Vålling? Anyone use it?

[Purplecatti]

I have reached desperation levels through tiredness. My 8 month old wakes every 3 hours at night demanding a feed and I'm so tired I don't know how much longer I can cope. We've just managed to get herself to self settle at bedtime.

I've heard of vålling helping babies to sleep longer at night. Any experiences?

Dd is ebf but will take an oz or two of formula in a sippy cup at mealtimes.

I'm guessing you mean välling which is what is used in Sweden instead of baby rice. Basically it's gruel, a thin porridge. My daughter (19) loves it. I think it's the vilest food stuff ever invented and too 'workhouse' for me. Here in Sweden though, it's the primary source of nutrition for babies.

Can understand you being tired but there s no evidence that giving solids or formula will help sleep.

What have you tried so far? Is she on solids? Are you bfing roughly an hour before? Can you fit in an extra bf in the day?

Have you read 12 alternatives for the all night nurser, the No Cry Sleep Solution or sound Sleep by Sarah Woodhouse?

Isis online is a useful place to start when you want to make changes to sleep too

We have used it a couple of times with ds, the only reason we have used it is because he wont take expressed milk and we were sent a free sample so I thought I'd try it rather than bin it, ds drank the entire bottle but I didn't notice any sleep improvement, we co-sleep so I don't really notice when he wakes up anyway so maybe he did sleep longer.

It is advertised as helping babies sleep better and the children's nurse recommend I start ds on it at 5 month's ( I ignored her) I think it's rubbish and I will only use it when I am not around to feed ds.

Do you live in Sweden? They sell one portion packs in coop.

We used to use it when we were over on holiday. Dc liked it.

I'm in the uk. A swedish lady at my baby group mentioned it and I got a pack online.
Dd seems to really like it but is still up every 3 hours demanding a feed.
She is fed every 2 1/2 hours in the day and on average eats:
Pot of yoghurt
My toast crusts
A big jar of baby food
Several rice cakes
Sucks on carrot sticks
Sucks on apple
A baby biscuit
A bowl of fruity porridge
About 4 oz of formula
Several corn snacks
Bits of my lunch

I've tried the pantley technique, co sleeping, not putting her down hardly at all during the day but cuddling instead.
She can self settle on an evening now and sleeps from 7 until between ten and midnight but after that it's every 2 hours or so until she's wide awake at 5am despite blackout blinds.
This isn't growth spurt this is every night

Unfortunately, I think some babies just need to feed little and often for far longer than the dreaded parenting books say. Certainly my DS needed to feed at night at that age. I feel your pain with the tiredness thing though!

I assume you do all the things like just go to bed when the baby does a few nights a week just to get a bit of extra sleep?

Not that it's likely to help with sleep (sadly) but the food you wrote down does seem high in simple carbohydrates and low in protein. Baby biscuits, rice cakes, corn snacks,etc don't take long to be burned up. Do you give meat or cheese, hummus, etc? Might be worth a try?