7 month old wakes up every 2 hours at night!

[Amee]

My 7 month old daughter has never been one for sleeping at night, but recently she has been waking up every two hours (she used to wake up 3 times a night). I have put this down to two things: 1) She has not taken to solids and is still on breastmilk (this is a problem which I have put to the "food" discussion forum) and 2) she is going through the teething stage. The only way I can settle her back down to sleep again is by feeding her, which I now goes against every text book around, but I have tried the "controlled crying" method but my daughter just cries until she vomits and that's even more work for me, especially at 3 am! Will this constant feeding every 2 hours really give her a bad habit in months to come? I don't know what else to do.

FlorenceUK I am in a big rush but my initial thought was - he is not eating enough during the day.
I would not do CC at all at this stage - Personal opinion.
I'll write more tomorrow.

Thanks for the replies. My problem with DS is that he seems to only feed well if we are lying down - during the day this is not always possible, and he then feeds very poorly. If we feed sitting up, he sometimes pulls off and screams as if in pain - we've been numerous times to the doctor's for this but they think it is just something he will grow out of. Or else he just keeps pulling off and looking around - obviously very distracted. Not a letdown problem as sometimes he pulls off only to get his face sprayed with milk. My HV thinks he is "trying it on" and if I fed him less at night he would take more during the day (she also told me that maybe the reason he pulled off was because he didn't like my breastmilk and I should try a bottle). I've been reluctant to wean partly because I think he might just take even less milk - but maybe we should step up the pace a bit. Happily, he seems to have dropped the 1am waking this last week - only the 3am, 5am, and 6.30am ones to go....

florenceuk: I agree with the others - I think he's hungry. All 5 month old babies stare around when feeding in a distracting place - mine is definately a 'nosey' feeder. It means that if I want to get him to feed well I feed him alone, or as quietly as possible. If it's not possible I just try and make up what he's missed at the next feed. Also - I don't think milk and solids necessarily relate. My ds is also 5 mnths, although not bf now. Whatever milk he takes he seems to have a new attitude to solids - remember it's the texture and process of feeding that interests them as well as the hunger!I would recommend getting him onto a baby rice and pear meal at around bedtime, mixed with bf if you want. The pulling off thing could be teething? Or maybe you have less milk at certain times of day and he's not getting it quickly, easily enough? Could it be frustration, not pain? Not being an experienced bfer I'll leave this bit to someone else. Good luck