The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers by Elizabeth Pantley

Author:Elizabeth Pantley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Shorten Your Nighttime Nursing Times

When your child was younger, it was important to her development that you fed her adequately when she awoke in the night. You may have the habit of falling asleep yourself during breast-feeding, so your child stays latched onto the breast even after she has fallen asleep. Now that she's over a year old (or is that two years?), nighttime feedings are no longer about food. They are purely for comfort or due to a sleep-association habit. Therefore, there is no need for your child to have lengthy middle-of-the-night nursing sessions. You can help your little one learn to fall asleep and stay asleep without this aid by shortening your nighttime nursing intervals.

When you are sure your child is awake and looking to nurse, go ahead and nurse him for a short time. Stay awake! And as soon as he slows his pace from the gulping, drinking mode to the slow fluttery comfort nursing, you can gently disengage him while patting him or rubbing him. (See Pantley's Gentle Removal Plan described on page 171.)

Sometimes you can put your child's hand on your breast, or on your chest or arm, during the removal, since many will accept this touch as a substitute for nursing. It seems to keep you "connected," and he knows that the milk is nearby if he needs it.

Another interesting option is to make the latch a little less comfortable and less convenient for your child. Instead of lying tummy-to-tummy with your child cradled in your arm, shift yourself slightly onto your back so that your nursling has to work a bit to keep the nipple in his mouth. Often he'll decide it's too much effort, and he'll let go and go to sleep. In addition, after nursing sleep on your stomach or cover your breasts completely, so that the nummies aren't easily accessible to your partially awake nursling.

After using these techniques with my son Coleton, he began to disengage himself, turn over with his back to me, and fall asleep! It was wonderful. Perhaps only a co-sleeping and breastfeeding mommy can understand just how sweet her baby's backside can be at this time. In fact, Coleton did this until he was almost two years old. He nursed until he was comfortable, then rolled away from me and went to sleep. I left him in bed with his brother David in our "sleeping room" and was free to join my husband in our own bed for child-free sleep and couple time.

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