Had hellish, serious sleep issues, now much, much better - just wanted to give benefit of our experience!

[pevie]

Hi all, already posted in parenting, entitled 'our story...' so if you want full war and peace go there. But had a look on this topic and felt should give some info. here if it helps as we got such a lot of support when we needed it.

Basically in a nutshell, our LO's sleep problem was chronic from day one and lasted over a year!!!! It eventually emerged that she had a sugar intolerance so when we sorted that it helped. However, the main thing that sorted her sleep problem was doing gradual withdrawal with the help of a sleep lady in Edinburgh. This took a long time but was well worth it. As she was rocked to sleep and fed in the night and we were never sure if she was in pain, we had to do tiny baby steps. We started with holding her close in her cot and shushing or singing to her till she went to sleep, took about a week for this to have some effect, then moved on to rubbing her back, took about 4 or 5 days, then just laying hand calmly on back and moving on a little each 4 days or so. During the night I tried to do same thing but if felt she was really uncomfortable would pick her up, wind or comfort and then put back down.

She was about 13 months when we started and it took a few months until she could finally sleep through the night but if you are interested in any more details let me know!!!

[kwt]

Details please?
Our DD is 7 months and while I know she could be a lot worse, she still wakes up to 4-5 times a night sometimes just for a pat, sometimes wide awake and wanting to play, sometimes screaming her head off. Not for hunger. If there was some predictability to it perhaps we could come up with a plan, but every night is different. The thing is, she falls asleep for naps on her own brilliantly (until 2 days ago that is)!
How did you know it was sugar intolerance?

[walkingwomb]

I am interested! I am struggling with a baby who will not go back in her cot so i am interested in what you mean by "We started with holding her close in her cot and shushing or singing to her till she went to sleep". What does that mean? She was in her cot but you were leaning over?

I am co sleeping because i can only get my baby back to sleep by feeding her to sleep and not moving her. She use to be a relatively OK sleeper but this has been going on for a month or so and I am getting very scared she will never sleep on her own again.

[walkingwomb]

am off to parenting to see if you have actually answered my question there!