Controlled crying for night feeds 18 month old

[Belle82]

Hi All,

Please be gentle I know a lot of people don't agree with controlled crying.

Unfortunately due to my epilepsy we had to try it a while ago and it helped my little girl slept through, but a few months ago she was unwell and every time she woke in the night I gave her a bottle of milk, so I've caused a learned hunger/habit wake.

She wakes once for milk in the night (used to be twice) so I've been getting about 2-4 hours of sleep at a time for months.
The odd nights she does sleep through, very rarely, she's a much happier and contented baby so it does her the world of good too.

I've tried reducing the amount of milk but that doesn't seem to help. So I'm wondering if there's any experience out there from anyone who has used controlled crying to see if it would work to get my little girl to stop this night feed?

As we've experienced every sleep regression I'm just hoping to get a few nights of full sleep before we hit the 2 year sleep regression.

Thank you so much.

Have you tried swapping milk for water?

Yep she knows instantly what I've done then proceeds to have a full blown tantrum

Anyone

If it's just the one wake why are you only getting 2-4 hours sleep at a time? Can you go to bed earlier so the wake is less disruptive?

Do you have a partner who can resettle her for the waking if she associates you with the feed? What happens if you don't go to her at all when she wakes?

This exact thing is happening in our house. It's frustrating. I know he doesn't need the milk. I also know that the milk doesn't get him back to sleep. He never goes to sleep with milk, he does with the dummy. I'm not sure what to do either. Seriously considering leaving him to cry for a bit whilst my eldest is on summer holidays. My eldest (8yo) does wake if ds cries. I hate hearing him cry though. Not tried it before.....but he stays awake for up to 2 hours just messing about. Which is very frustrating.