I have had numerous mommas ask if you can sleep train a breastfed baby?The answer is YES you can! Healthy sleep habits can start right from birth and be carried on throughout life. Bottle or breastfed will not effect how you teach your baby to have great sleep habits, if the know how is there.
Newborn babies sleep A LOT, so why not help start them off on the right foot with great sleep? A new born baby should be put in their crib/bassinet for a nap every 30-45 minutes before the over tired state sets in. Breastfed babies tend to fall asleep at the breast after just a few minutes of suckling, while this is a very lovely and beautiful moment to share with them, it can be the start of a dependency later. I suggest that for few feeds a day to try to keep them awake, then put them down in their crib/bassinet awake. You might be surprised that they may just drift off asleep on their own 🙂 Doing this will encourage them to fall asleep on their own and create a wonderful skill of life. By all means, cuddle your little one and enjoy the moments, but helping them sleep now will be easier and will be a huge milestone for both you and your child when it comes to sleep. I suggest this with bottle fed babies as well.
As your little one gets older the same rule applies but they may be more dependent on mom to fall asleep while feeding. It takes time and patience but in the end its worth it. When my youngest was born I knew I needed to be able to give my two other children the attention they needed. I would not have been able to constantly feed my youngest to sleep every time he needed a nap. I implemented this rule and it was amazing how quick he started falling a sleep on his own and napped way better!.
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Sleep peaceful, Corissa Feenstra
