Can you sleep train while breastfeeding?

I’m debunking the myth of can you sleep train while breastfeeding that follows me TO THIS DAY. I remember this person so clearly because I was so baffled– I didn’t think people actually thought this IRL (in real life). I thought it was just an internet thing 😅

I was at an event with a booth and a mom stopped to check out my little information packets. When she saw that I was a sleep consultant, she scoffed and said, “I breastfeed so I don’t sleep.”

I was like well that’s weird– because I breastfeed AND I sleep (we’re talking a combined 70 months of breastfeeding between 4 kids ok?).

Another instance of it doesn’t have to be either/or! You can have both! I breastfed all 4 of my children and all 4 of them were sleep trained (and sleeping through the night at some point) without having to entirely wean from breastfeeding. That happened when we were ready (either them, me or both).

It breaks my heart when I get on calls with families who have quit breastfeeding in hopes of it improving their child's sleep (and it doesn’t). Breastfeeding is not the cause of their poor sleep, but someone online told them to…..

Friend, if you want to wean from breastfeeding then by all means, I want that for you! But I don’t want you to do something you’re not ready for because you’re desperate for sleep (and it’s not even a guaranteed solution 😩).

So if you’re wondering if you can sleep train while breastfeeding without having to totally wean them– the answer is YES. 

The key to sleep training when the goal is independent sleep is to provide many independent sleep associations and decrease their dependent associations.

From this research, “found that infants who were consistently put into the crib awake were more likely to be self-soothers than infants who were consistently put into the crib asleep. Infants who required parental assistance to fall asleep at the beginning of each night were more likely to require parental assistance upon awakening in the middle of the night.”

This is why it’s not breastfeeding in and of itself that can cause sleep disturbances; its the “to sleep” part that is what results in more night time wakings (and more sleep disturbances for both child and parents).

This is why you don’t have to stop breastfeeding completely, but rather change up how your child is falling asleep (either independently or with a less desirable “prop”) in order to see improvements in sleep. Whenever parents fully wean and then see improvements in sleep, it’s not because they quit breastfeeding altogether. It’s because they quit doing it to sleep. Whenever they fully wean and DON’T see improvements in sleep, it could be because they’re still assisting to sleep in some way which means some children are still going to look for that same assistance to return to sleep overnight. Personality and temperament do play a part in that!

Does sleep training affect breastfeeding?

It absolutely can affect your milk supply if you sleep train to wean overnight feedings (sleep training is not synonymous with night feeding and you can still sleep train while keeping feedings overnight). Much of sleep training focuses on sleep initiation; but if you drop milk feeds suddenly overnight and you have a small capacity for milk storage, the longer period between removals can cause a dip in supply.

So that is always something to be aware of!

How to sleep train while breastfeeding?

If you’re not wanting to make a ton of behavioral changes to sleep or you want someone else to be able to put your child to sleep without feeding them, you could simply replace feeding with something like rocking to sleep or patting to sleep in the crib. Much like with sleep training, it’ll take time, consistency, and likely some tears to change that habit.

If you want to make behavioral changes to sleep and you want them to fall asleep independently, you’ll just move that feeding earlier in your routine to disassociate feeding to sleep and respond to crying to calm them vs putting them to sleep.

Are breastfed babies harder to sleep train?

While I work with a large majority of breastfeeding families, I don’t find their experiences to be any different than those who bottle feed or use formula. I think bottle-feeding families may have more confidence when it comes to overnight wakings because they can physically see how much their child eats, but the sleep training itself isn’t dependent on how the child is fed!

If you’re ready to make changes to your child’s sleep (whether you’re breastfeeding or not, whether you want to fully wean or not), you can get sleep support in a way that feels good to you! Check out the 1:1 options here!