If you breastfeed your baby at night and this leads her to sleep
properly, do not feel bad about it. May be you are advised by elders
that it is not a good practice to make your baby sleep while
breastfeeding her. The simple thing is that as long as everything is
fine there is no problem doing this and the situation works in your
favor. In fact if the child needs feeding and she goes to sleep after
some time this means that she is well fed and comfortable. And above
all she will have a good sleep after all.
photo credit: moppet65535
The importance of the situation is completely dependent on you and if
you and your baby are comfortable with it, you should continue.
Children sooner or later go to sleep but those who go to sleep faster,
sleep well. If this practice somehow isn’t working well with your
routine or making you too exhausted, it is advisable that you slowly
change the pattern and feed her just before she is asleep and then pat
her or make her sleep on her own by just holding her in your arms. You
can also sing a lullaby for her to make her sleep comfortably. The
transition will take some time and you will have to have patience
while switching your baby to it because in reality baby’s get used to
anything very easily.
It is also believed that feeding a baby to sleep results in tooth
decay, which is somewhat correct in the case of bottle-feeding your
baby. However breastfeeding is completely safe according to most of
the pediatricians. The difference is because if you bottle-feed your
baby the milk pools in the mouth and the teeth gets bathed in sugar
that is in the milk. But when you breast-feed your baby the milk does
not get collected in the mouth because it enters the mouth beyond the
teeth area and so it causes no harm to the teeth at all. Also there is
no added sugar that will harm the teeth.
On the other hand cavities are also caused due to genetic problems and
this develops quite easily and quickly too. You should also make sure
that your baby is only breastfed or eats solid food too along with it.
In that case you should brush your child’s teeth twice daily. There is
no need to brush with toothpaste, just wipe the teeth properly to keep
her teeth safe and healthy.
