly fed back to sleep, but sometimes she wakes when she hits the cot, and then puts herself back to sleep 9/10.

Hope that helps!

Thanks, I did think the 16lb thing was a myth but good to have it confirmed. Read alsorts online haha

I probably need to try more to find another way to sleep. When I try shush pat it seems to make things worse in terms of crying so I end up giving in and feeding even when I know he doesn’t need anymore food.

I am hoping his teeth come in soon as there’s little white nubs under gums now and last few nights have been especially bad in terms of crying when waking - once his first teeth come in I’ll move him and hopefully he will settle better alone. I know what you mean about needing/wanting time with partner without baby there

if your baby still woke every couple of hrs and you fed to sleep, did you keep them in your room till they got out of this phase or move them?

my DS was waking every 2 hours at 6 months. I kept him in my room til 8 months, then tried his own room to see if it helped. It didn’t. Since then, we have been putting him down in his cot at the start of the night, then he comes into bed with me at either 1st or 2nd wake-up and we co-sleep. No way was I getting up and down all night!

if you carried on feeding to sleep, at what age/weight did they grow out of this or at least start sleeping longer and only waking once?

DS is now 22 months and he still wakes minimum 3 times a night. He does do a decent stretch at the start of the night now though of 4-5 hours. Then he wakes every couple of hours, give or take.

Co-sleeping is the route we went down as we didn’t really have the stomach for sleep training - we tried some gentle things like DH going in to settle him each time, but to no avail.

No real advice other than it can take a VERY long time for them to “grow out of it”, and in the meantime you have the choice of either co-sleeping or sleep training.

My daughter literally used me as a dummy the entire night!

The first step was getting her to unlatch once asleep and just cuddling her in my bed.

Then it was shortening the feed and stopping before she fell asleep.

Then it was attempting to cuddle to sleep upon waking and only feeding if she got upset.

Then it was telling her she can have milk in the morning and just cuddling her to sleep.

Once she was happy with just being cuddled to sleep I put an air mattress on the floor next to her cot and sleeping next to her until she got used to staying in her bed.

Next I was starting off the night whilst she falls asleep in her bed with me on air mattress and then going to my bed and coming back if she woke up.

Currently just have a chair in her room. She will sometimes sleep through, sometimes will wake and have a quick cuddle back to sleep then go back in her cot.

This process took place over several months and she first slept through when she was 2! Each step there was definitely protest but I just gave her any reassurance I could whilst holding whatever the boundary was (no more milk, mummy will cuddle you etc).

@RosieLee2019 @MsChatterbox thanks for the replies. I hope my boy doesn’t take that long! 2 years seems so far away but knowing my luck he will!! (Or longer!) 🤣

there’s a double bed in what will be his room as I didn’t want to get rid of a perfectly good bed so he’ll have it when he outgrows his cot. So I suspect I’ll be sleeping in there for a while once he moves, just hopefully not for the next 2 years!

My DC didn't 'grow out of it', we phased it out. Left to her own devices DD would still be fed to sleep at 3 I expect.

I don't think they do just grow out of it, or mine certainly didn't and so we did some controlled crying which worked well although I know isn't for everyone. Those I know who don't want to do controlled crying have three year olds who still feed to sleep.

I certainly don’t think they just hit a certain weight and outgrow it sadly… my nearly 20 lb 9 month old still wakes every 2 hours 😩🥱

My 13 month old DS still feeds to sleep but wake up once or twice. That’s been the last few months.
I have 3 dc and not one has slept through before 10 months.
All babies are different and sorry to say they don’t start sleeping through by a certain age/weight xx