eat ,play, sleep, but dont babies sleep better if they are fed just before sleeping.

eat ,play, sleep, seems to be recommended
baby is 6 months

but my main question is
dont babies sleep better if they are fed just before sleeping
so if its been a while since he ate should i feed him also a bit just before sleep with the intention that that may help him sleep better,

dont their stomaches get empty within an hour and they get hungry again so to wait 3 hours till after they play and sleep is quite a while and he may get hungry and maybe that will effect that he wont sleep as long as if he was topped up a bit before sleep?

advice please.

My DS used to do that. He was younger, but thats how he worked. Feed, awake for an hour, sleep for an hour, feed, awake for an hour etc.
My MCHN said the same, that the feeds should be making him groggy for sleep, but they didn't :dunno:
He did go to feeding to sleep after a while though. I think if baby is sleeping, then he's happy?

I have recently started doing FPS with V and my and her life is soooo much more easier! I used to feed her to sleep but then as I was bf noone else could get her to sleep. After I almost lost the plot with fatigue I tried the FPS and for us it works well. V sleeps 3 times a day, is put in the cot awake and usually only grizzles for about 5 to 10 mins depending, sometimes she goes to sleep straight away. At night I still feed her to sleep when she lets me but is changing away from that of her own accord, still feeds to sleep on night feeds.

I think she sleeps better as she gets all her burps and farts out while she plays and gets all tired and then can relax and sleep well.

Good luck with whatever you decide

Mine used to feed, sleep, play. Whatever works for you is best :)

I had to do the play feed sleep with dd1 as she would vomit if she moved to much after a feed, with dd2 we just swap and change and follow her cues it helps that she doesn't have to have milk to sleep it took lot to get dd1 out of that routine

Babies don't read the recommendations hun ;), and that's just what they are - guidelines, not hard and fast rules.
My two have both been different - one did the feed play sleep thing, and the other had to be fed to go to sleep. Often they work out their own thing in their own time. Your bub is still so little.
Whatever works for you guys.

Hey Sue! Is this your little one you are referring to?

cheers xoxoxo

I think they encourage F-P-S so that baby isn't encouraged to fall into a pattern of falling asleep on the breast or bottle. However, if you ensure baby is awake during feedtime and then put baby to sleep I don't see why P-F-S is a bad idea. To be honest neither is feeding to sleep if it is necessary.

I can't help you anecdotally as TBH I can't remember most of my child's first year of life but it is YOUR child and YOUR parenting... do what you find works for you. If you are doing it out of worry for baby getting a sleep association with breast or bottle - actively ensure baby is awake during a feed. You are doing a great job.

My babies all did Sleep-Feed-Play-Feed-Sleep. I found they slept really well if I did that routine but they would often sleep so well and for so long they woke up hungry. I just made sure that I offered the same side for the second feed so that they were getting the hind milk and not just the sugary fore milk because that can give them bad habits for snacking. I have had problems with supply so that was really helpful to my milk.

Once my babies are on solids, as DD2 is now, I tend to give her some solids when she first wakes up, let her play, and breastfeed her before her nap. It works for us. I just follow what my baby seems to want and we have happened to fall into that routine. Even with the S-F-P-F-S, it was all baby led. All three just happened to enjoy doing it the same way.

FWIW, I stopped stressing about things like SFPS because I found it all confusing and some of the information can be very conflicting. I did try to do it at first because I was scared that letting them fall asleep while feeding was going to create bad sleeping habits or because I thought that I was doing it wrong. I have now got 3 kids and I just follow what my babies want to do. It hasn't affected the sleeping behaviours of my older kids to let them do whatever they want to do as babies, it just meant life was more pleasant for me because I could meet my babies' needs when they had them, rather than the stress of making them follow a routine they don't want to follow.

I guess what I am saying is that FPS is not wrong if that is what your baby wants, but I think more important than anything else is just following your baby's lead. Do what you are comfortable with and if you want to feed your baby to sleep, you are not going to harm your baby in any way or cause problems for yourself down the track. It is okay to follow your baby's lead if that's what you want to do :)

Hi I didnt mean to be opinionated in my last post as for the first 6 months I was just letting V choose what happened..The only reason I changed things was daycare is coming up and I was just so tired..

Some babies can go four hours between feeds - DD fell into a regular, four hour feeding pattern at around 6mths. So we fell into FPS, but not through me actively trying, it just happened.

Basically that is because she has never fed to sleep - maybe twice in her whole life? We have been BF since birth and she is now 15mths. So feeding just before sleep never worked for us, it might have made her sleepy sometimes but most of the time it was (and still is) like a tonic that wakes her up!

I think you have to try a few things out and see what works for you and baby.

It really does depend on the baby.
If you think your baby is better with F-P-F-S than go for it - it has to be aboout what works for you, not what other people tell you. We only know what has worked for us ;)
DS1 liked this and his day sleeping settled down once we move to feeed-play-feed-sleep

DS2 is a lot more flexible sleep wise FPS or PFS both work wel for him.

I only have 1 babies worth of experience to go from, but the general answer was no, my baby didn't necessarily sleep better directly after being fed. Her actual sleep was pretty much the same regardless of whether it had followed play or feeding. So we mostly did F-P-S. In fact she wasn't really very good at feeding to sleep (would go to sleep then wake up 5-10 minutes later) so even when she was going through a growth spurt and wanted F-P-F-S there would need to a bit of awake time between the feed and the sleep to ensure she stayed asleep. A bit weird but it worked so we did that.

But as the others have said different babies have different preferences so there is no hard and fast rules, more like a variety of different strategies that you try out until you hit the one that works for you.

my DS is also 6 months old but he has no idea of any routine. i am lucky that he will happily go about his day as long as he is occupied. a big day running errands and such, may be out and about for 5 6 hours and he wont eat the whole time. i will make time while i am out btu he is too distracted.

i will admit i have tried the FPS but it really depends on his mood. he will on occasion try all at once. feeding is a game sometimes which involves spitting milk at me, then bang he is asleep. then i will go to put him down and the play begins all over again.
i think it is most important to do whatever works for you. and try to read their cues more than anything.

there are no such things as rules!

My baby has actually just put herself into the pattern of Feed - Play - Sleep in the last couple of days and I have to say, it is soooooo much easier to read her tired cues now that I am not feeding her to sleep. I was a bit confused as to what to be looking for and wondered how on earth I was going to get her to "self settle" and now that we are FPS-ing, she does self settle! It's really made things clearer for me and Evie seems to be happier in between feeding and sleeping. Don't get me wrong, I always offer her boobie before I put her down to sleep just in case she is hungry but so far she hasn't taken it.
Sue xxx

So far for me, baby sleeps well when fed, the p-f-s routine. But not that much or she'll be a needing 30 to 40 mins of rocking to sleep.

i would just like my bub to sleep!!

I know that this is a bit of an older thread, but while looking for some info just now, I found it and it was a question I wanted to ask.
Problem for us with F - P - S is that if DD has a feed then a play, she can't do tummy time as she will have a chuck.
But if we do P - F - S then she feeds (BF) to sleep - which now seems to be the only way to get her to sleep :(
I am still struggling with finding a routine that works for us! help!

Fwiw we did fpfs. I breastfed, so would give dd one side when she woke up and the other to sleep.
Breaking it up led to less puke, too :)

Huh, I just read my post in this thread from back in May... My new DS is the complete opposite to my DD. He does fpfs, fps, pfs, ffpfs, pfpfs, LOL you get the idea!!

He often feeds to sleep... Sometimes when I feed him just before a sleep he will punch out two+ hours, other times he will only sleep 40mins straight after a feed. Doesn't seem to be any sort of correlation...yet!

I'm on my phone and can't see how old your LO is, but bear in mind that the chucking should settle - DS is almost 6mths and the spews are few and fat between now.

You will work it out and find something that works for you guys. Try not to stress about it.

When DD was your LO's age, we were doing a bit of everything, and generally anything that worked! It seemed different week to week at that stage, but closer to 6 months she settled into more of a P F S pattern. But as we BF on demand, it wasn't always the case anyways. Still isn't to be honest, but in general we are P F S now.

With the chucking and tummy time, maybe keep your DD upright-ish for up to half hour after a feed, let things settle a little, then try the tummy time. My DD was a happy chucker until around 6 months, and we just kept her as upright as possible, and kept lots of cloths handy!

With the BF to sleep, BF releases those lovely sleepy hormones so it's only natural for her to fall asleep at the breast, if it's working okay and you're alright with it, you could always just go with it. We fed to sleep for the first 6 months, and DD eventually got to the stage where she might be sleepy, but would stay awake long enough to feed then go to sleep when she'd finished. Try not to stress and just go with the flow, aiming to stick to a routine can create more stress and pressure on everyone, especially Mum! You're doing a great job by listening to your baby to see what she needs :)

thanks ladies for all your replies!

I am glad to hear then that others feed bub to sleep - and it works and is OK. I have been given a bit of a hard time from family and community nurses about it, saying that this is a really bad habit. So thanks for the reassurance!

Hey Milly, feeding to sleep is totally natural babe. There's loads of literature to read and quote to nay-saying family members - have a look on the ABA website, there is an article on it! Also Pinky McKay has some awesome books too which talk about it.

You're doing great hun!
S X

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thanks ladies for all your replies!

I am glad to hear then that others feed bub to sleep - and it works and is OK. I have been given a bit of a hard time from family and community nurses about it, saying that this is a really bad habit. So thanks for the reassurance!

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I know this is an old thread ( err where did 2011 go?) but I wanted to say I had the same and my DD prefers P-F-P-S most of the time. The other half of the time she will do P-F-S. I was getting the same thing from family and community nurses about it too. I just stopped listening.

Just remember, in the small chance you do create a bad habit, you can always change it later once they are older. We still have no routine and she is 3 months old LOL. I just do whatever she needs, and if I need to go out she has to fit in with me a bit :)

Hope your baby is doing well x