6 month old refusing sleep

[AS93]

Hi,

my DD will be 6 months in a week.
All of sudden she has started having complete melt downs every time I try and get her to nap. I’ve tried shortening wake windows and extending them - it makes no difference. She gets very grumpy if she doesn’t nap so it isn’t a case of she doesn’t need them.

up until about 2 weeks ago, she would fall asleep as as soon as I cuddled her and started swaying. Now she screams as soon as I try. I’ve tried putting her in her crib and patting her and leaving her incase the stimulation of being held is stopping her sleeping but she still cries and then doesn’t stop when picked up. The only way to calm her and get her to sleep is to feed her but I’m worried now that she’s drinking way too much - yesterday she drank 1100 ml of formula! This is way more than normal and it’s been like this the last week.

she is teething… her bottom tooth has pushed through and I’m assuming the other one is on the way…. Is this the cause and I just need to ride it out? Or has anyone been through anything similar and found a different solution?

another point - once I get her to sleep at night she generally sleeps through but getting her down can be a several hour battle at the moment.

anyone been through similar?

I don't know about formula myself, sorry, but I just walked for naps at this age, using buggy or carrier. Found it so much easier, and we were usually going somewhere or coming home anyway. Sometimes used buggy at home as well, rocked til she fell asleep. If she's taking several hours to go to bed, then she needs a later bedtime.

What is her current routine?
Does she wake up at the same sort of time each morning?
We’ve worked hard to get our 6 month old sleeping in his crib and sort of ditched the wake windows and do more of a schedule.
So he gets up at 6:30. First nap at 9 (sometimes does 30 mins, sometimes and hour), second nap at 1:30 until latest 3:30. However, if he is acting tired at 1pm then I’ll put him down then. Kind of depends on how his first nap went and how busy we were before the second one. Then he goes to bed around 6:30ish.
I’ve found this has helped him to settle better in his crib. I know he can comfortably handle 3 hour wake windows, but every baby is different and yours may need 2 hours in the morning then 3 hours before her next nap.
But starting the day at the same sort of time every morning can help to make nap time easier

thank you for the response :)

We were getting up around 7.30 am every day. But admittedly this has varied recently from 6 am - 8 am depending on what time I’ve managed to get her to sleep the night before.

I think I’ll try a set schedule and see how we go. I’m really hoping this is just a phase.

the buggy does work if I’m out and about but not in the house just rocking.

im not sure about the later bed time… last night she didn’t fall asleep until 9pm but since Christmas her bedtime has been 7.30 pm and that had been working well.

thanks for the advice :) - it sounds like I just need to ride it out

It’s probably a phase! Xx

I used to have to apply teething medication before naps. Well, about 30mins before so they could work. Had to time the previous dose right, so I could apply just before nap. She could never get to sleep with toothache, just like us adults i suppose. We’d have some paracetamol maybe.

I formula fed from the start with mine. I was always advised about 150ml-200ml per kg of bodyweight.

So if your little one is average weight (7kg) she should be drinking 1050-1400ml a day.

If she will settle with a bottle I would keep doing that. I remember mine went through a phase around 7 months where he suddenly started to wake in the night and would only settle with a bottle. I think it correlated with a growth spurt.

Have you tried any medication for the teething @AS93?