Hi, at the moment I am breast feeding before each sleep which I want to stop. I have read about the Feed, Play, Sleep routine meaning that I would put my baby to bed without a top up feed. Does anyone follow this and find it works well for babies of a similar age?

Thank you

Yes, we used in it with our second two. The first bub I mostly fed to sleep but then it was hard to move her into her cot and she didn't sleep for very long.

The basic routine worked really well for us. I didn't find that they needed a top up feed before falling asleep. It makes it easy to know when they are tired because you have already fed them first up so you know if they start getting grumpy that they are ready for sleep. The other way round they could be hungry or tired or both.

As soon as I saw the first tired sign I would swaddle bub and walk around with him for a while still asleep (until about 3 months) and then after 3 months I would swaddle and put straight in cot. When they were a bit older I went more on the time (eg put to bed after 2 hours up) as for some bub;s their tired signs get less obvious as they get older. If I got the timing right then they usually settled by themselves in a few minutes if I wasn't in the room. They didn't settle so well if I stayed in the room but it can be different for different bubs.

I'm not sure if they were very good at settling or if it was the routine that made it easy. I like that it is fairly flexible in that you don't have to go by the clock and if you go out it doesn't muck everything up.

I hope it works for you smile

I followed this routine with my second from 6 weeks up to him being 2 years old. I wish I knew this routine when I had my first!

Particularly when DS was under one year I'd be guided by the amount of "up" time he was capable of. I didn't find a top up feed necessary before sleep, and would wrap him up when awake and put into bed for him to self settle. It made it so much easier and amazingly stressfree for us, and I think it help DS to expect the routine. He did start fighting it around 2 years though, but it has definately taught him self settling skills. I would highly recommend this routine and see if it works for you. You may need to persist abit with your little one being abit older and not having followed this routine before. Good luck!

I'm trying to get my daughter into this routine, she's my first child and I thinkn I worry about her going to bed with an empty tummy too much. But I find even if I feed her first then a bit of a play before bed she will fall asleep but wake after 20 minutes or so. I try and try but after several attempts I give in and give her a breast before bed. Although it does seem to be getting better, slowly, she is now starting to refuse the breast when she's not hungry. That is when I know I'm up for a night of pacing, rocking and singing. I think perseverance might be the key here.

Yes. At 8 months my son would be up for two hours then down for two hours, and would always be fed when he wakes up. So our day used to go something like this:

8am - Awake & breastfeed then breakfast
10am - Down for a nap
12pm - Awake, breastfeed, lunch
2pm - Down for a nap
4pm - Awake, breastfeed (up to you whether you feed dinner now or when your family eats)
6pm - Dinner with family
7pm - Start the bath, feed, bed routine.

Now I'm dropping Lincoln down to one nap because he hasn't been tired enough of a nighttime, so things are different to this routine now. Hopefully this helps you smile