LC advised strongly against EASY?

[Shdef]

In the last few weeks, feeding has become extremely difficult. I used to feed on wake-up. He struggled, pulled my breats, groaned, cried, turned his head, sucked again, and so son. I have an LC and attend my local bf group where she strongly advised to feed to sleep as the feeding will be much more relaxed. Her reasoning was, that he is getting so alert and wanting to see what is going on, grab things, etc. He should be swaddled and tired when feeding, she said, there is this hormone in the BM (some long word I forgot) that sends him off to sleepy land.

So I tried it for the past couple of days and it works brilliantly  His naps are much longer again (he was napping 10-20 min) and he feeds really well, sucking deeply.

Am I setting setting myself up for bad habits here? Is easy only for ff babies?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

EASY is def not just for ff babies! When my kids got to that distracted age I would go in their room right at the tail end of the nap and feed them when they were still drowsy in the dark room or even still asleep. Also, for DD3 I did a second feed closer to nap time but long enough away from it that she was not feeding to sleep as her A times were quite high and that got her through a decent nap.

[Shdef]

EAES?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Nope..EAEAS! Even if the second A was only 15 minutes it kept the feed from being associated with sleep. If that is how you want to carry on. Refresh my memory, how old is Joey now?

[Shdef]

4 months. If naps are good, A-time is around 2.5 hours

[*Liz*]

DD was like that - I fed her to sleep with no prop issues.

She short napped from hunger otherwise.

I made sure she stirred before she went down and never had issues - I switched to FF at 8 mths and she had her bottle before sleep them still, but it never made her drowsy like the BM.

[shivi]

From 4mths Emma was a tail-end-of-nap feeder...out of pure necessity.
Her best feeds were always the ones that STARTED in a sleepy state. And the df, that was always her best feed.

S x

[Shdef]

Okay, I chatted to an LC friend who is very familiar with EASY (she is a member here). She said this:

"Breastmilk contains oxytocin and a sedative called cholecystokinin. It is supposed to send babies to sleep. EASY just isn't based on human biology."

I know that is controversial, but if that is science, I am sure Tracy would have happily adjusted her views as her whole whispering wasn't about schedules anyway. But about cues, love, respect and a deep dislike of letting your baby scream themselves to sleep on their own.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Oh for sure bm contains those things and helps make them sleepy...I guess the question is whether you are good with that or not and that is all that really matters! I went middle of the road as I did feed to sleep at bedtime, but by 4/5 months the bm was not enough to make miss nosey sleepy at all. She has to be really ot to fall asleep on the boob now.

[Shdef]

It will depend on the baby. Joey gets happier, the more OT and the OS he is. He could go happily grinning for four hours without a nap. As long as there is motion and skin contact and interaction.

[*Ali*]

No EASY is not just for FF babies. My two never had a drop of formula and I fed them both until 2yo, mostly on an EASY format.

We never had any issues of not wanting to feed when waking for the day or from a nap. We did deal with distraction at the 4mo point but that was easily remedied by feeding alone in the still dark room upon waking from a nap.

We never had growth issues or supply issues. Mine both scaled the growth charts while EBF from 0-6mo.

I think it is widely known and accepted that breastmilk contains a range of hormones, including oxytocin, prolactin, melatonin and cholecystokinin, which all help relax mother and baby. That is often why babies get that drunk look after BFing 

Breast milk also changes throughout the day so milk at night contains melatonin which it doesn't really have during the day. Possibly a stimulus for sleep-wake cycles.

If EASY isn't working for you then trying something else is only natural. Tracy always said something is only a problem if it's a problem, yk?

I'm glad I taught my kids the ability to self settle, not least because it means someone other than me can put them down to sleep and I didn't have to feed them every time they woke at night when they weren't hungry.

Evolution is a wonderful thing but the fact is our lives have changed unrecognisably since we evolved. Personally I choose not to share a bed with my kids and have them feeding on demand day and night. I don't sleep when they sleep (because don't forget those same hormones make mum sleepy at each breastfeed as well) and I want them to be able to put themselves to sleep without being dependent on the breast. Maybe that is against science but it isn't harmful I shouldn't think and it is more practical for my modern life and it works for us which I think is the main thing 

[Shdef]

I want my kid to self-settle, too, just like Scotty did. But he is too young to really appreciate his thumb or a lovey, he doesn't HAVE any tools yet. 

As soon as he can suck his thumb and appreciate a lovey, I will teach him to self-soothe. 

Until then, I will follow the LC advice 

[*Ali*]

At 3.5mo Cadan had a lovey he sucked at sleep times to self settle. By 3wo Colby was swaddled with a soother and put himself to sleep happily that way. Occasionally I shh patted him to help him get in the zone but he wasn't crying.

It is definitely possible to self settle at this age if it was what you wanted but if you prefer to do things differently then that is of course OK too.

[nona]

i think you do what works best for your baby and your situation!

[mum101]

I agree with Nona. it's a matter of what you need to do now, so if feeding to sleep for a while is how it's to be, it's to be. Remembering that you can gradually wean off that in the months to come, but while they are still little in particular, do what you need to do hun! xx

[shivi]

Absolutely do what you need to do now xxx

[Hedgehog17]

I wasn't following EASY either at that age - he wasn't feeding well (undiagnosed reflux, CMPI and FTT) so I fed him to sleep frequently!

At 6mo he was happy to self settle as he was able to then - he let me know  Up until then I was cuddling him and humming quietly to get him drowsy, as shh-pat didn't work for us at all! Ever since then he's been really good at sleeping 

Do what works for you and J 

[Shdef]

Scotty's sleep got really predictable when he got into his lovey, that was 7 or 8 months. I can't wait to sew Joey one and ditch the swaddle!

Well, we have cracked the squirmy feeds AND the naps. Two quite predictable 2 hour naps, but only if I stay right next to him and read a book. Four hours of ME time a day