Pls help - bub still wants to be fed to sleep

[~kellie~]

Hi everyone,
My 9 month old was going quite well with her sleep, then got sick and has gone so far backwards its not funny. She currently will not go to sleep at all unless she is BF to sleep, and now its getting so bad that as soon as I try to put her in bed she wakes, wanting boob again. It doesnt really worry me feeding her to sleep if she will stay asleep, but I'm going to have to go back to work soon and she will be in day care... how on earth will they get her to sleep there???

Any suggestions on some gentle techniques would be appreciated, as I dont want to CC.

[~clover~]

Will she be rocked to sleep?

[~kellie~]

not really, she just arches her back and cries looking for boob

[~clover~]

Does she ever hav a dummy? I wouldn't introduce one now though.
Do you still wrap? Does she have anything for comfort??
DS will usually have a feed before sleep, but is ususally still awake when I put him down. I did a bit of CC though.
It does work. I never let him winge for more than 5 minutes, but after about a week he goes down fine. Don't worry, I understand its not for you.
We wrap, then put him down, with his dummy if he's really tired, but usually just wrapping him firmly is enough now. If he's having a good day he'll be asleep in 5 - 10 minutes.
If he is having a bad day & won't sleep I do rock him to sleep, but unless he is really upset, I'll try not to feed him.

[~kellie~]

bjrose - she doesnt have a dummy, have tried giving her one and she just plays with it. She puts it between her gums and pulls it in and out of her mouth.

She is still wrapped too.. have read about giving them a comfort object for bed, but not really sure what to give her, as she puts everything in her mouth, and the SIDS side of things worries me there

[Willow]

Hey Kellie.

We've just recently stopped wrapping DS and I gave him a soft toy to cuddle to sleep. I know what you mean about the SIDS risk, but I figured he was mobile enough for it not to be such an issue. It has worked well for us. He also has a dummy but not sure how much it helps him to sleep and he doesn't have it overnight, only during his day naps. Once he is over this cold, I'm thinking about getting rid of it all together. If I were you, I would avoid using one, but if its going to give her the comfort of sucking without needing to feed to sleep, then in that situation it may be the lesser of two 'evils'??

You said that she had improved prior to getting sick - why don't you just try going back to square one, doing whatever you originally did to get her to the point where she didn't need to feed to sleep?

The other thing that comes to mind is that I've seen people post about some sort of technique in the No Cry book about getting babies over the need to feed to sleep - might be worth looking at? I can't help in more detail on that one because DS has never fed to sleep.

[~clover~]

Alot of other mums on here are using cloth nappies for comforters.
If you try putting it down your shirt first so it smells like you it might work.
It's not going to be easy though. I think if you just keep to the routine of wrapping, putting her down & giving her the comforter.
Maybe you coult try patting & shushing for a while. If she gets upset pick her up & rock til she settles.
If she settles try the patting & shushing again & use feeding as a last resort.
I have had alot of times where the only way is to feed. He just gets upset & ends up screaming. I can't let him cry. Winging I can handle, but not for long. Crying I can't do.