5mth old won't sleep

[Lilmamma82]

Looking for some advice please. I have a 5mth old boy that will not sleep in his cot. He is breastfed but we have started to give him a little baby porridge at lunchtime. We've got a routine where he has a bath and then has a feed. We did try to put him to bed after his feed but he never went to sleep and we thought it was too disturbing for my other son (4) who goes to bed a little later. We didn't want to end up focussing on baby and leaving him out during his bedtime routine. So we put him in his cot when we go to bed. He will sleep in my arms but as soon as he's in his cot and my arm comes out from underneath him he starts crying. I've tried to comfort him without picking him up, white noise, lullaby mobile, but none of these seem to work. I do try to put him in his cot when he has a nap in the afternoon usually after his 12:00 feed but he's only managed to fall asleep on two occasions. It is hard to do this during the day as I'm also doing things with my other son so we could be out. I'm trying to work out what is stopping him from going to sleep in his cot. Is he teething? I'm giving him Ashton & Parsons powder morning and night. Is it an attachment thing? I put a small blanket that I wear on me in the cot which he rubs against his face. Is it a bad stomach? The last two nights we've given him Calpol as we can hear his stomach popping so not sure if he's got trapped wind. Today I've also stopped giving him solids to see if that's the problem he can't sleep at night. Maybe his digestive system isn't ready for it yet?
Last night he was in bed with me and he went to sleep but not after me having to lie down next to him with our faces touching. After about 2 hours he woke up crying again so I did the same thing. It continued like this through the night. I kept trying to see if he needed feeding but he refused and only fed at 4:30am.
I don't want him in my bed and we have tried putting him down in his cot and after he cries picking him up, giving him a cuddle and putting him back down again but his crying is so bad that he ends up working himself into a frenzy. Is he in pain or is it separation anxiety?
I just feel at a loss.

[teaandkittens]

Placemarking as have exact same problem with 5.5 month old dd!

[EssexGirlLottie]

We have just started to try and get our 5mo DS to go to sleep on his own, rather than holding and rocking. Already I'm seeing good results if I manage to put him down for a nap when he's only just tired (watching for signs like yawning, eye rubbing etc). He will now go to sleep after about 15 mins and that was only after trying it once or twice. If he's overtired, then there's no chance! However, we're using props (white noise and dummy). My hope is to gradually wean him off these too.

I guess with another child it's harder to look for those signs early but after a few days of trying this with my DS, this seems to be the key. Along the same lines, maybe you could move bedtime earlier (for the same reason)??

After a bit of Dr Google on this for my own sake, most websites seemed to say separation anxiety was common when babies get to about 8mo.

What about trying a swing?

[ampersandand]

We had an awful time with ds getting to sleep, hes ebf and would wake upon putting in his cot or 10 minutes after lasting up to 2 hours.

We made a routine, bath then bf in my bedroom in the dark then cot.

He used to go to bed at 7/8 no fixed time, but he must have been getting over tired. We now bath him between 6/6:30 or sometimes before if he starts to yawn or moan and found that this, along with the routine so much better for us all.

Perhaps if youre not already, you could keep to a set time every night give or take half an hour, where you have your own routine that will also fit in with your other dc.

It may take a long time for him to get used to the idea of sleeping but you are doing all the right things already.