Why is six month old suddenly unable to self settle?

[thecatwiththesilveryfur]

DS has always been a good sleeper at night, sleeping through from about 12 weeks. But as soon as he hit six months, he started waking for a feed in the night, and is now waking to cry every hour and a half. It seems like classic unable to self settle, but why now, when he's always been able to before?

Help! What do we do?

6 months old can't self settle. Whatever was going on before was just luck. Your baby will go through many iterations of a sleep pattern over the next few years. Each is just a phase. Soothe your baby when he needs you and remember it won't last forever.

Agree with pp. You're getting a nasty shock now but really you've just been incredibly lucky til now!

Also have you started weaning? Probably hungry, because milk is more nutrient dense than other foods. Especially if on a growth spurt additional milk feeds will be required as all the weaning foods do is fill the tummy without much calorie/nutrient content. Tummy full in day so the extra feed is needed at night.

My DS woke 2x for night feeds at that age so you're still lucky

He's been awake since 2.30 and won't stop crying 😭 is there really nothing I can do to improve his sleep at this age?

I completely disagree with previous posters. Six month olds are well able to self settle.
If this is sudden then I would go to the GP today and check for any ear or throat infection

It's been progressively getting worse for about two weeks. Last night was really bad - he only managed about four hours in total - but he's definitely been regressing for a while.

Aaaaaand I've just managed to spill his breakfast all over the chair. Any and all other advice welcomed before I end up putting him in the fridge or the dog basket in my sleep deprived state!

And thank you so much Mesacasa, Preggosaurus and Geneva - all thoughts much appreciated!

There’s a well known 6 month sleep regression. Probably that. Download wonder weeks app.

Is he teething? Do painkillers help at all? What's he like in the daytime?

If he's suddenly very distressed I'd probably see if the gp could check his ears/throat just in case.

I also agree that at 6 months a baby is able to self settle. My DS learned to self settle at 6 months and still does occasionally but teething and illness prevents him from doing so. Is he showing signs of teething? What’s his mood like in the day? I had to co sleep with DS when he started teething at 5 months because he was inconsolable. The only thing that helped was calpol or ibuprofen.