5 month old erratic sleep

[user1485365454]

Hi everyone, hoping for a little advice. My LOs naps and night time sleep have never been great but seem to have gotten worse. At night, he's often in bed for 7 but wakes at 10/12/3/5/6!!! Sometimes will go down with dummy and cuddle, other times needs a feed. The past few nights though when he wakes a 3 he then stays awake for hours! Quite happy for a while then upset because he's tired. There have been a few changes; new milk due to cows milk allergy and I've also been putting him down for naps in his cot when in the house. Do you think this may have confused him and that's why he's awake in the early hours? Any insight would be lovely. Thanks!

How much daytime sleep is baby getting? What does his routine look like?

How long has he been on a dairy free formula? It can take a couple of weeks for dairy to fully leave their system. If it has been a couple of weeks and he's still not settled I'd maybe ask gp for a more hydrolysed formula like nutramigen pure amino. Also, have you ever considered he may have reflux/silent reflux? That can make a baby very unsettled and disrupt their sleep. With DD2 it wasn't until she was given the pure amino and decent meds, omeprazole, that she settled and started sleeping for more than an hour or so at a time. She also has a soya intolerance so needed a more hypoallergenic formula.

He wakes up normally between 6 and 7 then has a nap 2 hours after. It usually only lasts half an hour. Then he has lunch time nap which can be between 1 and 2 and a half hours. I then take him for a walk in the evening for a catnap before bed at 7. His first and last naps are out and about and I try and do his lunch one in his cot. He will be in childcare soon so can't have every nap in his cot due to school runs etc x

He's been on nutramigen for about a week. We do have some infant Gaviscon so could try that in his bottles. Its really hard to get him to drink more than 5 ounces at each feed in the day so he is genuinely hungry at night on some wakings x

His naps and routine sound good. So I suspect the main issue will be around CMPA and feeding. It might be worth posting a thread in infant feeding mentioning CMPA in the title, it will get the attention of those with more experience who may be better placed to advise.