By Lauren Heffernan
Your baby does NOT need to stop nursing to sleep in order to sleep through the night!
That’s right… I will say it again for the people in the back, YOUR BABY DOES NOT NEED TO STOP NURSING TO SLEEP TO SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT!
I just read another post by another sleep consultant/sleep trainer telling a mum that nursing to sleep is the reason her baby is waking and I really cannot believe that this myth is still circulating.
I hear all the time, “how your baby falls asleep at night is how they expect to return to sleep in the middle of the night.” Says who??!!???
I have worked with over 1,000 families and I can say with 100% confidence that this is just nonsense. You DO NOT need to stop nursing your baby to sleep so that they sleep through the night. I have only ever removed this in a small number of families because they either no longer want to do it (which is 100% ok), or when they put their baby down asleep, they wake up so we needed to find a different solution.
There are real benefits to nursing your baby to sleep (if you want to). As babies get older, they can get very distracted and they will need these really drowsy nursing sessions in order to get their daily milk intake. These nursing sessions can be really critical for not only keeping up mum’s supply, but for getting the extra calories to baby.
We nurse to sleep (also naps) and she is almost 8 months. She is up 1-3 times a night usually but we are exclusively bed sharing now that she’s teething (she doesn’t want me to put her down). We planned to get a nanny before she was born so I am lucky to be able to have her close even when I’m working.
She does put herself back to sleep (I’ve seen her do it in the monitor). Since she’s EBF her nap meals are her biggest meals. It ends up just working out.
I nurse to sleep for every nap and bedtime. Naps range from 45 minutes to 2 hours and she sleeps through the night for close to 11 hours.
We put down drowsy for all naps and bedtime, but through the night nurse to sleep when baby wakes.
My baby can settle himself and resettle if he is still tired and not hungry.
He’s 4 months old. I don’t expect him to sleep through the night ( I’ve never understood how anyone could expect that of a baby). On a good night he only wakes 2 times.
Sleep training with the drowsy to sleep method worked well for our baby. But, I haven’t strictly followed because I want to enjoy cuddles and flexibility with schedules.