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I nursed LO to sleep until we stopped nursing at just short of one year. I never had a problem. She's a great sleeper now - 8:30pm-8am with no wake ups at almost 13 months (of course, because I wrote that, I've probably screwed myself). Sometimes she fell asleep while nursing; sometimes she didn't. It worked so well at getting her to go to sleep, it seemed natural to me. So, I have no advice for how to stop, but I wanted to throw my two cents in to say that if you choose to nurse to sleep, I think that's OK too.

It depends on what your expectations are, but Lorelei is still nursing to sleep (at almost two) and Ellie did until she weaned at age 5. Ellie is a great sleeper now. So you don't have to start now unless you really want to. I would say if it is working for you, stick with it. You'll know when it's time to change things.

I personally don't believe nursing to sleep is a bad habit. It's natural and it works, so why stop? I still nurse my daughter to sleep at nearly a year old and I love it!

@birdofafeather: similar experience.

I wouldn't worry about it until it stops working or you feel as if it's become a problem in some other way. I felt so anxious about it for the first few months and I wish I would have just relaxed and enjoyed the snuggles.

I wouldn't worry about it right now. But if you do want to stop nursing to sleep, it would be easier for your SO to put the baby to bed. That's what we did but we didn't do it until DS was over a year and he falls asleep just fine with out nursing. I still do nurse him to sleep for his naps tho (he's 16 months). But I really don't think nursing to sleep is a bad habit. It's only bad if it's not working for you.

I agree that it's ok to do as long as it is working!

An easy way to separate nursing from sleep a bit is to do a book after nursing, but before putting in the crib. However, we didn't start doing that until nursing to sleep no longer worked. If it ain't broke don't fix it

@ShootingStar: I totally get what you mean about wanting to set good habits now, but IME, even if you start with good habits, regressions wreak havoc, and so you might end up being in the position of being desperate and needing to sleep train anyway! The best laid plans go awry, unfortunately But I definitely hear ya on starting good sleep habits early, if not for LO than for you and your DH, so you have consistent routine to fall back on.

@ShootingStar: My perspective is different because we bed share. Both my girls have nursed in the night with several wake-ups past the one-year mark, BUT since we bed share and they never fully woke up, it wasn't disruptive to anyone's sleep and so we just went with it. I can see that if you have a different sleeping arrangement you might want to get him comfortable with falling asleep not nursing before it becomes an issue for you. I just didn't want you (or anyone) feeling like it was a totally either/or issue; either they have good sleep habits and don't nurse to sleep, or they nurse to sleep or sleep poorly for all eternity. Clearly that's not where you're coming from, and it's never a bad idea to be proactive (even though kids pretty much have the job of proving that no matter how much you plan and how proactive you are, there are things that can get wonky).

@ShootingStar: you can start by letting him nurse and when he's almost fully asleep, try releasing his latch. If he wakes and wants to nurse, give him the boob back. Keep trying this until you make progress then progressively try releasing his latch sooner and sooner after he's done nursing. It may take a lot of time to get him to not fall asleep while nursing. I tried doing this but I'm just too lazy and would let him nurse to sleep! Lol I hope that makes sense !

My LO is now 6.5 months old and we still nurse to sleep. I was sure that I was going to be on the road to sleep training by now, but it's not really working out. She wakes up, on average, every 2 hours and I nurse her to sleep again. Exhausting!

It seems like any progress we make to get away from nursing to sleep (putting down drowsy but not asleep) gets erased after a few weeks (regressions, stubborn baby, my illness). On one hand I feel like nursing her is 'giving in' but on the other hand it's definitely helping my sanity...

So no advice for you...

I nurse at bedtime and sometimes he falls asleep and sometimes he doesn't. Usually I put his sleep sack on after nursing because otherwise he gets too hot during nursing. So that usually sort of wakes him up before I put him in his crib.

Personally I'm not against nursing to sleep. If it works, why change it?

I nurse my son to sleep at nearly a year and I figure eventually he will stop and I will probably miss it dearly. I had great intentions to help him learn to go to sleep on his own but once he started hitting sleep regressions, teething, fighting colds... It just wasn't worth the frustration. I would say not to worry about it too much at 12 weeks but I've heard that putting them down to sleep awake but drowsy helps (we had some success with that for a little while).