How to fix 10 month old's sleep?

[1Wanda1]

DD (almost 10 months) has never "slept through" but by about 8 months, she would sleep from 7pm to around 4am, have a bottle and go back to sleep till 6.30am.

A couple of bouts of illness and everything's gone pear-shaped. She goes down fine but then wakes at 10pm, has a bottle and goes back to sleep, and then wakes around 2am, has a bottle but is then wide awake. Daytime naps are fine: 30 mins in the morning and 1.5-2hrs after lunch.

I know we need to cut the nighttime bottles, because as well as the lack of sleep, she won't each much solids in the daytime. I have awful memories of trying (and failing) to sleep train my older children, and am exhausted, so really need to start with a plan that will work quickly, before I lose the will to live.

Should we go cold turkey on all night time feeds, or is it better to keep the 10pm one? If babies have a 10pm feed, how are they supposed to understand later in the night that they can't have a feed then too? What do you do if your baby wakes in the night and is just wide awake?

Please help. I'm not thinking straight at 3am when I need a plan, but controlled crying and pick up put down methods did not work AT ALL with my older kids, so I don't know what to do.

I've got a non-sleeping 10 month old, so sympathise. We wake every sodding hour and it's hellish. I'm about to do (or at least try) the Ferber Method, as like you I need something that works quickly because we're at breaking point. I used to be quite anti sleep training, but my previous child actually slept reasonably well compared to DC2 and now I am desperate.

For reducing overnight bottles, Ferber recommends gradually diluting each feed over a period of nights (so reducing bottle concentration by a quarter each time) until you just offer water (and then the idea is they stop waking for it as no point).

I hope you can find something that works. I'm breastfeeding, so unfortunately can't lactate water to put DC off!

I would drop the 10pm feed first. Go in an give comfort (a cuddle or whatever works for her), but don't give a bottle. Some people try water. Then give a bottle in the next wakeup. When the first bottle is dropped, drop the second bottle.

It took 3 days for my son to go from having a bottle overnight to sleeping through. If he wakes and he's wide awake, I just leave him in his cot. Sometimes he lies there telling stories for an hour and a half but he goes back to sleep eventually.

Don't do anything now. Chances are your little one is in a sleep regression and won't take any change to their routine well. Give her 6 weeks and then try one change at a time to her routine to see what works and what doesn't

My child didn't sleep through until I stopped feeding him at night. It was a tough few nights but since then he slept through and just started to eat more during the day. He was 9 months at the time.

Thanks for responses. TeddyBeans, doing nothing isn't really an option, because I go back to work in a few weeks and I won't be able to do my job if I'm still sleeping in 2-3 hour chunks with 2 hours awake in the middle of the night.

I think I tried diluting bottles with my first child, who just continued to wake for them, drank them all, and peed so much that I was then having to change nappy 3 times a night as well!

Cutting the first bottle first makes more sense to me than continuing with 10pm feed so maybe we will start with that tonight.

Good luck! If you don't want to cut it all at once, you could reduce the bottle by 1oz every 3 nights until you're down to 4oz, then drop it completely then.

It was 3 nights of pain for us when we stopped giving the bottle, and then we stopped going to him altogether and he started sleeping through.

Currently sitting outside her room with her screaming after I offered water when she woke at 10.30. Have been in twice since. Three minute intervals feel like 30 minute intervals with her crying.