Sorry in advance for the long post.
My Dd is 17 months, and for the first time we are trying the controlled crying sleep method. As a bit of background, my DD was diagnosed with a milk intolerance from
very young (I wasn't able to breastfeed as I lost too much blood in childbirth), so has always been an erratic, unsettled sleeper. She has become used to a comfort bottle during the night.
Alongside this, I went back to work part-time when she was six months old, so for a couple of days a week she goes to nursery. This means for the last year she has been constantly ill with something she has picked up at the nursery - colds, bugs, conjunctivitis, etc. Again, this has meant unsettled sleep at night.
We have now completed the milk ladder, so she can have cow milk products. She seems to be migrating from two naps per day to one, and she's not ill currently, so me and DH thought we would try the controlled crying method (going in to soothe her every five mins until she is asleep).
We have only been doing this for the last few nights, but it is shocking! Last night my DD howled for almost four hours straight, and each time we went in she got more and more hysterical! In the end we gave her a couple of oz of milk which seemed to calm her a little, but she had worked herself up so much I think she found it difficult to sleep. I'd love to remove the bottle altogether at night, but doing the sleep training and removing the bottle seems too much all at once.
I'm worried she's getting so worked up. Is it worth persevering with controlled crying, or is it better to try something else? Any ideas would be very much appreciated as we're getting desperate 