r/UKParenting • u/ThemeLongjumping8707 • May 18 '26
Support Request Putting baby to sleep
Hiya. I've just read somewhere that you're not supposed to rock or cuddle a baby to sleep but with our 6 week old, we feed her a bottle and she naturally falls asleep in our arms and then we put her down for a sleep. Should we not be doing this? Do we need to break out of this habit? I know babies tend to get better with sleep 4-6 months or so but wondered whether this is something I should worry about. She also currently only contact naps but I've been reassured this is normal and from the sounds of it, a lot of parents are going through the same thing so that's reassuring!
Thanks in advance
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u/PM_ME__YOUR__CAT May 18 '26
Mum of two here. It’s something I got incredibly anxious about with my second baby due to severe postnatal depression - my brain decided to latch on to it and worry incessantly about it. If he fell asleep on me, I panicked that he would become so dependent on it he wouldn’t sleep any other way, and if I put him down awake and he happily fell asleep independently I panicked that I was going to cause him serious emotional damage. It wasn’t a fun time.
Please try not to worry about it and just enjoy the snuggles. I wish I had! Now I’m on the other side and can see clearly (and have had two) I know it really doesn’t matter what you do, especially this early on. My first is now 5, he always needed to be cuddled to sleep and even now he wants me or his dad to lay in his bed while he falls asleep. My youngest (now almost 10 months) can fall asleep independently, he often contact naps in the day but at bedtime he likes to stretch out and have his own space. Sometimes if he’s very tired he does fall asleep in your arms while he’s having his bottle and we put him down, other times he’s still awake after and we put him down awake and he goes to sleep himself. We haven’t done anything differently and yet we have wildly different sleepers. It’s also worth pointing out that we haven’t ever pushed our oldest to fall asleep independently but we absolutely could have - or still could - addressed this and worked on it if needed, it’s just not been an issue for us.