6 month old sleep problems

[quest30]

Hi all

My ds is having trouble sleeping! He has never really been a great sleeper and would wake several times for feeds! However about 3 wks ago he dropped his night feed and we got our first few nights of him sleeping from 8 til half 6!

However for the past week he has been waking every hour at night!! He will self settle himself to sleep and will sleep soundly from 8 til 12 and thats when the crying starts! He is not fully awake but is crying in his sleep. I go in to settle after waiting to see if he will drift again and that settled him for about half hour til of repeat the process!

I am getting exhausted with lack of sleep! I'm not sure what is causing the night waking! As he is not fully awake I don't want to reintroduce the night feed! But I'm now at a loss!

Has anyone got any advice?

What happens if you don't go in? Could he be teething?

If I don't go in then the crying continues and he sounds as though he is getting much more upset! We thought he might be teething but his gums look fine!

Sounds identical to our five month old.

We are being firm with no feeds between 10/11pm and 5pm. DD should be getting enough during the day to go six hours, so I wouldn't reintroduce feed either.

I think it is teething for our baby. Gums fine but they can be in pain without obvious signs of teething.

Any dribbling or hands in mouth during the day?

I'd reintroduce night feeds. They need calories when they need them and most babies are still having night feeds until 9-10 months as that's when solids start to take over from milk as the primary source of nutrition. Have you tried giving back the night feed? Got to be worth a go at least - if he's hungry then he's hungry, end of story.

Just to add, I think a night feed is good idea, just not getting into habit of offering breast/bottle to settle back to sleep.