How do you put your 1 year old to sleep?

Hi I’ll see if I can help you, I'm a child sleep consultant x

Firstly it’s not that he is EBF 🙂

Our LB (who was breastfeed, exclusively until 8m and then combi until 12m) has dropped ALL milk. 🙈 He still wakes up a good 3 or more times every night. xx

@Laura thank you, is there anything that I could do differently to make him sleep longer and wake less? X

We all sleep in cycles (until age 4 it is around 45 mins) which goes from light to deep back to light sleep) When we get to the end of the cycle as adults and older children we biologically can go on into the next sleep cycle. Babies need to learn this after 18/20 weeks when they develop their own body clock.

@Cal how do you soothe him back to sleep when he wakes up? X

However your little one is getting to sleep is what they will expect to happen at every single wake to get them back to sleep. You can still feed in the night if you wish to, it's just a case a of keeping feeds for nutrition and not for sleep. Their are different approaches to do that. X

As a mum of an infant who still doesn't sleep through - would thoroughly recommend this insta page. It's been really reassuring. https://instagram.com/lyndsey_hookway?igshid=MmU2YjMzNjRlOQ==

@Heather thank you 🥰 this is really encouraging to hear others in the same boat! X

@Aaliyah often we just go in and lie him back down gently. Other times a hand hold for a few minutes, sometimes the song from 3 Men & a Little Baby (Goodnight Sweetheart) and on some occasions I’ve slept next to him on the floor (he’s in a floor bed) 🙈 x

Same situation here, EBF (doesn’t take a bottle, directly and only from boobs!) wakes up about 3 times. I try to soothe him back to sleep but he will cry and cry until he gets a feed. And feeding him so much at night means he isn’t hungry enough for solids during the day and barely eats 😭 i feel like I’m stuck in a cycle that i can’t break.

@Mira appreciate your comment, lovely to know I’m not alone! 🤗 My son eats so much solids during the day though, especially at nursery he eats loads! i personally just think every baby is different and don’t think there’s a correlation between night feeds and eating solids x

Hi! My LG has been EBF from birth (only from boob no expressing). She either sleeps through or wakes once and has been doing now for a couple of months. If it’s any consolation though her sleep was a nightmare for probably the first 8 months waking anything up to 15 times a night and wanting boob most times. We did do some gentle sleep training around 6 months which seemed to work in the short term but didn’t last as she seemed to “get wise” to the techniques we were using and they just stopped working. We do have a bed time routine which we have done from around 5/6 months but my honest opinion after feeling like we tried absolutely everything to improve her sleep is just that she did it when she was ready. If that is the case then I hope things click into place soon for you!

Hey, my girl was formula fed but now on cows milk and has dropped her night bottle but will still wake one or two times just little moaning here and there, sometimes I’ll leave it a minute to see if she nods off. If not I’ll just get up shush her gently with a little touch on her belly and she falls back to sleep, I don’t pick her up or get her out the cot cos it disturbs her massively, she’s got herself to soothe herself to sleep now on her own so doesn’t need me x

I never found anything to work with my eldest, baby sleep is the biggest mystery and what works one night might not work another etc 😆 The good news is that they will just sleep longer themselves eventually. Second time round I'm not stressing about it and accept they will sleep longer when they're ready

The quality of his sleep is not connected to him being EBF - I EBF and my nearly 1 year old LB has been able to sleep through the night since 4 months old without milk. He may wake for other reasons, like gas or when he’s learning a new skill though but not milk. So I never offer milk as an option, I always try to sooth back to sleep. Sometimes it takes a while but I feel it’s better he’s helped back to sleep than to start to rely on night feeds xx

She has a bath before We give her milk and when finished put her straight in her cot awake. She then goes to sleep. She has white noise on too. Since removing the dummy she’s been a different child as before she would wake for her dummy throughout the night

My son is EBF. Wakes multiple times a night, I couldn’t count bcos honestly I just feed him back to sleep. This is why he co-sleeps with us at 1 years old. But I enjoy having him next to me sleeping in his cot (we took one of his cot walls off so I can feed him at night). Honestly, just do what works for your family. Wouldn’t listen to anyone else’s opinion, you know your child. I’ve heard even older toddlers still wake often and they’re not bf. I think it’s a long road ahead for us all lol but take it easy, and give yourself some grace!

Literally a bowl of porridge before bed, thank me later 🤣♥️

My LO is EBF and wakes a minimum of 3 times. He can fall asleep independently but still wakes to nurse multiple times. I’ve driven myself mad trying to figure out ways to get him to sleep longer. Nothing has worked for me so far. All I can say is, I hope it gets better & I understand the struggle!