help :( 8mo DD won't sleep or eat - losing the plot

[daisylulu]

I'm not sure whether I should be posting in sleep, weaning or here so here goes. My lovely DD 8 months and 1 week. She is a lovely little thing and I currently feel like the world's worst mum as I'm slowly losing the plot. Any words of wisdom gratefully received.

DD was a great sleeper from approx 4 months (after her cows milk allergy was diagnosed/treated) for which I realise we were very fortunate. Over the last month or so her sleep has become awful. Started with early morning wake ups (about 5/5.30) which I could cope with but now she wakes at 4am and NOTHING will get her back to sleep. She is not hungry, just seems she wants to play. She goes to be between 6 and 7pm and has 2-3 naps a day. A later bedtime seems to make things worse. She sleeps in her own cot in our bedroom. I am slowly beginning to lose my marbles - bringing her into bed with us seems to make her hysterical with her trying to crawl up me and scratch my face. If I could rock or feed her to sleep I would but it doesnt seem to help. I am at a loss as to what to do. I am starting to feel very low indeed.

Added to this DD has basically stopped eating solids over last 6 weeks. She has never been a great eater though. We do mainly BLW with a bit of purees. If she does show interest in food as soon as it goes in mouth she spits it back out. She is still taking full bottles - approx 30 ounces a day and I'm wondering whether I need to start cutting these back....

I should add that she has cut two teeth in the last 6 weeks and had three colds. However, she seems better so why isnt her sleep and eating improving?! I really feel I dont know what to do. When her sleep has gone crappy before it normally only lasts a couple of weeks and we at least get the odd good night thrown in.

I've heard there is a 8/9 month sleep regression. Could this be it? Will it pass? I need some light at the end of the tunnel.

TIA

My DC3 is exactly the same age and is also a terrible eater (other children were fine). I really wouldn't worry about it, keep doing exactly what you are doing with the finger food and trying a bit of puree. Giving her a spoon with a bit of puree on the end of it seems to work a bit with my little one.

With the sleep you probably just need to move her out of your room and ignore her at 4am. She'll soon get the idea that its not playtime and go back to sleep. At the moment she can see you when she wakes up.

Thanks . We try her with a spoon but doesn't really help. Im going to bite the bullet and move her to her own room this weekend. Just worried it will make things even worse...

I wouldn't try cutting back on her milk yet, it's her main source of nutrition until she's 1 so keep up with what she needs for now.

If she spits the puree out then perhaps leave the puree for a bit, let her have a mess with some food on her own and then if you want to reintroduce puree in a week or so, do it then. If she's been ill she's probably still off her food - the same as adults can go off food for a bit when they've been unwell. She might also have more teeth coming through.

I second the suggestion to try her in her own room. It may be that you and DH are disturbing her in her sleep, and that's what is waking her up, or that she's waking and then spotting you and wants to play/cuddle whereas in her own room she might drop back off (that might take a few days of settling in, so the first night might not be great!)

Thank you for the advice.

Had DD weighed today (as havent for four months ) and she has maintained her centile so am going to relax about the feeding for now.

We've moved her to her own room today. Naps were ok considering. Fingers crossed for tonight!

Suddenly they don't need as much food I find, once the mega-growth-phase of the first few months has passed. She is probably getting most of her calories from milk - and like others have said I really wouldn't worry about the lack of solids being eaten, she will probably pick up in a few months time.

Hope the movingher to her own room works.

DS (who also strangely had milk allergy, in fact think I remember you from other boards!) also slept like a dream from 5-8 months, then stopped and is now up multiple times all night long. Aaargh. No words of advice but.

I am guessing that you're weaning her onto a cow's milk free diet? Might be worth double checking to make sure none of the weaning foods are cow's milk containing (I found milk protein in some very very odd places - crisps for example)

Thanks Narmada- yes I remember you I actually have you to thank for helping me get diagnosed DD with cmpi as it was your advice which made me push my gp for a formula change an referral. I'm very careful at checking ingredients- you're right they put milk in all sorts of random things!

Well we've had 3 nights of DD in own room. First two night were much better than expected - woke at 530 which is practically a lie in these days. Unfortunately last night wasn't so good - took DD over 90 mins to settle and then she woke at 430 (with a few briefer wake ups in night) and point blank refused to go back to sleep. I'm also finding it much harder to get her to nap in own room. Maybe the early wake up is due to overtiredness? Who knows....

I've decided though I need to implement ways of coping with this as I don't think anything I can do will make much difference . I know it could be worse but I'm sooooooo tired. This morning I felt myself getting angry with DD when trying to settle her and all she wanted to do was pull my hair. I would never hurt her but I feel upset with myself for getting angry in the first place as I love her so much

Hi daisylulu,
Just a suggestion but does she have any toys/ teddies in her cot? My DD, (also 8mo) has a couple of teddies in her cot and a musical toy hanging from her cot which she plays with, sometimes for half an hour (or more), before settling off to sleep for her morning and afternoon nap.
Obviously the toys are safe for her to be left alone with, no choking hazard etc.
My routine is to take her into her room, close curtains, switch on monitor, then put her down, pull the musical toy and close the door and run . It works 9/10 times but did take us a little while to get to that stage .

Thanks - she has some comforters in the bed which she likes to play with/cuddle.

Last night was awful- night started off brilliantly when she fell asleep at 640 but she woke at 8pm and took over two hours to settle with lots of crying involved. Eventually she went to sleep when I brought a duvet on the floor and let her snuggle up with me. Im thinking I may need to go down CC route as can't keep this up this is something I really wanted to avoid...

Does anyone know if there is an 8/9 month sleep regression how long it takes to pass?