Does shush/pat help them sleep through/self settle?

[DesperateHousewife21]

Ds is 16 months and a month ago we moved him in his own room after co-sleeping and bfing to sleep.

I no longer bf him at all and just sit next to his bed stroking his head and saying shush and he goes to sleep. However I'm seeing no improvement, he woke up 5 times last night and I know he doesn't want anything because he goes back to sleep when im there patting and shushing.

So does this technique actually help them to self settle because he seems to still need me there to shush him back to sleep. Bit confused really.

Anyone?

My ds is much younger (4 months) but I am trying this at the moment too. It's one of the techniques in No Cry Sleep Solution. But she recommends you gradually move away from cot/bed or increase time between sushing/patting (longer intervals). It's only day 2 for me so I'm still optimistic!!! Ha. It's taking a long time for me-but no crying and a sleeping baby eventually. It has also made him much easier to settle him through the night. Although still waking frequently.
Not sure if this helps. Wishing you luck. Keep me informed.

It did kind of work for us.Then moved on to just a hand on tummy/back and shush, then lighter hand, then just shush... ...and move back towards the door.

Which over a period of time meant my presence was needed less and less.

Haven't had to shush or pat in a while so I suppose it does work. Strangely I kind of miss it a bit

How old was your Lo twistedfairylights? And roughly how long did it take from when you started to now not needing to at all....can you remember?

My son's nursery used to pat his back to get him to sleep. They gave up when it ended up taking the best part of an hour! By shushing or soothing you are not teaching your baby to self soothe. (just so this doesn't sound too preachy-I am of the opinion you do what you have to to get some sleep and both mine spent weeks in the bed with me!) in the end we resorted to controlled crying with both ours. Settle and leave. When they yell leave for (can't remember if we started at 2 or 5) minutes. Settle and leave. Gradually lengthen time between going in. I know this is terribly controversial but nothing else seemed to work. Sound like an expert? Guess whose little darling will be up and yelling later! Hope whatever you try soon lets you get sleep!

Thanks everyone. I suppose it's more like the gradual withdrawal then.

Ds is waking anything from every 5 mins to every 3 hours. He came into our bed at 1am last night because I was so tired and I hadn't had more than an hour in a row.

It did take a while to begin with. Sorry I can't remember exactly how long.

Interestingly we also had a reemergence of sleep troubles around 16 months.

Dd is 18 months now.

Yeah I've read other things saying there's a growth spurt around this age and poss sleep regression.

He's got a bad cough which isn't helping things, he keeps coming in with us as that's the only way he'll sleep at the mo.