My 21 month old goes to sleep lovely but wakes 2/3 a night HELP please.

[willoughby09]

My 21 month old naps for 2 hours in the morning, and she goes to bed at 6.30 on own we just put her in her bed with a small bottle of milk and leave her and she is asleep with in minutes.
But she wakes 2 or 3 times in the night crying sometime we can settle her in her bed with a small bottle or cuddle, other times she is soo upset we put her in our bed.(mainly coz she shares her room with her big sister and we worry about waking as she has school)
When she was younger she slept thru the night and was a great sleeper. But since 7 months when i gave up breast feeding and she became really ill because she is lactose intolerant and we didnt find that out for almost 4 months her sleep got worse. Now we have her diet sorted kinda (she is a very picky eater) she still isn't very settled at night.
She has also had a burst ear drum over christmas which lasted a while but she is now fine.

Can anyone offer us any advice please i'm soo tired and need sleep.
We have tried controlled crying but she would scream for ages (longest we left her was 45 mins) and if you went in to calm her down she would just get worse when you left her again.
I dont know if shes waking coz shes hungry or if there is some thing else wrong or if it is habit??
I have spoke to my HV and they only gave me advice on getting her sleep which isn't a problem at night its keeping her asleep.

Sorry if it is all a bit confusing. Its just soo overwhelming the lack of sleep.

Thank you for reading and offering any advice x

I would advise not giving her the bottle in the night when she wakes up, and also when getting to sleep. Cut it out completely.

We cut the bottles with our DD when she was 30 months after a whole year of her waking twice a night. Yes, a whole year of it!

Three nights later after cutting the bottles, she was sleeping through. We had two nights of lots of crying, then it was done.

Our theory is that a) she was waking for the milk (and not eating enough during the day time as a result) and b) her nappies were wet and waking her up. Her nappies have been much less wet, sometimes completely dry in the mornings, since we cut the bottles.

Please give it a try - but you need to be strong to push through those first few nights! Can you send her sister to stay with a friend or family for a couple of nights whilst you get your 21 month-old sorted?

Good luck x