My Baby won't sleep in his cot

[Jane098]

Hello, im struggling with a bit of a problem and would love some advise on. So my baby is just shy of 6 months old now and he wont sleep in his cot. His cot is close to my bed in the room that i sleep in. When he was younger he suffered from colic so i would soothe and feed him in my bed then put him in his cot but in the last few months he developed eczema and would wake up scratching and crying. I would put cream on him to stop the scratching at nights but he would still wake so i would soothe him in my bed. Well the last month now he would wake and i would bring him in the bed, soothe him then back in the cot but he will just cry non stop and i would be putting him in the bed then in the cot 10+ times in the night. But now he is at the point he wont go in the cot at all. Iv tried putting him in there when he is drowsy and soothing him butt he will just wake and cry non stop until he goes back in the bed. I have even tried putting him in there when he is fully asleep and he will just wake stright away and cry and there is no amount of soothing i can do to stop it. One night after i put him in the cot he didnt wake straight away so i went to sleep and my partner came in because he had been crying and i fell asleep through it all and my son in anger had scratched up all the top of his head and was bleeding everywhere. Lastnight i tried the ferber method and let him cry for 3 min them soothe him and walk away but after walking away for the second time he was crying that bad that he was choking and i had never heard him cry like that so i picked him up and tried to soothe him but even though he was out of the cot and in my bed now it took him an hour to stop crying and hiccuping. I just dont know what to do. He wont even lie there for one minute without screaming the house down and there is no amount of soothing i can do to stop him. I have tried night lights, putting things in his cot and even feeding him in his cot. I dont know what else to do but i cant have him in the bed with me as im a active sleeper and it scares me. I end up getting no sleep while he is in my bed. Any suggestions or help will be greatly appreciated.

If youve just tried snd given up on controlled crying, don't do anything for a few days. Give yourself and him a breather and allow your own emotions to reset before moving on. Nothing good will come from a place of guilt, so get over that first.

That said- what about just accepting planned cosleeping and making it work for you both?

A gentle way to work towards cot settling is using a sidecar cot. This is a normal cot with one side removed (easily done with an allen key)

Sidecar cot

Thank you for your reply. I thought of co sleeping but i dont trust myself, i sleep walk etc and that scares me. I didnt think of taking the side off the cot, that's a good idea. Is there a risk that he will fall between my matress and his?

I would wedge the bed and cot together. So either pushed against a wall (like in the photo) or tie the legs of the cot onto the casters of the bed.

Also, if you look closely at the image, you'll see what looks like a rolled up towel at the edge of the mattress nearest the wall. This is to push the cot mattress towards your adult matress, filling the gap between the two. A pool noodle works in a similar way.