Q – My baby is 3 months old and will only go to sleep if I feed him. He cries if I try to rock him or sing to him. Sometimes, I feed him for 45 minutes before he falls asleep. When I take him to his crib I have to carefully put him down. If he wakes up, the cycle starts again. Also, if I burp him he wakes up. If I don’t burp him he wakes up 30 minutes later and he needs to be burped. This is exhausting for me. Any suggestions?

A – Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this. At present your son has only one way to soothe himself to sleep and that is by feeding. Now he has to learn other ways. You will probably have to feed him and then try to put him down when he is almost asleep and let him cry a bit. Let him cry for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes you go in and console him while not feeding him and then try again. Keep this up until he falls asleep. I know this is exhausting and can make for a few long nights but it will work usually over the course of 2-3 nights. I have been through this myself and have yet to discover an easier way but I also know that by leaving it alone the problem only becomes worse as the baby gets older.

– Dr. Linda Ducholke, a mother of two, has been a successful Family Practitioner with Obstetrical privileges for the past 20 years. The main focus and passion of her practice is obstetrics and childcare.