Any tips on getting a 6 month old to sleep?

Question

I have a 6 month old who has been relying on nursing to go to sleep ( I know I started a bad habit!) any tips to help get her to sleep without it?

Answer 1

Unlike bottle feeding, breastfeeding does not create dental caries in most infants so there is no reason to stop nursing her to sleep.

Answer 2

What time does she normally go to sleep?Try feeding her 30 minutes to an hour before then. If you are feeding her in her nursery, maybe feed her somewhere else. Im in the beginnings of trying to get mine to go to sleep on her own. She used to fall alseep while I nursed her and when I bottle fed her... so I tried to be sure she was full before her bath. I give her rice cereal in the evenings and then a bottle. So after her bath (which is at 8pm) she is still full and doesnt want to eat again... and she is sleeping through the night (10-11 hours) half of the time, and the other half she is sleeping for 6-8 hours straight and then sleeping the remaining part of a 10-11 hour night. She'll be 5 months in a week. Does that answer your question without too much confusion?

Answer 3

I would suggest a pacifier, but sometimes that creates the problem of the baby spitting it out once they get to sleep, and then waking up and realizing they don't have it and crying! I did this for a while and then realized that just putting my baby to bed and letting her cry was the best solution. The first week it took anywhere from 20 - 45 minutes for her to go to sleep, crying the entire time. I would go back into her room and check on her every 5 minutes or so, pat her back, and leave. It was exhausting. She finally realized that I wasn't going to pick her up and started sleeping. Now it only takes between 30 seconds and 5 minutes for her to fall asleep. She sleeps between 8 - 12 hours at night and just turned 4 months old. I am formula feeding, so don't expect your baby to sleep as long because breast milk digests faster than formula!

Answer 4

PLEASE listen to me! I am a mommy and I did the same thing as you.. so now this is what you should do, b/c if you don't it will only get harder in the future. Nurse her whichever room she will be sleeping in, and make sure b4 you nurse that all lights are off, so she gets nice and sleepy. Nurse your baby at night, as usual, do not let her fall asleep while nursing! Once she seems full enough and starts to drift off, take her off your breast, lay her in the crib (I put my son tummy down) pat her back for like a 10 seconds. say goodnight and walk away (make sure there are no lights on or anything), She will cry for a while. Stay away for like 5 minutes, then (if she is still crying) go in there pat her back, say goodnight again, DO NOT pick her up and leave.. but make sure you are in and out in like 15 seconds. (You are only going in there so she knows you didn't just leave her) Stay out a little longer this time, maybe 10 minutes do the same thing again. Just make sure when you go in, get in get out, 15 secs. just enough so she knows its okay. make each trip farther apart. this make take a few nights but if you stick with it everytime she will fall asleep on her own in about a week or so. Good luck and be strong! Remember she is tired, so it's only a matter of time b4 she falls asleep and crying only makes her more tired so let her cry a bit its okay.

Answer 5

Rearrange her nighttime routine so that nursing is second to last instead of last. I would also recommend including a meal of solid food at the start of your routine as this also tends to fill up baby's little stomachs and help baby's sleep better and longer. For example, if your old routine was get a bath, read a story, nurse, go to bed; then the new routine would be snack, get a bath, nurse, read a story, go to bed. Be prepared for a lot of crying as your baby adjusts to the change. What you do about the crying is up to you, myself, I rock my daughter to sleep, but it won't kill her if you just put her down in her crib, leave the room, and let her cry it out. Whatever you do, if you decide to let her cry it out, don't change your mind after half an hour (yes, it can take the long) and go upstairs to comfort her. This will make her cry longer and longer the next time. If you can't handle standing idlely by while your baby cries, then just rock her to sleep, you won't spoil her, trust me. Anyway, once she adjusts to the new routine (expect that to take about at week, possiblly as long as two) then you can start weaning her away from nursing in the middle of the night. I would recommend pushing her feeding back by ten minutes per night. For example, if her first feeding would normally be at midnight, the first night you wouldn't nurse her until 12:10, the second night 12:20, the third night 12:30, and so on. This method is hard the first couple nights (again, a lot of crying) but if you stick with it, it will work. I don't know what your situation is, but one of the things that works the best (assuming that you aren't going to just let her "cry it out") is to have the baby's father rock her through her nighttime feedings. She's more likely to go back to sleep on her own that way, rather than just stubbornly waiting until Mommy finally nurses her. Best of luck to you, and if you have a setback (most likely you will, for me it was my daughter getting a cold and me not wanting to be too hard on her while she was sick) just keep moving forward, it does get better, I promise and eventually she will sleep through the night. I would not recommend limiting her naps during the day in any way, unless she starts sleeping for more than two hours per nap. Sleep begets sleep, withholding sleep from her will just make her more tired and cranky (and CLINGY) at bedtime.

Answer 6

I had this same problem...I'll tell you what I did and it's worked...if your baby is like mine, she's not a very good napper-catnaps that build up a burst of energy...you can see tired sleepy eyes, but there is no way you could put your baby to bed without hearing him cry for a long time. I let her stay up as long as she wanted until she was whining and when I picked her up, her eyes closed and I would nurse her in a rocking chair. Definetly use a rocking chair if you can and if your bottlefeeding-give that last bottle when the eyelids are so heavy, you know the baby will fall right asleep-good luck!

By the way...if nursing soothes your baby and puts her to sleep-don't let anyone try to tell you differently...nursing provides comfort and relaxation...The only reason babies cry themselves to sleep is because they are too exhausted and feel helpless because noone is responding to their needs-babies need that comfort and believe me, listening to your baby cry for hours will not help you go to sleep!

Answer 7

I totally agree! I fed mine to sleep up until 6 months and then (big dummy that I am) let her have a bottle of water to go to sleep. Every time she woke up she would throw the bottle out of the bed. I would have to come get it, give it back to her, etc.

The best thing to do is to lay them down and pat the back and say shhhhshhhshhh, until they drift off. The first time I did this with my little one I got so frustrated I wanted to scream because she was just screaming. So I walked out of the room for a few minutes and let her cry. Then I went back in, then you make it longer and longer.

The first night it took about 2-3 hours. I almost went nuts. The second night it was about 45 min, and then it just went down from there. By nine months I could generally just put her down and she would roll over and go to sleep.

Answer 8

With both my babies, I got in the habbit of putting them to bed awake and allowing them to fall asleep on their own. It probably sounds difficult, but I would try feeding her, and then lying her down awake, but make sure that she's really tired. She will probably fuss and cry at first, because she doesn't know how to fall asleep on her own yet. Keep going back every 10 min and reassuring her, but don't pick her up. I would try this for a while, and see if she can learn to fall asleep on her own. Try it at nap times too. Some people recommend letting them cry it out. I think that's kindof mean, but you can decide how long and loud you're comfortable with letting her fuss for. I hope this helps, God Bless.

Answer 9

First of all, nursing is *not* a bad habit. It is a *great* way to get a baby to sleep. It fills her stomach, it comforts her, and it provides her with a natural pain killer and sleeping aid. It is *good* for her to nurse to sleep.

As long as you and she are comfortable with nursing in general, and nursing to sleep in particular, keep going. It is good for both of you, and it is easy. There are so many things in childrearing that are difficult and complicated, why turn your back on nursing her to sleep?!

Answer 10

I would nurse him/her just before sleep, just as you are, only be sure to wake her up when burping and rocking her and then lie her down to sleep when she is still awake but very drowsy. She might not like it at first but will eventually get use to it.