My 7mo baby boy is not able to go to sleep on his own as he is used to being breastfed to sleep. I also did the same with my other 2 children. However i am just not up to having to go to bed with my baby everytime he needs to go to sleep & its having a negative effect on me. I am a single mum & would like some opinions on this subject before i go ahead.
2007-01-03 21:45:16 · 3 answers · asked by Mishell 4 in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Parenting
I agree with what babyblues said as I did the same thing for my son when he was a baby. It is the same thing you virtually do with controlled crying. Every time I put him down I would also use a certain word/s like its night nights. The 1st night it took him a couple of hours to settle and you can't pick them up you just lie them back down, tuck them in, say your chosen word, walk out and extend the time between each visit. The second day it took 3/4 of an hour, 3rd day was 15 Min's and by the fourth day he would just go to sleep. Be patient and if you can have a snooze during the day when they nap do it because it will make you feel a lot better and less stressed. Good luck.
2007-01-05 00:05:41 · answer #1 · answered by Vera K 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi there - I think you need to bite the bullet and start teaching him to settle himself. It is not cruel for him to have to learn to get himself settled and it is too hard to spend all that time when you have other children! Being a boy, he is probably more sensitive as some are and feel he needs that comfort. I suggest that the best way to go about changing the behaviour is to breastfeed him as normal but only let him suck until the milk is gone which is only a couple of minutes. After that he must be sucking himself to sleep. This is when he needs to be put into his bed. If you try to keep everything very quiet and maybe try to transfer him very quietly into his cot he might stay settled. If not, you could pat him a little and then leave for a minute. After that, you need to go in, pat and leave again for a bit longer - double the time. Keep doing this until he goes to sleep. He will learn over time that this is the new routine and it may take a couple of days but he will settle. The other thing is...have you tried a dummy? They work just great and save your breast from all that sucking to sleep. You just shove one in when finished feeding and hope he doesn't notice the difference. When he goes to sleep you can put him in bed. Eventually you can make him wait until he is in bed before he gets the dummy. When you get him into the routine of going to bed by himself with his dummy you can work on taking it off him... over the next 12 months! Best of luck. Dummies worked for me and I had no trouble convincing the boys to chuck them out when we were ready. My last two boys needed the comforting and loved their dummies so I just let them have them.
2007-01-04 00:11:05 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i take it you've tried to bottle feed him! you need to try and ween him on to the bottle. why dont you start breast feeding him, have a ready made bottle next to you and half way through switch from breast to bottle? hope this helps good luck
2007-01-03 23:47:43 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋