Feed to sleep
Also called feeding to sleep, fed to sleep, feeds to sleep, nurse to sleep, nursing to sleep, breastfeed to sleep, breastfeeds to sleep
Feed to sleep means a baby falls asleep while breastfeeding or drinking a bottle, and parents use it as a verb, as in I fed her to sleep. Sleep consultants count it as a sleep association, one a baby may come to expect every time they go to sleep.
How it's said
I personally don't see feeding to sleep as a trap, but more as a gift...
My 9 month old is fed to sleep on a night time, along with night wakes.
Feeding/rocking/holding to sleep is the only way your baby will go down, and it's wearing you out.
Who says it
Not to be confused with
- A sleep association is anything a baby links with falling asleep, like rocking, being held or a feed. Feeding to sleep is one kind, the one that comes with milk.
Where it came from
The phrase is plain parent talk: feed, or nurse, plus to sleep. Doctors ask about it too. A 2001 review on childhood sleep in American Family Physician lists questions for parents that include whether a child gets a bottle or gets nursed at bedtime, and again in the middle of the night.
Breastfeeding writers also say nursing to sleep. KellyMom, a breastfeeding site written by lactation consultants, files it under Nursing to Sleep and Other Comfort Nursing. Sleep consultants put feeding to sleep beside rocking and holding as a sleep association.