Breastfed under-six-months baby that sleeps through without sleep training - DOES IT EXIST?

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I was discussing this with a friend this morning.

Although we have a few friends that claim their baby 'slept through' at this age they were also the type who kept the doors shut between them and the baby and didn't worry too much about crying. Which I am here classifying as sleep training!

So for non-trained babies, does anyone HAVE a breastfed baby under six months (or even under nine months) who SLEEPS THROUGH?

Or is this an impossible dream!

If so, what do you think your secrets of success are? Or just plain luck?

does 8 hours count?

My dd was doing 8 hours by that time, between 10pm - 6am, then sleeping until 10. She must have been about 10 months when she started sleeping 7.30 - 7.30.

Yes I think anything over 6 probably counts.

My Childminders kids ALL slept through by 6 weeks, one of them did it from 2!!!!!. I would not have been able to sleep myself from 2 weeks.

Mine were the usual 6 months for constant nights.

dd3 sleeps at least 8hrs most night without waking. she is 14 weeks old and fully breastfed.

Yes, Ive had 3 breastfed babies that have slept 6 hours a night. The best one was ds2, he started at about 2 weeks!

To answer your question, I think its just luck!

Ds slept through (7.30-6.30) at 5m, with me dream feeding at 11pm-ish. All luck rather than judgement and have had broken nights since then for various reasons. Whenever the goal posts are set, they change again!!

DS slept through from five months, but has had some nightmare nights with teething since.

He's 14mo now and still breastfed (hasn't been fed at night for months and months now though) - he sleeps in a different bedroom, but his cot's literally the other side of a paper-thin wall, so no chance of not hearing him if he does wake!

I think grobags helped with him sleeping through - he kicks a blanket off within two seconds.

Grobags are marvellous things!

My first did, but he also started sucking his thumb at 9 weeks old - same day he slept through. My second refused to take his thumb and he was 11 months when I finally insisted on cutting out the night feeds and he now, one month later, sleeps through at night. I am convinced the thumb was the key.

Ah, yes, DS sucks his fingers too! That helped a lot

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DSs both slept 8 hours from about 3 months. Having done nothing to warrent this, I put it down to luck of the draw/genetics. Both napped well in the day too.

Yes ds slept through from about 4 months onwards. I don't think you can sleep train pre-six months as when they wake it is hunger not habit

mine started sleeping through about 8 or 9 months (she's only 13 months and already I can't remember) .. when I say sleeping through I mean 6pm to 7.30am

was definitely before 10.5 months cos that's when I stopped BF

Someone I know sleep-trained at 6 weeks. I thought she was just a BD M*R. (sorry, worst swear word on MN!)

Yes, all four of mine have been breastfed and have slept through by 10 weeks (by that I mean at least 8 hours). dd3 was sleeping for 12 hours. She is just short of 6 months now though and has stopped - she wakes after 6 hours now. I'm not sure how to remedy this - I hope when she gets solids she might sleep longer again, but i don't really want to do controlled crying with her.

I did have some problems with my eldest - at first I fed him to sleep, but after that I have been very careful that they can put themselves to sleep so i try to put them down awake.

They have all had the same habit of feeding constantly all evening. I have been careful that they can all put themselves to sleep as well, so they were all put down awake right from the start. I'd like to take the credit for this - but when I went back to work, I had a fantastic nanny who insisted on them being put to bed awake - I think this really is the key.

My dd was sleeping through many nights from about three months and if she did wake had a (literally) five-minute feed and crash out again.
However....she is now 18 (19?) weeks and being a typical four-monther - very hungry and waking in the night again. But I am just so grateful she feeds quickly and goes straight back to sleep.

All three of mine have slept through by 8 weeks. By that I mean from about 10pm to 6 am. I put it down to feeding them regularly through the day - seems to make sense to me. Feed them most during the day and they'll wake up less during the night. I fed on a vaguely three hour cycle but made sure they had a really full feed by tickling toes and changing nappy if they fell asleep.

yes - DD (6 months) is fully breastfed (has been on solids for a few weeks though now) and has slept at least 7 hours a night since about 6 weeks old (a few early starts with the light mornings but she'd always go straight back to sleep). She used to scream all evening mind you! but then always crashed out at about 11pm.

Just want to say as well that DS was still solely breastfed - he didn't really eat much till 8 months and nothing before 6 months.

dd did - it was mostly luck as she easily fit into a routine. ds didn't, mostly (I think) because he was carted around after dd a lot and it was harder to find a routine.

yes. my youger two did from about fourish months. the eldest didnt. he was bottlefed mainly.