7 month old doesn’t sleep or eat well…..

[Jessiecatt]

Just after a little reassurance and advice!

My 7 month old (EBF and will not take a bottle we’ve tried everything) is still waking all night every night…

We put him to bed at 7pm and he goes off fine but wakes every 45-60 mins until I go to bed and then I normally just get him in with me and we co sleep and he sleeps sooo much better… generally going 2-3 hours before waking.

I feed him to sleep for every nap/bedtime (unless we are out in the car/buggy). He has never self settled and will just scream and get in such a state if I gently try. CIO is most definitely not for me.

I am coping ok with lack of sleep but worried that I’m doing something wrong? Also I really like co sleeping but am feeling pressure to put him in his own room or I’ll do more harm than good as he will not be independent.
My husband is in the spare room and we are all quite happy with the arrangement but I can’t help but wonder if I really should be trying to get him to sleep in his own room….

Second issue is we’ve been weaning for a month now and I don’t think he’s swallowed even one mouthful. He pushes the spoon away, he will put his finger food in his mouth but never swallows any just spits it out. I’m starting to worry that he won’t be getting enough iron from me now and mealtimes are pretty soul destroying. He’s just on the one meal a day still until he starts swallowing (please correct me if this is wrong)

Any and all advice is welcome:)

My LO is seven months and sleep is similarly bad to yours by the sounds of it. She never came out of the four month regression... Tried co sleeping but it was worse. Did some gentle sleep training which helped get her back to sleeping in cot and I now only feed twice per night, settle her in the cot for other wake ups. But we've plateaued now at wake ups approx every two hours. If co sleeping is working for your then stick with it. And don't feel pressure to move baby out if you don't want to yet. We're just hoping that baby will start sleeping better eventually... Whenever that will be... We tag-team the next the nights so we both get some undisturbed sleep.

Re:weaning it's really difficult. Try to lower you expectations and just keep trying. Could think of meals as snacks rather than full meals if that helps take pressure off? I would just keep offering foods & try new things and one day baby will get it. Some of them just don't like eating at first. To make it easy for you I would buy baby food and keep leftovers from your dinner (finger foods or puree it) so you don't waste time on stuff that won't be eaten. Have you tried the baby veg melty sticks? My LO always eats those, even if the rest gets ignored. Also I read if you offer something they will eat, something healthy and something new each day at least you're trying!

If your baby is putting food in their mouth that's a great start! I would keep going with finger food and some will be swallowed eventually!

DD took about 2 months before she actually ate anything - I keep putting finger food in front of her and eventually she sussed it out.