Moving on from feeding to sleep?

DS is 11 months old, and I almost always feed him to sleep - both day and night. This has worked really well, very peaceful and relaxing for both of us. On the odd occasion feeding to sleep doesn't work, I can usually get by feeding him long enough to get him to wind down and then rock him to sleep.

However, just recently he has been fighting me feeding him to sleep - especially when he's going down of a night. I know feeding to sleep isn't going to work forever, but at the moment I'm a little worried about if he decides all of a sudden he doesn't want that anymore, or if he suddenly weans... then I've lost the one tried and true method of getting him to sleep!

He won't self settle in his cot - just gets up and wants to play, won't lie still. Rocking him to sleep doesn't work unless he's already pretty dopey. I've tried him in bed with me, lying next to him, but he thinks that is a great game and just wants to play...

So... has anyone had to find a new method of getting their LO to sleep after feeding to sleep for so long? What worked for you?

Hey honey :)

We fed (and still feed) Kelts to sleep otherwise she is a shocker (hence the 2 hours to go to sleep jazz that we go through if she doesn't fall asleep on her bottle!) but that is only of the night time. When she was still having day bottles, I could always get her to have a second nap by - yup - falling asleep whilst feeding. It was my only tried and true method there for a while (and I don't think it made a difference being bottle fed, if I wanted her to take a nap I'd just make a small bottle ;))

She is the same, if she is in our bed and we lie down with her, its time to par-tay....

So we usually do the old "pat on the back" stuff until she is asleep - either that or we stroke her eyebrow (which makes her eyes close) and then we give her a little head massage to send her off to sleep. Most of the time this works, but its not as quick as feeding to sleep.

Eventually he will self settle (yes he might be 3 when it happens) but it will happen. Aricyn doesn't need any help going to sleep (still needs us sitting next to him, but we don't actually DO anything) so there's some hope for ya ;)

Have you read the NCSS Sterla?
There's a plan in there to stop feeding to sleep. I haven't tried it though.

Maybe the fussing is because DS isn't tired enough? DD went through a stage at 11 months, where she would refuse normal bedtime if I let her have a late arvo sleep. Now I make sure she isn't alseep after 4:30pm and its enough to make her willing to sleep at a reasonable time (like 7-7:30pm).

Is DS fussing at other feed times?

As for weaning off feeding to sleep, I occasionally feed DD until dopey and then pat her off to sleep in her cot (if it looks like its going to work). But at 11mo, I would continue feeding to sleep because he's too young to understand how to lie still.

I sometimes fantasise about the days DD used to self settle, but yanno...(and I about to start a thread about this)...I love helping DD fall asleep atm.

Hope you find a solution to your dilemma soon. GL

Thanks for your replies :).

Arimeh: Well, at least Aricyn can fall to sleep on his own - it does happen, eventually!

Heaven: I do have a copy of NCSS on my computer... thanks for reminding me actually, lol. I have started reading it, but have only got as far as the sleep logs. Must find where it is and keep reading!

Anna: You may be on to something. He's not refusing to feed to sleep every time - he has been a few nights this week, and a couple of times through the day, but nothing consistent.
It may be that he wasn't tired enough, but I don't know... he's still there rubbing his eyes and yawning. I'm happy to keep feeding to sleep for as long as DS wants... I just hope he does for a while yet.

I have actually managed to get him to nod off by rocking to sleep a couple of times recently, so maybe that will start to work more if he starts refusing to be fed to sleep. It's heavy work, but at least it does work!

I did have another idea. I've noticed that DS has been starting to refuse (or refuse after a couple of minutes) to feed - so perhaps he is starting to drop a few feeds - and that's why he won't feed to sleep? Maybe that's it?

For anyone who doesn't have the NCSS:
peaceful parenting: The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night