6 month old wakening every hour at night

[frodojodo]

I have a 6 month old baby, she has never slept through the night, in general she isn't a great sleeper.. She goes down around 7pm then usually wakes every couple of hours for a cuddle, dummy or a feed and usually goes back to sleep.

However, the past 2 months she has been wakening every hour from going down at 7pm. She seems really fussy and agitated when she wakes up. I know it isn't hunger as she can't possibly need fed every hour. I give her a dummy, cuddle, white noise, make sure she isn't too hot/cold, hold her hand, sometimes bring her into my bed.. nothing seems to be working. I've tried the CIO but I can't at the moment as I think it's discomfort so I don't want to leave her to cry. When she wakes her eyes are still shut and I can tell she is trying to get back to sleep but something is making her uncomfortable.

She is such a happy content baby through the day and goes down for naps no bother. The doctors don't see any concerns either and aren't helping, hence why I'm now asking Mumsnet.

She suffers with acid reflux and I am aware of the 'acid dump'. I know she has a sensitive gut in general and suffers with constipation. I think it could be a mix of these problems. I give her cooled boiled water or herbal teas to help with her tummy too.

Does anyone have any remedies or suggestions to get her to stay asleep for longer? Or to help her discomfort? Both her and I are so exhausted during the day with not sleeping at night.. I feel like a zombie!! Any help would be appreciated!

I'd like to add she was on Omeprazole for a couple of months and it didn't work. She has also tried baby Gaviscon which caused further constipation ..

Hello, I was right there with you about a month ago. My little boy is 8 months old and only slept through night from about 7 months. I found that having porridge and mushed up banana around 5pm really helped him stay fuller for longer as it's filling but gentle on his tummy. I must admit we did the cry it out thing which I was totally against at first but gave it a go one night when I was exhausted. Got his room ready, white noise etc. Told myself I'd check him if he crief for X amount of time.... He fell asleep after 5 minutes and stayed asleep for 3 hours (which was amazing given usually it was every hour). But totally respect if the cry it out isn't for you at the moment. Good luck, I'm so sorry tbe only thing I've got to chip in is porridge xxx

Reflux babies need to feed more frequently. Maybe for a few nights try feeding her every time she wakes up and see if she sleeps longer stretches?

@seaborgium I used to feed her every time she woke up but it only settled her for maybe 20 mins, the sucking gave her comfort so I give her a dummy instead now. She gets her 7pm feed then another one around 10/10:40pm and then her next at 4:30.

@RaimbowMama Thank you! She does like oats and banana so I'll maybe try and give her some this evening! Hoping the reflux passes soon.. Xx

Let us know how it goes :) It will pass, it's so difficult xx

The porridge we use for little one is just massive bag of 40p Lidl normal porridge oats that I wizz up in blender dry and then shove in a big storage jar easy to spoon out, so cheap!

Hello, I know this is an old thread but I wondered if you’d mind providing us with an update OP. My DS is 6 months and we are in the exact same position, we are so exhausted. We started weaning early due to family history of allergies and since then his sleep has been terrible and we just can’t figure out why. Recently he’s been quite constipated and passing pebble like stools so it could be that. I have also recently given him toast and cows milk with porridge/weetabix, could this be causing the issue? He’s fine throughout the day. He also won’t settle in the night without being fed. Any advice or help would be very appreciated.

I had to give Lactulose (on GP advice and with dosing recommendations) to sort out weaning constipation. Now that LO reliably eats more, I mix prune purée into breakfast every day. You also need to really get them used to drinking some water from an open cup with every meal. It will improve!