How does Controlled Crying work if you still give your baby a bottle at around 10.30pm?

[Heatherbell1978]

DS1 has just turned 6 months and has never slept through. He's a contented baby but just can't seem to sleep longer than a 4/5 hour stint at night and it's time for CC I think. He only naps for 30 mins at a time during the day so I am tired.......

He's bottle fed and I've managed to wean him off milk after his 10.30 feed. So he's down at 7pm, tends to sleep to about 10.30pm when we feed him again and then he does about 4 hours and after that the fun begins when he's awake every hour. A dream feed don't work for him as such as he always wakes so we tend to just wait until he wakes for his last bottle. But how do I incorporate that into CC? If he knows he gets milk when he wakes at 10.30, will it not confuse him when we start CC later in the night? At the moment when he wakes later, we just settle him with the dummy. It works quite quickly but he still wakes hourly. Any tips appreciated......

You only need do any sleep training methods at times when baby won't go to sleep. If he does go to sleep after then 10.30 feed then it is not needed.

Tbh it if he's just waking to have his dummy reinserted I personally wouldn't bother with CC at this stage. I dont see how it will help unless you intend to stop using the dummy. If the dummy is staying what he needs to learn is how to put it in by himself. This will happen in time but ypu may be able to help by encouraging him to hold it/insert it during the day. Then leave many scattered around his cot within easy reach or the glow in the dark ones are good!

Start watering down the bottle? Every few days add an oz less of powder and replace with water. This worked well for dd however if he's still guzzling that bottle, waking earlier for food etc then you may need to keep it unil properly weaned eg.three meals and snacks etc. Stick with your cc the rest of the night and you will probably find that he stips waking for that bottle anyway.

What would he do if you gave another feed when he woke 4hrs after his 10.30 bottle? Would he settle again instead of waking every hour? It is perfectly normal for a baby of this age to still need night time feeds.

It sounds like he's hungry!

Why not feed him when he wakes at 2.30? He might thtn sleep until 6am?

Watering down his botyke doesn't sound sensible if he is hungry

I'd still give the milk tbh. I gradually started offering less milk in the night bottle at that age rather than just cutting it out

Yes agreed, only when you are certain it's not hunger is it time to water down I think. And probably of he's only 6months he's not fully weaned yet? Could focus on the weaning for a bit and then see where you are in a month or two? Re. The sleeping though you could aim to then feed another bottle 4 hours later if he wakes for it.

Thanks everyone. We were feeding him at 4am as well up until a few weeks ago but he started refusing that bottlewhen he woke sometimes and then he wouldn't take a bottle in the morning if he did take it so we gradually reduced it to nothing. He was waking every hour regardless though so he wasn't hungry. We've had a bit of a break through in the last 5 days though. He's now settling himself when he wakes. We're still giving him a bottle at 10.30 and he's now waking once or twice after that but settling asleep again after whining for less than 5 mins. Not sure if it's to do with him eating more or what but we'll take it for now!

That sounds great and in time he will drop his 10.30 (ds is 8 mo and just starting to refuse the dreamfeed even if he gets a bit unsettled about that time. Usually a quick nappy change is enough and he goes back to sleep (. Good luck! X