17 week old will only feed to sleep

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DD is 17 weeks, has always been a terrible napper but slept through at night from about 11 weeks. The past few weeks the only way she naps is if I feed her (bf) and let her fall asleep on me, I can't transfer her to crib or she goes mad and I can't resettle. She will eventually asleep in pram but screams for up to 15 minutes first. She will fall asleep in car most times but I'm sick of driving around constantly!

She has now started waking 4-5 times in he might, I can't resettle her so end up feeding her back to sleep then gently transferring to crib. She is mainly breastfed but has a bottle of formula before bed and occasionally one during the day.

Is she now too reliant on being fed to sleep or is she too young to encourage to self settle? I mean we have tried but I can only put up with about 5 minutes of crying before picking her up and feeding her.

I'm very tired and because she will only nap on me in the day I am getting very little sleep and really can't continue like this.

Sending love and empathy. It can feel like such hard work. My DS 20w is also mainly bf with bottle before bed and occasionally one in the day. He wakes once in the night. He was using a dummy but I felt he was getting reliant on that and I'd rather he didn't as I don't want that to wake him more especially once he's in his own room. He can go to sleep without it now but has to be rocked in the pram so he's not putting himself to sleep. I do think you can do a bit of very gentle sleep training at this age. Can you try popping her down before she is too over tired, shh and pat or rock for a minute, cuddle to reassure if crying then put her back down again. Back to shhh and pat/rocking for 3 mins then reassurance cuddle.

My kids are 2 & 4 now. But I BF both to sleep till there were between 9-12 months. Neither slept through consistently till after 12 months.

I wouldn't be concerned about self settling at such a young age. They'll do it when they are ready.

Hi @mumtum2023 thanks for your reply, I have tried to put her down awake but she just screams and it’s just keeps escalating, no patting or even cuddling will calm her. She is not a cuddly baby and doesn’t seem
soothed by me holding her. The only thing that works is feeding her.

tonight has been especially hard, she is waking every hour and when she falls asleep feeding is screaming as soon as I put her in the crib, so I have basically been feeding her all night, I’m exhausted I don’t know how I am going to be able to look after her tomorrow on no sleep. I’m just at such a loss right now.

It’s not unusual to feed to sleep at this age. It’s also a common age for sleep regression.

Have you tried a dummy? Also have you tried letting your DP deal with the middle of the night wake ups? When you appear, she’s going to want the breast automatically. Maybe send him with a small emergency bottle of formula if he can’t settle her without.

When my kids were infants, I really persevered with getting them to sleep in their bed for naps and nighttime, but it was tedious. Every time they’d wake up, I’d rock them and put them back, sometimes ten times! But it eventually worked. Also they had dummies. Babies have a natural urge to suck constantly.

@Lizzieregina Thank you... I have tried a dummy, she used to take it but stopped about 4 weeks ago and refuses it completely now. I don't mind the feeding to sleep, it's more that as soon as I put her down she wakes and screams and I have to start the process all over again which can take hours.

I have tried to rock her to sleep over and over but again she screams and will only settle when fed.