Night time sleep

[user1490473720]

Hi

We have a 7 month old that has never been a great sleeper, however lately it has got worse...
He goes to bed generally about 7.30pm and has a 7oz bottle, he tends to go down ok but then wakes through the night crying, the problem is he gets himself into such a state, that we have tried the controlled crying but he will happily cry and scream for hours!! he tends to then have a feed about 12 and then about 4am, which I really don't think he needs both?

I don't find my health visitor at all helpful, as first time parents we really don't know whether we should just leave him crying, whether we should be doing two feeds, whether we should persist with the controlled crying but if so at what point do we feed him.?

We really are both exhausted and contemplating getting in an expert.

Please help
x

[FATEdestiny]

Firstly, you write like this is a black and white choice - feeding in the night or controlled crying. There are tons and tons of other things you could do.

7 months is not far into weaning. Remember than early weaning foods are low calorie (fruit, veg) and baby needs calories. For this reason it is important to maintain milk feeds and give solids in addition to all the normal milk feeds, not in replacement of the milk feeds.

So, how much milk is baby having over 24h, how much of this at night? How many bottles and how big are the bottles?

How is weaning going, does baby eat well?

How does baby go to bed at bedtime, does he use a dummy or rocked to sleep? How does he go to sleep at naptime in the day?

How much daytime sleep is he getting?