Hi Sinead,

It is very common in he early weeks for babies to continually want to suck, as they get older the need usually subsides. For this I recommend doing what you need to do for the first few weeks, often by 8-10 weeks babies begin to settle and at this stage you can then try encouraging her to settle without the use of the soother of bottle. At the moment she is using the bottle as a soother in the evening time and as she is getting feeds during the night this is meeting her suck to sleep need. Currently at 6 weeks her sleep cycles haven’t developed therefore she is only wakening when she is hungry or in discomfort. When she is about 4 months her sleep cycles will develop and it is at this stage the suck to sleep need may cause problems as she will naturally rouse at various times during the night and will most likely need something to suck on to help her transition to the next sleep phase. Because of this I find using this method at about the 10 weeks can work well as it encourages your baby to settle without anything in her mouth. You should apply the technique also in the evening time to help your baby learn to settle without sucking on a bottle. By the time she is reaches 4 months she should have mastered how to settle herself thus avoiding lots of night time wakening.

Best Regards
Edel

Sounds like a good method I’ve a 6 weeks old who is very oral sensitive meaning that she is mouthing all the time and want s to suck all the time. she has suffered silent reflux too and found comfort in sucking after feeds…reflux improved greatly but she still wants to suck and cries for soother. She is beginning to have more short periods during the day with no soother when I can distract her on play mat, bathing or looking out window. For day naps she wants soother but at nite she takes her last bottle at 9 and sleeps. She doesn’t look for soother…This is same pattern for rest of nite feeds. She sleeps 3-4 hrs after each feed. She’s in a deep enough sleep goin bk into basket too.
She sleeps between moses basket and bouncer during the day I let her sleep on me with soother then I remove it and put her in basket or bouncer. Sometimes she sleeps 2 hrs but mostly wakes up after 20min looking for soother. I’ve tried to start her naps during day in bedroom but my method to date hasn’t worked . Should I try your method with naps I’m afraid of introducing the soother to crib in bedroom incase she then starts to look for it at nite then too. Any advice would be great thank you

Hi Alyssa,

Thank you for your comment. This works best for babies under 4 months of age. I recommend starting at night time first and then work on the naps the following day. This does take lots of time and patience. If your baby is between 6-10 months I recommend introducing a gentle sleep training technique if s/he is wakening frequently during the night. Soothers usually aren’t much of a sleep issue once your baby turns 1 and has developed sufficient hand-eye co-ordination to be able to replace it for themselves.

Best Regards
Edel