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I've always nursed to sleep. I've never worry about self soothing though.

if your LO is a good sleeper now, i wouldn't mess with or worry about it! (and btw nursing to sleep for MOTN feedings is not a bad habit--that's how it should be because you don't want your LO awake and hanging out after a night feeding!)

you can deal with self-soothing later if/when nursing to sleep becomes an issue or doesn't work anymore--however your LO may just transition to self-soothing without any problems, so just enjoy your good sleeper!

I'm on the same boat as you. N is almost 9 months and gets a bottle before every nap and bedtime. He sleeps great, usually 12 hours at night with an early morning feeding and 2 great naps. I never put him down asleep though, sometimes he'll roll around and talk to himself for up to 20 minutes before falling asleep so he does know how to self sooth. I am afraid now though that the bottle has become a sleep cue for him. I'm not messing with the formula now though since it works.

I nursed DS to sleep for the first 11 months of his life, but he was always a TERRIBLE sleeper and I don't know how much of it can be attributed to nursing. He didn't STTN until he was just over a year and at that point I was no longer nursing to sleep. But once he STTN, he became and still is an excellent sleeper.

Nursing to sleep has been a lifesaver for us ever since we hit six months and Miss A got active and stopped sleeping

Forget about all the "should's" and go with what works for your family! Sleep isn't a linear progression and lots of things are going to mess with it (teething, physical milestones, separation anxiety, night terrors, illness) so think of nursing to sleep as just another strategy in your parenting toolbox

Enjoy the snuggles Mama, you're doing great

I nurse him to sleep, I nurse him when he's grumpy, I nurse when he's overstimulated, I nurse when he's in pain (like after shots, poor baby) and my family/friends/coworkers have their $0.02 about it. I firmly believe that nursing is the most comforting thing I can do and if he wants to nurse to sleep, I'm fine with that. I don't see it as being any different than rocking him to sleep, playing his mobile for him to sleep, reading a book, or whatever is part of your bedtime routine.

I fought hard to breast feed and I really treasure nursing to sleep and watching him drift off to dreamland. It might bite me in the butt later, but for now, it works and its a very special time in our day.

I nursed him to sleep for 12 months and he would wake up 2x a night consistently. When we switched to the bottle he started STTN so it definitely didn't ruin his sleeping patterns and it's been 2 months now. However, he has to have a bottle right before bed so we're working on weaning him off of that.

I find it so tragic that people try to scare/shame people out of nursing to sleep with this line. No, it will not ruin your child's sleep. If you feel done before they do, you may have to struggle to find a new way to put them down, at some point.

My 22 month old is mostly weaned, but I still nurse her to sleep if I'm putting her down. She's voluntarily stopped all other nursing, so I'm eager to see if she'll give this one up easily, too. But she's a good sleeper, overall.

@sarac: We were really surprised with how easily it went for Ellie. We figured after five years she maybe had such a strong association with nursing=sleep that it would be really hard for her to find another strategy. I would say that she took all of about three nights to have it be super easy, and it was even easier because she wanted to and initiated it. She had a much, much harder time not nursing when angry or frustrated to calm down than she did giving up nursing to sleep even though she had only fallen asleep that way for so long.

I nursed to sleep until 10 months when he weaned. Then we rocked to sleep with a bottle until almost 14 months. Once we got rid of the bottle he would fall asleep on his own. I think it took about 3 days for him to transition to no bottle or rocking to sleep. Now at 16 months when I tell him its time for bed he grabs his lovey and heads over to his crib. We turn on his music and he goes right down. I don't think nursing to sleep hindered him at all!

I nursed to sleep until she was 9 months old when I had no milk left. She was a good sleeper before and after I weaned!

I did nurse to sleep, and still do for naps, but her sleep DID get worse and worse (started STTN @ 8 wks, then 4 mos regression hit us, we recovered after a week or so, but ever since she started rolling, she would have a million wakeups moving all over her crib and I guess not knowing how to put herself back to sleep.). Also, it got longer and longer and longer to get her down at night. Sometimes over an hour. Draining! So it basically just quit working for us, and I hit a breaking piint and sleep trained. Now she goes down w/o too much fuss- tonight about 10 secs of whining. Then she sleeps 10-12 hrs. So THAT is working:)

Basically I'd leave it be until it doesnt work. It may always work. It may not. But you'll know when it isn't working anymore, and when you get to the point of losing your mind, you'll sleep train.

Sleep training is only for the desperate. Not for the mildly inconvenienced or someone trying to prevent future bad sleep. It is crappy and awful and you can not survive it unless you were already ripping your hair out:(

We nursed to sleep but it would take an hour every night. The 4 month sleep regression hit us early and the only way to get her back to sleep, 3-5 times a night was nursing. I couldn't do it anymore and function at work. So we did sleep train.

@hilsy85: He is 4 months.