6 month old - sleep training

[hannahsall]

I’ve recently attempted to start ‘sleep training’ my 6month old after she still wakes 3-4x night and needs either a bottle or up to an hour of me walking the floor with her to get her back down.

She can self settle, and does so most mornings for her first nap, but we still get really broken sleep on a night and intervention needed from me.

ive been trying the method of letting her cry for 1,2,3,4 mins etc and going in at each interval to shush and rub her back. But she gets herself so worked up she ends up hyperventilating and there is no chance she can calm herself down. Is this normal in sleep training it feels wrong to let her be so upset. I can handle crying but not to the paint she’s hyperventilating.

help!!

Controlled crying wouldn't work on my baby either, he would get too worked up (I haven't tried it, but I know from trying to go to the loo before responding to him).

Maybe she's hungry? Night weaning isn't recommended until after 6mo for formula fed babies, and even then you need to follow your baby's lead.

It's very normal for babies to need support from their caregiver to go to sleep.

You need to widen the intervals in which you go into comfort her. Give time to self-soothe and calm down. Your presence will incite fury.

That sounds really challenging. But the hyperventilating is likely not as bad as you feel it is in the moment.

Is she being weaned?

Not sleep training but my first baby would sleep through the night, when he started waking up for extra feeds the HV recommended weaning him and he started to sleep sooooo much better again. Xx

How bad does hyperventilating need to be before you should feed or comfort your infant child? 🤔

You can't really train a baby to know to go to sleep, only to know there's no point crying because no one is coming. It's just not worth it in my view, too much hassle for both.

Okay so there's a few things here.

Firstly, you can't train sleep, and babies can't self soothe - they don't have the brain development required for that yet.

Secondly, forget all the sleep training nonsense that you've been told.

Sleep training is outdated and not evidence based. You have an individual human being that needs your help right now, sleep training is the opposite of what a baby needs. There's no evidence that sleep training benefits the child, it's purely for the adult.

Please do read up on biologically normal infant behaviour and sleep, Sarah Ockwell-Smith is great for evidence based information and gentle tips.

BASIS is also great for information and the potential costs of sleep training.

Please do try to get out of the sleep training misinformation trap.

Oh my... no... the child is clearly distressed.

What on earth is sleep training? She's 6 months old.. surely you don't expect her to sleep through the night? She will wake up for breast and comfort... l can't understand this cruel self soothing either?
It makes for anxiety in later life.
She's a baby a 6 month old that needs comfort.