Can they go without milk during the night at 7 months?

[MinkyBorage]

DS eats like a horse, 3 big solid meals a day, mix of blw and mush. Still bf although I'm desperate to get him on to the bottle because I'm thinking that this will help him get through the night better.
At the moment, he is waking a LOT during the night, he doesn't really seem hungry, but seems to be using me as a dummy. I bring him in to bed regularly, but he is still very disturbed through the night and bunging a boob in his direction often doesn't help. He won't take a dummy or a bottle, although he has managed 3 oz a couple of times. I am KNACKERED, and I really would like to go out without getting called back at 10pm (or earlier) because he won't settle without me.

I know it's just a phase, but I really really really need some sleep

MinkyBorage,

My response may not be a popular one, but both DS and DD1 had to be 'encouraged' into a sleep routine by me being a bit strict.

Basically, you need to get him to the point where he can self sooth. He is waking in the night and wanting you because you are what he is used to using as a 'sleep cue'. Personally I used a gradual withdrawal type thing. So put them into bed to sleep, sat by their cot and patted them. Then each night moved a bit further away.

This did result in a few tears and tantrums, but I have come to the conclusion that if I didnt do this, they would still be waking up to be fed in the night now aged 2 & 4!!

DD2 is 4 mnths and still night waking but if she weans well I anticipate that after Christmas I will be shifting her into a full nights sleep.

If you decide to go for it then it's worth getting some support for the first few nights. My sister coached me on the end of the phoone and DH was banished from the house as he felt I was being cruel (easy for him to say, he was snoring while I was pacing the floor .

Good luck x

I like the "No cry sleep solution" book ideas more than CC. Things like giving the feed if demanded, but cutting it bit sort, even angling yourself slightly so it's too much bother/effort for LO to hold on and they go back to sleep. 7 months is quite wee to go a whole night without food/comfort, IMO. The evening/night problems are different I think, and the being called back problem could be solved by a sitter/DH/whatever who just got on with it, like you would do. I'm speaking from bitter experience!

Have you tried changing your putting to bed routine first? This had a really good effect on my DS who is the same age?

We used to bath, massage, feed to sleep , put in cot asleep. He'd wake at 10, 1, 4 and then be up for the day at 6

We now feed downstairs, bath, massage into bed awake. He's gone to sleep in about 10minutes. He now doesn't wake until 4am. (trying to stretch that to 5am but that's a whole thread in itself)

We'd changed his sleep associations. We also got him a taggies blanket as he won't suck on a dummy but is happy to sooth himself with that.

HTH

SofaKing, like the sound of that, although I really don't want to take him downstairs after his bath as dds are upstairs still in bath, but there must be other things I can do to make a break between the last feed an bed so he's going to bed awake. Also, I'll have a look in to a comfort blanket or something.

LosingThePlotThisWeek, I'm beginning to think a few hard nights of cc might be the way ahead, but am torn as kind of agree with BrandNewIggi.

As you can see, I'm not feeling very assertive about any of it. Am getting increasingly drawn towards cc atm though.

Thank you for your help