My daughter is 6 months and is breastfed.She slept well until she was 4 months old,but since then has woken every couple of hours,needing frequent short feeds or rocking to get back to sleep.I don't think she's hungry during the night as she eats so well in the day.I feel she is using me as a source of comfort.I'm exhausted,but don't know what to do.
A:Your daughter needs to fall asleep by herself without associating sleep with feeding.You can help teach her before starting her bedtime routine.Offer her milk as you would any daytime feed.Then give her a short,quiet winding-down bath.Go into a dimly lit room to prepare her for bed and then cuddle her to sleep.Initially,it will take longer to settle your daughter to sleep as she learns a new way,but with time and consistency,this will gradually decrease and she will settle without a feed.For the first three nights,you could offer a short top-up feed after the bath,just to ease her into the new schedule.Over the next few weeks,you then need to move on from cuddling to settling her in the cot using patting or stroking,gradually doing less and less until she can fall asleep by herself.You can also use this same approach to stop the feeds and rocking during the night.
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