Babies: 6 - 9 Months

Nursing down for naps

DS is 6 mo and we have been nursing to sleep for bed and naps. This has been consistent and worked really well for us, but I understand the possible negative implications this will start to have, especially since I work full time. Also, DS has been waking several times a night (every hour last night, which is not common, but very tiring none-the-less) and I am wondering if the nursing back to sleep is encouraging this? 

Is sleep training (not CIO) the only way to break away from this? Is food-sleep association really a bad thing? Any momma's out there still nursing to sleep? What is working/ not working for you?

I am just feeling a little lost right now for some reason.  

Re: Nursing down for naps

  • You will get mixed views on this. Sleep training isn't the only way, some babies grow out of it, just at different times. You can research the sleep training methods and find what works for you. For us, DD still wakes me up 3-4 times a night to nurse. However instead of nursing her straight to sleep during the day, and for the first time we put her down, I nurse her in the living room and then put her in her crib. She falls asleep on her own after that. It's our middle ground.
    Mommy to Emery Vera 5.20.12  Blog
  • Loading the player...
  • I think it is a personal decision for every individual. You have to ask yourself the questions, "Can I feed my child every time he needs to fall asleep? And do I want to?" If the answer to either of these questions is no, then IMO you're probably going to want to teach him how to fall asleep without needing to nurse to do it. Personally, I felt like it was empowering DS to teach him how to fall asleep on his own, but I understand that sleep training is not everyone's parenting style.


                 

    image
      
      image  
     

     
  • My daughter went through this too.  At the time she was still sleeping in her crib in the room with us and once we moved her into her room she started sleeping a lot better.  However, she would still wake up 2-3 times a night.  Over Christmas break if she woke up I would change her, feed her (if it had been longer than 3 hours) and then put her immediately put her back to bed.  With putting her down immediately after feeding her she wouldn't be completely asleep so she would wake up a little bit and then I would pat her back.  If it had been less than 3 hours since she ate and would just change her and then lay her back down in her bed and pat her back.  My daughter learned to crawl and pull-up at about the same time and she would pull-up and then not know how to lay back down.  It was really a process of teaching her how to lay down.
    image Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker 
  • I still nurse to sleep because it works for us.  Sometimes if I put my mind to it for whatever reason I'm able to pat him down for a nap. Usually it involves 10mins of crying/whining, but I don't feel so guilty because I'm there comforting him. Mostly I just take the easy way out and nurse
    Nevermind me, I'm too distracted by my mini-carrots to think properly image
    ~Fitness Blog~
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"