To be slightly irritated by parents whose babies sleep through the night

[InMemoryOfSleep]

I should start by saying this is meant to be lighthearted, and of course I am delighted for all the parents getting all the sleep...

However... my DS, at 11 months, is showing no sign of sleeping through the night, and its starting to feel like he never will. I've spoken to two mums at playgroup this morning who breezily chatted about how their 10-week-olds slept 8pm-6am, and I was doing the smile and nod whilst internally screaming/sobbing. We've struggled with a dairy allergy and eczema, which are both much better now, but he wakes every 1-2 hours at the minute, wanting a feed, or his dummy back in, or a cuddle, or to just get comfy. Me and DH are starting to take on the look of zombies. Now before it's mentioned, I've no intention of sleep training, but I was hoping for some solidarity moaning from other similarly sleep deprived parents! How often does your baby wake? How are you coping? Are you planning to try to do something about it, or just ride it out and hope it gets better?!

Sorry - fat tired fingers
So it ay all - so not at all
Ehile - while

My son had diary intolerance and excemea and we had a break through at 12 months when we realised he had 'invisible' excemea on his scalp and he was getting itchier at night due to the heat etc. He was also waking every 1-2hrs as he needed comfort. We only noticed the scalp excemea when my hubby took him into a shower and my son's head was hotter than usual and we could then see the spots on his scalp. The Ped prescribed daily anti-histamine which helped a lot and then after a year I used alternatively therapy Health Kinesiology to stop the itch and get him off anti-histamine forever (and we also got rid of his dairy intolerance). Before the discovery of the excemea on his scalp, I was beside myself with sleep deprivation and we spent a fortune on books and sleep consultants including one who spent 3 nights watching him in his cot and decided he problem was he missed the touch of other people's skin when sleeping (because he was a twin). He was 'moleing' around in his cot but it was his only way of itching himself and had nothing to do with missing anything other than just feeling comfortable in his own skin.

Cheese definitely not the answer then but the same principle applies: he needs to get enough protein and calories during the day to be able to sleep through the night.

Reduce the night feeds, either just give water or reduce the time he is allowed to feed by a few minutes each night so eventually it goes down to zero. Take him off your boob carefully - break the seal between the mouth and boob with your little finger before slowly removing him, otherwise it will be a tugging match. Sorry if too much detail.

If he needs the milk he will get it in the day, if he knows the milk bar is open in the night then he will keep waking up.

Try to hasten the dietician appointment. Phone up, dont just wait, the nhs admin is not great and letters sometimes get stuck in in-trays. Say you are now concerned about his nutrition as he's stopped bfeeding, they might speed things up. Mine had coeliac disease and blood test results got stuck in an in tray for months. Since then I always chase. The dietician always asked to keep a food diary for a few days before appointments. Perhaps you could do a food diary, or try to identify what upsets him etc? If you have the food diary ready maybe they could fit you in at short notice cancelled appt???

You are doing great by the way and this will pass. It is great he is getting a good variety of foods.

@FastForward2 cheese is usually the answer to most things, but sadly not in this case

Thank you for the advice, will definitely chase the dietician appointment (although it was the GP who basically said don't hold your breath ). We were actually doing great with reducing night feeds, he was often going all night without a feed, but this sudden nursing strike has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works!