11 mo crying for hours!

[WindFlower92]

Need help please as I'm not sure we're tackling this the right way. 11 month old DD is generally a good sleeper, but has been fed to sleep at night. We changed this a couple of weeks ago - one big feed before bed and then no more milk until morning. Generally, for a couple of weeks she slept through the night. The last week, however, she's started waking as soon as I put her down, and won't sleep for 2/3 hours. We take it in turns to go in to her and calm her, but it generally takes that long for her to wear herself out. She stands herself up at first, then sits down when a bit more tired, then will lie down while we stroke/pat her, but even this phase takes ages! Should we carry on doing this at intervals, or is there something else we could try? I thought it would be a couple of days of this and then she'd learn, not a week Are we doing something wrong?

I should say, she's in a sleeping bag, and I don't think she's teething at the moment, although it feels like that's always a possibility!

It will make you feel like a horrible horrible person but walking away and leaving her cry till she falls asleep is probably your answer. At the moment you are rewarding her with pats and cuddles.

It's about 10 years since I went through this but I still remember how horrible it was.

Who decided on no more milk? It sounds like she is hungry. She is a baby who needs milk during the night. Feed your baby.

@TheSandman I'm honestly so worried about her just crying all night

@Selfsettling3 I decided on it on a night when she woke up 5 times in a row and I fed her back to sleep each time. If she was hungry surely she wouldn't sleep through once actually asleep? Currently she sleeps from about 1am to 8am.

I'm happy to feed her if it's what she needs, I just don't know if she NEEDS it or just wants comfort.

Does she have supper? All mine had a weetabix and a full bottle or bf. Not a fool proof guide to good sleeping but worth a try..
Ds 9 months slept 7-7 on the above method...

She has dinner just before bed, but will see if we can make it's extra filling!

Babies don’t feed the amount of times each night. It’s is very feasible that a baby under 1 needs milk during the night.

I found when you get to 12 months and you can start adding in day time snacks that the night feeds reduce.

My DS 13 months has started 'supper' which has helped massively... He has Porridge about 6.30pm then his bedtime bottle at 7.30pm. He still wakes once or twice a night usually 1am ish then 5.30am (which when I'm at work can be classed as morning)

My twins were the same around 15 months (delayed) - we added more food during the day, a simple but filling meal about 30 minutes before bedtime - finally a bottle in their room and then put down, sing lullaby and say good night.

DH had to stop me going back to them as soon as I heard any kind of noise - instead we go with wait - if inconsolable crying is heard we give it three minutes maximum, then back in, quick cuddle but don’t move away from their cots, pop back in bed and song again. Leave room.

Repeat after that 3 minutes if inconsolable still, remove song after second attempt and just soothe in bed and leave the room.

If your DD is hitting a developmental milestone this can also impact on sleep behaviour. When my DD was going through her most recent one she became insanely clingy at night time. Also, your DD might be more aware of being alone now, possibly finding darkness a bit scary to deal with - so a timed nightlight could help improve things?

Good luck OP, it’s like having a Rubik’s Cube with half the stickers pulled off when trying to figure out sleep ‘regressions’/issues 😊