I’m commonly contacted by parents asking the following questions:
“I’ve been told that I shouldn’t feed to sleep and instead I should put my baby down ‘drowsy but awake’. Is it true that feeding to sleep is a bad habit?”
“I think I’ve created a sleep problem by breastfeeding when my baby wakes in the night. Should I stop doing it?”
“My partner breastfeeds at night and our baby won’t let me settle him as a result. How can we break this bad sleep association so I can settle him?”
It seems that ‘sleep trainers’ everywhere are fixed upon scaring parents away from feeding to sleep and feeding in the night. It’s commonly considered a poor sleep association, a bad habit or problematic. In this video I discuss this issue and tell you the truth!
Thank you for this very nice video. I am considering night-weaning my girl who turned 2 a few weeks ago, and so I will follow our advice on introducing a lovey and key words along with breastfeeding.
Vlogs are great, but I can’t read them during night feeds 😦
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Thanks for this! What about older babies? My 15 month old is still nursing to sleep and I’m the only one who can get her down for both naps and night time. We have tried having my husband and our nanny put her down but she just cries and cries. She won’t take comfort – just pushes their hands away. She clearly just wants me. We tried night weaning at 14 months and same thing – she wouldn’t go to sleep without me nursing. Wondering if I should stop nursing to sleep to allow them to put her down and allow others to comfort her during the night…Would love to hear your wisdom on this! Thanks so much!!!
Thank you for such a reassuring message! What about babies who want to suckle/comfort nurse for hours at a time during the night? My almost-five-month old is doing this and it’s getting exhausting. We bedshare during these phases but when she comes off the breast, she wakes and I have to help her latch on again, so I’m basically awake all the time. Any ideas of how to deal with this or is the answer just to ride it out? She won’t take a pacifier at night.
Love this! Thank you so much. It gives me hope and some comfort feeding my 12month old.