Should I top up DS before trying to get him to sleep?

[fromheretomaternity]

DS is 15 weeks and a healthy 16 or so pounds, and is exclusively bf. He's never been very good at napping during the day, he is hard to get to sleep then often sleeps very lightly and wakes up partway through and is miserable.

Generally I follow a pattern of feed - play - sleep, with daytime feeds 3-4 hours apart. Over the past couple of days, I've noticed that if he is crying at naptime and I offer him a feed he is often quite hungry, when he has fed he goes off to sleep easily (sometimes during the feed, sometimes quickly afterwards) and has a much deeper sleep.

Now I am confused though, as I'm not sure it's a good idea to introduce little pre-sleep feeds as it might get him used to "snacking" and also it creates a feed-sleep association which might be hard to break later.

Any thoughts from wise mumsnetters...?

IMO I would let him feed to sleep if he seems hungry, and certainly if it helps him to sleep, at 15 weeks old and 16lb, he is a fairly big boy and you are obviously doing a brilliant job of feeding, but maybe as he's getting bigger he just needs a little more, as you say to keep him asleep, with a nice full tummy. I really wouldn't worry about teaching him to 'snack' or 'feed-sleep associations' I tend to think that books that tell you to avoid these kind of things tend to be written by people without children, ok in an ideal world, but in the real world, it's whatever it takes to get you through.
Good luck