Seeking Mom's Opinion on 8Mth Olds Going to Sleep

Are you talking about nursing or bottle-feeding? Bottle-feeding to sleep is bad for their teeth and makes them prone to ear infections, so I wouldn't recommend that.

If you are talking about breastfeeding, my doctor recommended I stop doing this around that age- I'm guessing that is why you are asking. But I still nursed him to sleep until around a year. He was a terrible sleeper and I did anything I could to get him to sleep. I did stop nursing him in the middle of the night when he woke up at around 9 mos. It was hard, but it was helpful in getting him to sleep through the night better. It definitely did seem like he slept better once I started putting him in his crib still a little bit awake, but he just wasnt ready to do that at 8 mos.

My 8 1/2 month old and I just spent our first week of cry it out. Until then I laid down with him to give him a bottle at whatever time he wanted it...between 7 & 10)
Here's our typical schedule now. (Naps are the hardest.) Wake, lots of milk, serving of rice cereal, & play for 2 hrs. Then we change his diaper, read a book and put him in his crib. He's been doing good with this nap, usually goes to sleep in 10 minutes and it last about 2 hours. Although, if he doesn't fall asleep, he cries it out for up to 1 hour (checking on him at 5, 15, 30, 50). One day he didn't nap, every other day he has fallen asleep within the 1 hour, we're working on tweaking the times). Then we have lunch and play for the afternoon and he takes another nap 3-4 hours after waking up for about 1 hour. We keep the routine of diaper, book then bed. Then we have dinner at 5, Bath at six and get ready for bed at 7 this time we start the routine with brushing his teeth then, diaper, book, bed. He was getting up a ton at night...3-6 times. In 1 week, he got up 1 time for 4 of those nights, and slept through 3 of them! HUGE difference! Hearing him cry breaks my heart too, but I was at my witts end! He was running our house, and I had to get some time to get things done. It's getting so much better! It's the hardest thing, but it is really working!
PS-I was reading that as babies cycle in their sleep they often wake up and when they do they look to see if their surroundings are the same. If they go to sleep and you're there, they expect to still be with you. If they go to sleep in their crib, and they're still in their crib, they go back to sleep. Seems to be true :) From what I read babies aren't ready for this until about 6 mo. We were going to do this then, but he started teething, so we waited...)

I nursed my babies to sleep when they were still this young. Why abandon them to their dark and lonely crib if you don't have to?

Hi L.
Is your LO having trouble going to sleep? My opinion is that if you let your LO feed then drift off to sleep, chances are your LO will need that every night and then you've got a habit that will be hard to break. Your LO needs to start putting him/her self to sleep. I don't know what you've tried, but reading books then maybe a lullabye with the lights off or down will help. When my LO was about 18 months old (now 22 months old) he would have such trouble falling asleep, then during the night he would wake up several times. We put up with this for about a week, then we realized that he was scared when he woke up and it was completely dark in his room and this spooked him. At first we were thinking night terrors, but that is a totally separate thing. I put on a little night light that his monitor has on it and that did the trick.
Trying to encourage independence with your LO even now, will help everyone in the long run.

Good luck
P.

I have an 8 month old and I still nurse him to sleep. Sometimes he doesn't always fall asleep, which happened last night. For those times, I lay next to him on the bed, rub his back and he falls asleep with a pacifier in his mouth. I nursed my first son for a year and always nursed him to sleep. Of course, my pediatrician was against it but I am not a fan of the crying it out method. I had no problem weaning my first son. Now, his bedtime routine is read books and cuddle a little while he falls asleep. They are only young once. Why not allow you and your child the closeness of this experience?

Hrm. That's a tough one, it's a little late in the game to break that habit. The most important thing is if your little one has baby teeth, and are you feeding until baby falls asleep or laying down with bottle/breast? It's not too bad if baby falls asleep after a bottle or breastfeeding, it's part of our nighttime ritual. However if baby is cutting teeth you don't want to lay them down with "milk mouth," they can quickly develop cavities. Maybe try a little water to wash down, or we use a little finger brush with a tiny dot or tooth and gum cleanser. Interestingly enough tooth and gum cleanser contains simethicone, baby gas medicine, so maybe you can improvise. Maybe I could offer more if I knew a little more, but that's ok, either way, good luck. A bedtime routine might help, too, or some background noise in baby's bedroom like a box fan or tiny fishtank to help the little one stay asleep.

Hey L., Sometimes feeding them till they fall asleep works, but I think there is something else there, the comfort of our skin that is keeping them asleep so when we pull them away, they just wake up instantly. My 8 1/2 month old would nurse at night and as soon as he was done and I put him in the crib he stayed asleep, that was between 6wks and 4 months..now is very different..see my request of cry it out. It's worth a try if that's what you want to do. My only downfall I would think is that he/she is 8 months and should be able to put himself to sleep without you. Again, same thing kinda going on with me. Owen needs to self soothe.Hope I helped a little.

Will he take a bottle of breastmilk? When my son was about 8 months, I went back to work a few nights a week, and my husband tried to give him a bottle, but it had been a couple of weeks since he'd had one, so he wouldn't even take it. He went to sleep in his arms after a few minutes of crying without it, and slept just fine. Thats how we knew that he didn't really NEED it. Of course, if your son is already bottle fed, I don't know, and if you are breastfeeding, someone else would probably have to give it to him. Just a thought.

Hi, I am currently a mommy to a 8 month old and I feed her to sleep now. I am sure everyone else will tell you not to or try to let her cry it out and eventually she'll get used to it. but i tried this and it just breaks my heart. I personally think that you should do whatever your heart tells you. Of course all the books and doctors probably will tell you its not good to do this and if they have teeth by now it causes breakdown of their teeth. I still don't have the heart to do this. I read up on this and it says that by this time they should have a bed routine and fall asleep pretty much on their own just for your information. but like i said i think you should do whats in your heart and gut feeling! this may not help but i have 3 kids and none of them have ever had problems. i usually try to wean them off by no later than 1 yr old though. I hope this helps you some. good luck to you!!

After rearing 4 (years ago -- our oldest is almost 32 and 'baby' is almost 21), I have some pretty firm opinions on feeding. If you breastfeed, nurse as often and as long as you and baby both enjoy it. If you bottle-feed, PLEASE don't ever let the child run around with the bottle, because if you let them take over the administration of it, you'll have a harder time weaning them; but as long as s/he will sit or lay and drink it, that's fine. Also, always hold the baby (or put them to bed AFTER the nursing is finished. Never let a baby go to bed with a bottle unless it's plain water. Anything else will promote dental caries.

Some babies simply nurse longer than others. Our oldest quit breast and bottles 'cold turkey' (upon my decision) on her 1st birthday and was helping another baby hold it's bottle a week later w/no hint of desire to use it herself. 2nd child (boy) WOULD NOT wean til about 17 mo, so play it by ear!

God bless and enjoy your baby! They're adults before you know it!

If you are talking about a bottle in bed, I know "they" say putting them to bed with a bottle is not the best idea. But other than the fact that it is a bad habit to break, I don't see the harm. We have bottle-fed-in-bed both our boys. Our oldest (4.5) still like a juice cup in bed at night. So, yes this has become frustrating. But he is also old enough for us to just say 'no'. But it is the only way to get our youngest (almost 10 mo) to sleep. Either to calm down after a 20 crying session or to just relax in his bed for a while in order to nap. Neither has ever had an ear infection. And the 4.5 year old had normal healthy baby teeth.

This is my 1st ever response on here so I hope I helped. ;)