Frequent waking - cows milk allergy - what can I do

[Bunnymustgo]

My son is almost 6 months old. He was EBF until last month after I tried him with formula and he had a hive like reaction and vomited. He's now on aptimil pepti. He was a nightmare to feed. Constantly arching his back and fussing and only feeding when he was starving. He's still not great. Only having small bottles for his age. He's not on ranitidine for reflux and is a noticeably happier baby in the day but the nights seem to get worse. He sleeps for a few hours once put down awake at 7pm often waking for bottle at 10 but from midnight to 5-6am he's unsettled, windy and I resort to letting him sleep on me just so I get a few hours. I've started to try to introduce solids and after a good start he now won't let the spoon near him (not that I think solids will improve the night) I'm exhausted and feel sick with it some days. The biggest chunk of sleep I've had since September is a 3 hour block when he was weeks old. I'm worried about sleep training because of his allergies. Has anyone had the same? Is there light at the end of the tunnel? What worked for you?

He is on ranitadine. Not sure why it says not

I feel for you. Sleep deprivation is so tough. My dd was also an atrocious sleeper until we sleep trained at 7 months.
I am not the expert but I tbink reflux issues are eased with weaning so I think if you are having trouble with spoon feeding then you should try finger foods. Often the baby will take to those quite well. Try sweet potato wedges, roasted parsnips, bits of banana or other soft fruit, fingers of toast or fruit toast etc.
I found that solids made dd windy at first but with once she had got used to them and was on three meals a day I could believe that she didn't need to feed at night and could have a go at sleep training. We have had a few issues with teething to throw a spanner in the works but otherwise she is now doing amazingly well particularly considering how awful her sleep was (hourly, sometimes every 20mins wake ups) I was also a zombie so I know how it feels.
I hope things improve for you.

Thanks for your reply. Which sleep training method did you use?

Sounds very much like mine. No advice though, we're just cosleeping and hoping he improves with age. Being unsettled overnight seems typical for CMPA babies, rather unfortunate. I'm not doing any sleep training until I'm totally sure he's not in pain which will probably be years so just riding it out. Hoping weaning will help but he takes so little and just seems to make him gassy.

We used a combination of pupd and shush pat. We had a sleep consultant for advice and stopped feeding to sleep and stopped night feeds all in one go. It was quite drastic but something drastic was needed!
It does sound like you will need to ride it out a little longer, but there are things you can do when you feel ready to sleep train. Good luck!

no advice, just more sympathy from the cmpa club! Is it common with allergy babies? can i use that when im getting the 'is he not sleeping yet?' comments from the in laws? My ds isnt quite as bad, but 1-2 hourly wakings is a standard night and i do think its his tummy still not right although we're dairy free. Im using bits from no cry sleep solution as its very gentle and makes sense to me, and trying really hard to get his day sleeps in, but time will tell. hth meanwhile!

Wow bunny you could be me!

DD is 7.5 months CMPA and an appalling sleeper.

A typical night is down at 7pm up again after about an hour. Rocking etc back to sleep then up again at 10ish when I usually bring her into my bed - she will only sleep in my arms so I can only doze this goes on all night with a feed for good measure.

She's EBF we've got neocate but she totally refuses and I can't express .

Sleep deprivation is the WORST. I swing from thinking I've got PND to just think it's the lack of sleep to being ok! I've also got a very active 3 year old who I feel guilty about as mummy is so grumpy.

I don't want to sleep train until I am confident she's not in pain and don't really like the idea of cc but am on my knees so have been reading up and may give it a go if there's no improvement in a few months.

Currently I cuddle DD to sleep so just trying to break that habit. Almost got her off in the cot with a bit of patting and then 'mummmmmy' disturbed things!!!

Do you feel really jealous of friends whose babies sleep? I get the rage hearing about them when for me 2 solid hours is a miracle

Can I just ask how you all knew your babies were intolerant/allergic to dairy? Could night waking be the only symptom?

Not as far as I know needsweets check this out cowsmilkproteinallergysupport.webs.com/The%20Map%20Guidline.pdf

its from
cowsmilkproteinallergysupport.webs.com/diagnosis
which is pretty good. My ds was diagnosed at 3 weeks when we were sent to a&e with blood in his stools, green, watery, explosive poos, and painful wind but i think its more common to develop symptoms on weaning to formula or solids.

Your nights sound a lot like mine Haribo! I started co-sleeping after a few weeks of waking every hour, it does mean im not up quite so much but he wants fed more so i dont know if it really helps.. Plus i was woken up yesterday by having my hair pulled and my face batted with his funny arm movements...

Yes haribo! Big rage at the sleeping babies. Makes me want to stay in the house so I don't have to hear about everyone else's babies. Also have the PND thoughts but think it's sleep deprivation. I've got a 4 year old and feel terribly guiltily like you. She's been really good and is in reception which helps. She didn't have CMPA. Very different.

I BF DS until he was 5 months. He'd been really hard to feed. Back arching and fussing. I tried a bottle at 4 months and he got hives and vomited from tiny amount. I'd co sleep from midnight ish and he would feed hourly. Then not wanting anything all morning. Last night I didn't feed him after midnight and he had a few oz this morning. But slept on my arm and woke hourly for dummy reinsertion!!

I've been reading about training but get everything confused in my head. Once I finally got him on the bottle he also took a dummy (at 5 months) which he loves. I'm not sure if sleep training can be done with a dummy as wont the wake ups then be for the dummy??

Too tired to make a sensible plan.

My plan is no food between 12-6 am and move his cot into his own room.

Sure he will be in with me from 12 as all my good intentions go out of the window when the rest of the worlds sleeping.

I keep thinking it will get better but to be honest he's worse ... Slept more as a newborn. Yikes.