Four month old is still eating every 2-3 hours at night. Normal? Or time to sleep train

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:You are starting a terrible habit. Don't nurse to sleep.

I don't understand this mindset. Nursing to sleep is so natural and easy, there is no reason not to do it. Especially for a 4 month...

OP, I fed to sleep and also nursed during night wakeups when my baby was younger - he's now 8 months and I still nurse to sleep because it's easy and convenient, and he sleeps through the entire night just fine. I never sleep trained, and always soothed him if he woke up or cried. When he is teething or sick, he will wake up in the night and I nurse him, which calms him and helps him sleep soundly again.

+1 I nursed both my kids to sleep until I weaned them (between 1 and 1.5) because I am lazy, frankly, and it was easiest for me. The closest I got to sleep training was letting them fuss 5-15 minutes when they woke in the middle of the night to see if they were actually hungry. Both learned to sleep through the night (except when sick) just fine. Nothing against sleep training, I'm just lazy and tired and found the idea of it more stressful than not. All kids and families are different. If you want to sleep train, go for it! 4 months is definitely old enough. If sleep training sounds miserable to you and/or nursing to sleep is working for you, carry on.

This was me too. I enjoyed the peace and power to nurse them to sleep and didn’t mind nursing in the middle of the night. It just felt natural and the right way for me. But I had many friends who sleep trained early because it felt right to them. Whatever you do, just know that when they become toddlers, it’s like the game starts all over again. Just when you think you are in the clear, you have a toddler waking up at 4 am or climbing into your bed in the middle of the night.

I truly believe that if you nurse to sleep, you have more problems later. That’s purely based on observing my friends though. And they all think their toddler sleep problems are unrelated and inevitable. I’m not convinced. But I obviously don’t have a real study or anything.

I’m PP. I can see that. But I think it’s as much a function of hyper attentive moms who struggle to sleep train later because it wasn’t their style or other issues. My first had horrid reflux and would vomit if we let him cry it out, but luckily he outgrew it. I weaned both kids at 18 mo and they didn’t have any problems going to bed on their own or sleeping well until the typical occasional nightmare at 3/4. The majority of mothers in the world do nurse their babies to sleep because they don’t have access to formula or bottles for ebf, and it all turns out fine for the most part. Sleep training is definitely a first world behavior.

Oh no, I think that is bogus. “Sleep training” takes many forms but one of the biggest parts of it is just not jumping up to tend to the infant and giving them some time to resettle on their own. That can happen even if you’re nursing and/or co-sleeping.

Most of the world co-sleeps with their babies due to cultural tradition and space in their dwelling. So they can’t actually sleep train unless they refuse to touch or feed their crying baby, which is hard to do when the baby is RIGHT NEXT TO YOU and multiple family members are sleeping in the same space. How would sleep training and CIO go for you if your baby is in your bed and your family members are all sharing a one room dwelling?

[Anonymous]

Could just be 4 month regression, OP. Surprised no one has said that. Babies sleep cycles mature around 4 months and it’s really common for them to wake up way more often than they are actually hungry. If your baby is used to feeding to sleep, they probably will need that to get back to sleep, but maybe not

FWIW, we sleep trained our first (bottle fed) baby at 5 months and our second still nurses to sleep at 7 months. However, at about 5.5 months or so we moved him to his crib in his room and gave him some time to resettle when he woke. He mostly sleeps through the night now or just needs one quick feed around 4am or so. So you don’t have to stop nursing your baby to sleep at bedtime.

[Anonymous]

Our DD regressed from sleeping through the night to night wakings at 3 months. Our pedi suggested starting rice cereal before bed and that solved it. Real food = sleep through night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our DD regressed from sleeping through the night to night wakings at 3 months. Our pedi suggested starting rice cereal before bed and that solved it. Real food = sleep through night.

Do not do this. You do not give a 3 month old baby cereal.

[Anonymous]

OP, people have gone off topic.

When my babies had this issue, I had DH go and try to settle the babies a little. Since he didn’t have milk, it was worth seeing if they were actually hungry or just woke up and needed help getting back to sleep. I had twins who had outgrown bassinets and I couldn’t fit them both in cribs in my room, so they weren’t in the room with me. This may not work if your baby is still in your room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our DD regressed from sleeping through the night to night wakings at 3 months. Our pedi suggested starting rice cereal before bed and that solved it. Real food = sleep through night.

Are you 80?