Inconsolable baby

[StClairStreet]

My baby is nearly 6 months old. Hasn’t really been a good sleeper since the 4 month sleep regression - but we are particularly struggling now.

He goes down at around 6 - 6:30. He feeds to sleep. I can’t get him to sleep any other way. He used to sleep through til around 4am, but lately he has been waking at 9 or 10pm and is utterly inconsolable - I mean screaming til he’s sick, hacking sobs, absolute distress.

If I feed him he will be calm while he is on the boob but the second he is unlatched he is instantly in total distress again. No amount of cuddling, rocking, soothing, patting, shushing etc comforts him.

Eventually I can get him back to sleep by feeding and if I sit with him in my lap for long enough he is deeply asleep enough for me to put him back in the cot. But it takes a long time, and it’s not really sustainable.

Is there anything I can do to help him stay asleep? Or to help him settle when he wakes? Up until a few weeks ago he would sometimes wake, but would resettle within a few seconds if you gave him a finger to suck or cuddled him. This absolute distress is new, and I don’t know how to fix it.

If it's new and sudden, it's probably something pain related. Maybe teeth cutting. Could be ear ache or sore throat.

Not much you can do aside from good levels of pain medication and loads of TLC until it passes. Cosleeping may make your life easier.

Thank you for the reply it could be teeth - I can’t feel any coming through but he’s chewing and drooling a lot. Poor scrap

Try a dummy?

I have tried dummies but he really won’t take them. He spits them out right away (I’ve tried a few). I keep persevering in the hope that he will get the hang of them because I think they would help him enormously, but so far no dice.