If you're looking for a method
or a way of removing the nursing to sleep association,
it can be really overwhelming.
Today I'm going to answer your sleep question.
Are there any pain-free ways
of removing the nursing to sleep association?
Hi, I'm Amanda, founder and co-creator
of Little One Sleep Programs.
I'm a pediatric sleep specialist and mother
to two darling little girls.
At Little Ones, we sell comprehensive online
sleep and nutrition programs
from zero through to toddler and preschool age.
We do this via our custom-built app,
where we have our fantastic programs
and we also house our amazing support village
for our customers, where our trained sleep consultants
and our dietician are there
to answer any of your questions day and night.
Nursing or feeding to sleep
is the strongest sleep association.
And if you have decided
that it is time to move away from nursing to sleep,
there is definitely some pain-free methods.
The association involves you
and it also involves the sucking association.
So the first part of how we would recommend
removing that sucking association is by feeding the baby
until they're just drowsy, but not fully asleep.
And start by just feeding to soothe your child
but not to sleep and popping them into their bed,
by making sure that they do actually eventually drift off
without feeding completely to sleep.
So that's the first part that you want to work towards,
of been able to feed to sooth and pop them into the bed.
And then the second part of the method
is to remove yourself from the situation.
So putting them into their bed, but being able
to a talk or pat or calm your baby in another way,
rather than picking them up and feeding them to sooth them.
So changing the feed to sooth to patting or talking
and then eventually, removing yourself
every time you take a step forward.
But to be successful in any change
in your baby's sleep patterns,
you are going to need to make sure
that your baby is first of all good and ready for bed.
At 18 months old, I would suggest that you get rid
of completely the morning nap, altogether now.
And I would suggest you stick to one nap
around 12 to 12:30 and make sure that nap
is a really good, long, decent lunchtime nap.
And that will help change the sleep association
from feeding to just going down.
Because as soon as you've dropped that morning nap,
they will be good and ready for bed at that lunchtime.
And then the same for bedtime.
So having that structure may just help you
that extra little bit to be able to make sure
that your toddler is good and ready for sleep
and aid you in removing that nursing to sleep association.
I hope that answers your question and gives you a tip
on how to help remove that nursing to sleep.
And as always, if you enjoyed this video,
make sure you give us a big thumbs up.
And if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you subscribe
to our YouTube channel and click that notification bell
so you get notified of videos, just like this one.