How old before settling themselves to sleep?

[Lucypearl]

My DD is 3 months and my health visitor strongly advised from now on she should be put to bed awake to teach her how to fall asleep herself and avoid problems later.

I've tried but she absolutely will not settle herself no matter how sleepy she is. As soon as she hits the cot she starts crying and only picking her up will stop her. I have to rock her until fast asleep before putting her down.

Don't want to 'make a rod for my own back' as some people have advised I am doing, but then others advised that she's still very young so don't worry about that yet.

Would love to hear others experiences and advice.

[giddykipper]

You'll be missing the clingy phase when you have a toddler who pushes you away when you try to give them a kiss!

[Ellibop]

My HV advised the same when my ds was a few weeks old, I ignored her and carried on holding him etc and putting him down when fast asleep or co-sleeping on the many many occasions when he refused to stay asleep when put down. I worried needlessly about such 'rod' comments as now at almost 5 months I put him to bed awake and he's usually asleep within 5 minutes without any crying or fuss, even for daytime naps, and has been doing this for several weeks now. So I'd strongly advise you to go with the flow and ignore your useless HV (or am I wrongly assuming everyone's HV is as cr@p as mine??)