what IS the best sleep "fixer" in your opinion.

[4babiesandamum]

i have read about them all now. since my 11 month old still wakens up at least 9 times a night he just takes a few sucks of his bottle and goes off to sleep again. but is a light sleeper and wont sleep longer than 1 hour at a time. im loosung the plot im so tired. which solutions have u guys found most successful?
thanks

My son was exactly the same for the first few months, I put him on a thicker milk to fill him up more at bedtime and I have to swaddle him still at 18 months old or he won't settle! Also he is a very light sleeper now and it has to be dark in his room, I found that if he woke up and winged when I knew he was fed and safe, he would drop back off to sleep within 5minutes on his own

Dummy? I hate the blasted things, but they work.

Have you tried water in a bottle or a dummy?

Depends

I cut out dairy/soya which helped dd.

Early bedtimes and better naps plus pitch black room and white noise helped ds.

For us it's good naps. Early nights and making sure she eats well ALL day. That and luck I think.

Key for good nights wuth us was 1) teaching ds to be an independent sleeper & 2) good daytime routine - the more he naps in the day the better he sleeps at n

Hit post too soon! Meant to say
the better he sleeps at night.

Time.

Sorry, but nothing has made much difference apart from DS just getting older (he is 2.5 now) and improving little by little.

There was a dramatic improvement at about 16mo, then it has just got better. Now at 2.6, he still won't sleep through most nights but does occasionally. And I can see that one day he will, even if not now.

(Of course now the bugger won't go to bed. I am standing outside his door waiting to switch the light off. DH is currently being swindled into a seventh book. We may not be the hardcore sleep training types....)

He is 2.6 by the way, not 2.5. Not that it matters really. Just made look like I didn't know the age of my child. Oops.

Consistency and luck. Dd was a nightmare sleeper, she first slept through the night at 3. Ds2 has slept through regularly since 6 mths.
It will get better

DD 14M was up 10 times a night untill 11M . We got a web cam. Now she is up once or twice. We watch her when she disturbs and decide whether to go in. It has taught us not to go rushing in when she makes a noise because we can see her trying to self settle.

Baby whisperer technique. And according to the book she's never found a baby whose sleep wasn't vastly improved by the pick up put down technique. But...you do have to be very consistent, both initially and for the following months. Dd is a great sleeper- she was waking every 40mins before doing this, started sleeping through within a.week or so and several years down the line is a very solid sleeper.