7 month old - waking in night

[dangalf]

Was wondering if anyone could help - our 7 month old boy has never been a good sleeper. We can get him down ok at about 7/7.30 but he has always been prone to waking about 2 in the morning and then sometimes waking a few more times after that. At the moment we are feeding him at 2ish if he wakes as this soothes him and keeps him down for longer generally. However, I think this is now just a comfort thing rather than hunger - how can we get him off this without having to deal with too much crying or continued wakefulness thereafter? Any ideas? He takes a dummy during the day sometimes for soothing so would not be averse to using this if that is a good idea...

My son is 7 months also and in the last few weeks gas gone from sleeping 6.30-6.30 and now wakes at 4.30 then again at 5.30. I get straight up pop his dummy back in and give him his little teddy, kiss him on the forehead and say sleep time night night. It's working mostly in that he goes pretty much straight back to sleep both times. I'm hoping he'll realise there's no real interaction and give up. I do get a big grin each time for my efforts though. :-)

If you think it's a comfort thing then you can start off just offering water instead of milk and then slowly try to wean off that. However will probably require some form of controlled crying. I was never up for long periods of this but no did find that to pass milestones I had to go through a few nights of leaving for 10 minutes of crying before going in. Often my DD would go back to sleep on that time bit once I'd gone in then it would always take much longer. However he might be hungry particularly if having a growth spirt. The best way to tell is by whether or not he still guzzles his morning milk. If he's not that interested then he probably didn't need the night feed. Have you tried a dream feed before you go to bed? I have to say it didn't work for me after my daughter hit 3 months but I know does for others. Good luck, unfortunately I found that as soon as I found a solution for one thing, another thing just popped up!

Following this. I could of written this thread. My 7 month old dd is exactly the same. Goes down fine at 7 but can wake anything up to 5 times a night I feed on one wake up around 1ish but only because it's an easy option to calm her. I'd love to stop that bottle but know I'd have a whole night of her crying so it's catch 22 at moment I go for easy option. No advice but you're not alone. :-)