DS waking in the night

[Ems1812]

My DS is 18 months & up until the last 4 months was sleeping happily through the night until 6.30am from about 8 weeks old. He will currently go to bed at about 7 with a bottle of milk & wake somewhere between 11-12 for a bottle of milk, straight back to sleep & then up again between 2-4 for another milk. He then goes back to sleep until about 6.30.

We have tried various different things to try & get him to sleep through but nothing seems to be working. He eats & drinks well & will usually sleep for about an hour just after lunch so isn't oversleeping during the day.

He seems reliant on milk at night & won't go back to sleep without it. As you can imagine we are exhausted & would quite like our good sleeper back! I just feel he is too old to be waking for night feeds at this age but he just screams until he has more milk.

Does anyone have any ideas or tips that have worked for them? TIA

[excitedforbaba]

No tips I'm afraid but we have a 6 month old who has been sleeping through the night from about 8 - 6.30/7am from she was 8 weeks. Stirred for her dummy and straight back to sleep again.

This past week or 2 she has been as bright as a button anywhere from 1-2am nothing settles her apart from a bottle and she falls back asleep drinking it.

She's been on spoon feeds a while now so it's not anything to do with that. Iv just put it down to teeth and hoping normal sleep (normal for her) will resume again soon and remember how lucky I am that she's not wanting fed 3 or 4 times in a night!

[Ems1812]

That's exactly what my DS does but he will wake at least twice a night, sometimes even 3 times. He doesn't have a dummy but never has so I'm not sure if it's just a comfort thing. My HV advised that he is having more milk than he needs so I did try & switch it for water at night but he was having none of it!

He was much the same as your DD at 6 months as his teeth started to come through several at a time so that may be why your DD is waking. He has almost all of his teeth now & isn't currently suffering with swollen gums or redness so I'm not sure it's that.

I just feel like I'm missing something somewhere!

[FATEdestiny]

I think you'll just need to bite the bullet, stop giving milk at night and deal with the screaming in the night.

He will get over it quickly. Just change to water and don't give in. Water of nothing. Hopefully he'll be too appalled at the idea of water and you will be able to be consistent and not give in to giving milk - so he will choose nothing instead of the water (and so stop waking).

[excitedforbaba]

Any luck last night with sleeping through? We had a bottle at 1am but she slept to almost 8 then :)
debating wether to go to bed now or stay up to she wakens looking fed!

[Ems1812]

We had one wake up at 1am & another at 5! Not so bad as the times meant that I didn't lose too much sleep but still would not settle without milk!

I think FATE is right though, I need to bite the bullet, give only water & not give in! I've now cut his milk during the day down to only 2 bottles (one in am, one in pm) & I've noticed a massive difference in his behaviour, he seems to have much more energy & is eating lots more.

Your night sounded brilliant excited, it's such a treat when they sleep later in the morning! Its so nice to be able to wake up without being woken up by a shouting child!

[excitedforbaba]

Last night was 11.30 then 6am although very restless most night. I'm like a zombie today.


Read somewhere the follow on milk can affect how full a baby feels before bed and some said they needed a night top up where the baby had been sleeping through on the first. So we have reverted back to the 1st as the change coincided with the wakening keep your fingers crossed for a full nights sleep!

Good luck with the water and perseverance hope we both start to get full nights sleep again soon :)

[Ems1812]

Oh no, poor you! It's so draining if they have a restless night.

I've heard the same about Follow on milk & we found DS was waking at night on it too - we used Hungry baby milk until DS went onto cows milk & he always slept brilliantly on it. He seemed to get most hungry at night so the hungry milk really filled him up so he slept through. Fingers crossed for a good night for you!

We had only one wake up at 4am this morning, he accepted the water & then slept until 7am woo! Feeling blooming marvellous today after a good sleep! Hoping it's not a one off! :)

[excitedforbaba]

We had success last night...dummy enough to soothe her back over in seconds! Didn't Waken to 7.30am delighted although I can't work out if it was a coincidence or if it was the 1st milk!


Tonight she is already restless have been up about 5 timesto give her back her dummy so even if she doesn't look for food I can't see there being much sleep!

Hopefully your night is successful again tonight! Fingers crossed