Getting a baby to sleep through the night Post Reply

[Polster21]

Hi all

My 6 month old baby doesn't seem to be getting any better at sleeping through the night I.e. no improvement since about 2 months old. He is formula fed. He has 7 oz at 7 pm and usually wakes twice during the night at say 11 and 3 and then up at 6. I feed him when he wakes. Times of waking are pretty erratic but normally twice during the night and then awake for the day around 6 am. I've tried a dummy instead of feeding and he won't accept it. Any miracle suggestions?!

[LuluDaffodil]

Hi there, maybe try give him some water instead of milk. If he's used to feeding he will keep waking up for it. Lots and lots of cuddles and back to bed. Also one of my friends advised me to always do the last feed in the dark so they understand it is night time.

There's an excellent book called Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child which helped me loads at the different stages. Worth checking out.

Good luck x

[szerma]

Hi,
My daughter was breast-fed and was just like your little one.
At 4 months old, we sleep-trained her to self-soothe and go back to sleep which helped greatly with going to bed in the evening (this was controlled crying, 15 mins at a time, at which point you go back and reassure then. It only took 2 evenings).

Then at 6 months of age I just stopped feeding her at night cold turkey. Each night I let her cry with the plan I would go in and reassure after 15 minutes. She always stopped crying and self-soothed back to sleep within the 15 minutes. The first night she woke up 4 times, the second 2 times, the third time maybe once and by the fourth night she stopped waking up and feeding at night. It might sound harsh (it was very emotional for me as I was breastfeeding) but she became a very good sleeper after that. At 6 months there is no more need to feed them at night as they get enough during the day.

Hope it helps...
M

[Bluebunny]

I had a similar situation with my son who breast fed and at 5 months showed no signs of giving up night feeds.

We did controlled crying similar to previous poster. The first night he cried for 5 hours straight and I sat outside his door and went in at irregular intervals, e.g. 5 minutes, 20 minutes, 10 minutes etc to pat and reassure. The second night was better and by third night he slept through. He is now 3 and a great sleeper.

To be honest it is not very nice sitting there listening to your child cry BUT I kept reminding myself that he no longer needs it and it is just a habit and that us as a family have needs too (sleep!).

The only thing I would say is if this is the route you take, you have to commit to it--choose a few days over the weekend or holiday, dispatch husband to different room etc. I've had friends who tried it halfheartedly and then given up and I think this is worse than doing nothing.

Some people, e.g. Tracy Hogg advocate replacing milk with water gradually and it probably works too, but I could never be bothered with it all.

[Polster21]

Thanks all. I think controlled crying is probably the way to go. He has just woken up at 9.15 pm having been feed at 7. I just don't think he can be hungry but he's screaming the place down!

[pie81]

Hi, I also used controlled crying with mine for two reasons, to teach them to self settle and to drop a 'habit' feed.

That said I'd be cautious about doing it at 6 months as there is a growth spurt just then and it's also a classic time to get the first teeth. I waited till my baby was having a large amount of solids so I was sure it wasn't hunger (about 7.5 months I think?) to use cc to get rid of the last night feed. She dropped it very quickly and with very little crying.

[Polster21]

Thanks. He already has his first two teeth, but teething is of course an ongoing problem. Tried controlled crying for three nights now. First one it took 1.5 hours at 2 am, second night he slept through, and last night was an hour or so again at around 2. Going to keep going and see where we are in a week or so.