13 months - poor sleep, night feeding!

[Bumpsadaisie]

I wondered if anyone could offer any advice.

My son is 13 months and for the last couple of months his sleep has been pretty bad.

Historically he would always wake up once or twice in the night, have a little BF then go straight back to sleep. Sometimes he would be happy just to have his dummy back or a cuddle. Sometimes he would wake, find his own dummy, and get himself back to sleep.

I've stopped feeding him now but now he is waking about four times a night and howling unless I give him milk in a bottle. He has totally lost any ability to self settle by finding his dummy. He wakes up and stands up and howls immediately. As soon as he has his bottle he is calm as anything, I pop him back in his cot and off to sleep he goes. If you try to soothe him any other way he gets very cross - he just wants his bottle.

He doesn't seem to be able to stay asleep longer than about 2.5 hours, his sleep is worse now then when he was a newborn. Last night was typical. 11pm, 12.30pm, 4am, 5.30am, 7.15am (wake up time).

He has just taken his first steps and is really trying to "talk" - v communicative, lots of "words" and lots of pointing etc. He has also just started insisting on feeding himself with his spoon. Some separation anxiety as well although less than it has been and he is quite happy to go off to sleep at bedtime without a fuss. So there is a lot going on for him developmentally and I expect this is just a phase he is going through; I remember the same from my older DD.

I am worried that we are creating unhelpful associations by giving him four bottles a night though!!

Anyone have any advice on how to improve things without doing controlled crying etc.

Many thanks in advance!
Bumps x

it does sound like a phase
i have 2 dds age 7 yrs and nearly 4 yrs

it is horrid when they start to not sleep
we found giving water in a cup worked well instead of milk
it does sound like he is learning alot

my 11 week old is a poor sleeper. about a week ago he was into a good roitine go down between 9 and 10 and not wake until 2-3 tgdn back down again til 6.30. he was in hospital last week amd since comong home he will not settle at night making loads of grunting noises and pulling his legs up and thrashing aroind. we stuck him in his cot for tge first time last night and he liked it but still didnt settle jist so noisy and wrestless. im out of ideas

Is he teething/coming down with something? My ds of 14 months has periods like that and then teeth will come through or he'll show he's unwell during the day. My ds has also started to wake up screaming, I'm starting to think he's scared of the dark or something as it directly related the days getting shorter. Bizarre.

Good luck, it does sound like a phase. I only offer water at night, I don't know if that could be done? I also gave my ds a banana just before his milk last night as he hadn't eaten much and he slept through until 7 again, which he hasn't done in a while due to teething and then bronchiolitis.

my 11 week old has been slovbrring loads and i thonk he could well be teething! does anybody know if u shoukd try get into a routine with young baby or will it just happen? he doesnt sleep of a day and we r im a routine for bed time but im wondering as he gets older will he just go to sleep earlier or do we need to teach him?

My DD is 14 months and I'm going through the same thing.

Last week I was so exhausted I lost my temper (not at her obviously, just at being tired generally) and DH took her for Friday night to another room till she fell asleep.

I think its a phase and am just going with it for the moment. It is very frustrating but I try to relax about it and roll with the punches.

My DD is teething badly right now too so maybe that is the reason. She BF at night and would usually feed then let go. The last couple of months however she keeps latched on until I remove the breast myself. I take this as a sign of her needing comfort and not food.

16 month old dd here, always been a "waker" in the night. We night weaned at 12 months using Dr Jay Gordon's method (google this, tis a gentle night weaning method) and things improved, having a few sleep throughs (after a feed at 11 and sleeping till 6) and then dropping that 11 feed and going 7-4.30am. I thought breakthrough, finally...

But no, 3 weeks ago, teething knocked us right back again

Just tonight dd was awake at 12, then 4, then 4.30 - each time "bubba" (milk)

It so feckin hard to know what to do when they asking for food at night. It's comfort for sure, but when I'm prepared to lie next to her in a double bed and she's still screaming, I'm at a loss as to what to do

Teething is a bitch, and I think has a lot to answer for with some babies who don't sleep through