Bad Habit?

[SaraLou]

Hi,

I have been extremely lucky with my 4 month old sleeping at night. From three weeks he was sleeping all night for 11ish hours, until recently. He has started waking a couple of times a night (which I know is still good) but I have realised that he won't go back to sleep without feeding. I'm worried that I'm getting into bad habits by doing this as he will expect to be fed when he wakes, out of habit more than hunger. There is also no time pattern to when he wakes He doesn't have a dummy and has just found his thumbs. If he disturbs shortly after a feed he will suck his thumb to comfort him back to sleep.

He seems to be more grouchy through the day than normal too, and I am putting this, together with the wakeful nights, down to teething.

Any advice or comments would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Sara

[Bodi]

I know a lot of people don't recommend using dummies but, as someone who didn't stop sucking her thumb until 9 years old, I do. You can take a dummy away, you can't take a thumb away.

[SaraLou]

The thumb sucking doesn't bother me, he's always been a sucky baby, and it soothes him. We did try him with a dummy through colic, but he didn't get on with it at all, and I'm glad really. I hear so many people say their baby wakes in the night as they have lost their dummy; he can always find his thumb when he wants it.