6-9month old just doesn’t sleep!

[Nosleepmama]

Morning,

I am hoping I can get some advice or something to try and help our worsening lack of sleep before going to the drs or seeking professional help!

Our DS2 was sleeping relatively well up to around 6 months old and it’s just got worse and worse!

Obviously lots of change for the little man, he started teething, weening and a bout of colds/chest infections to deal with but at around 8 months he’d almost grown out of the next to me and we tried to get him in his own bed as the sleep wasn’t great, it could only get better right?

We have a steady bedtime routine and has been consistent as we found with DS1 it really helped.

So around 6/6.30 bath time
7.00pm Last Feed/Story
7.30pm Sleep

He generally goes down fine , will cry the odd time for a lost dummy and goes back to sleep fine in his cot.

But as soon as we come up to sleep or around 10p he wakes and that’s the end of sleep for majority of the night.

No amount of settling works, as soon I put him down he starts screaming and will only sleep on me. Which isn’t practical or safe!

He has CMPA so we’ve been extra careful with weaning but he is still quite gassy at night.

Our drs are fairly useless so if I go and say he’s not sleeping they’ll likely say he’s just a baby!

Hes usually ok during the day but has been a bit unsettled over the weekend and is over tired but also struggling to nap 😢

We just really need some sleep!!

Tia x

Hello!

it’s so hard and its a notorious age, im in the thick of it for the second time!

do you think he might have reflux as well as CMPA? that could be the reason he’s upset on his back? my LO has reflux and we’ve just gone dairy free, and the reflux nights are the worst. might be worth exploring some meds for that potentially?

i have done away with the dummy and ive seen a dramatic improvement in day time and night time sleep.

is he in your room? If he wants closeness, might be worth moving him back in for a bit. If youre waking him coming up, could be worth trying to move into own room if youre comfortable to do so.

sending love - it absolutely sucks xxx

Hi,
Thank you so much, it really does make you feel awful doesn’t it! But thank you for making us realise it’s not just us!

I have been reading and reading about sleep cycles and that would seem to make sense as it’s 3/4hrs from him first going down in his own room/bed.

In the past on bad nights he’s ended up back in his next to me, but last night he wouldn’t even settle in there. I may give it a go tonight to see if he’s any better.

I may have a look into reflux as I did suspect it when he was tiny and we were at the beginning of trialling milks but didn’t think it could come on again as it seemed to get a lot better on Amino acid milk :)

How did you get on with reflux, were there any medications you found worked better? X

It’s horrible- my first was such a happy baby, but she woke every 20-40 mins at 7 months at it honestly nearly broke me! But she did one day just sleep, it does get better, hang in there!

we didnt have any luck with gaviscon, but omeprazole works a dream. With weaning, im basically only giving a heavy carb (pitta bread/brown over cooked pasta) and plain chicken, and broccoli for dinner because i know he can tolerate it. We have stopped all watery and acidic food, and paused on offering water as he still has basically full milk feeds. Thats helped at night time too. Something as simple as changing his dinner might help too?

i suspect you have separation anxiety which is prime at this age, and potentially some reflux if you have suspected it before. Xxx

Mine slept 20 min bursts until found CMPA, then went to hours max. Usually reflux symptoms. Discovered had other allergies and once found them out sleep got a lot better. The reflux was a symptom, got to find the cause.

Oh bless you, that does sound pretty much how he was a few weeks ago! I think I could have gotten up every 20/30 minutes so I can definitely relate? Now we don’t sleep at all lol!
I do hope it passes very soon, I feel like it’s been a 3 month regression at this point!

My oldest had undiagnosed CMPA (Covid times and 1st time mum so wasn’t taken seriously) but we muddled along with oat milk as he was 8/9 months before the prescribed Nutrimgen to try as he just wasn’t putting on weight! I don’t remember any of these bad nights 😩

Thank you, I have read on the CMPA pages about both so I may ask the drs tomorrow if we can give it a try.

Im glad that seems to be helping your little one, we do give him all the veggies and fruit so it could be too much? I’ll try and reduce it to see if it helps! We have asked for testing but the dietitian wasn’t so keen.

Tonight we’ve put him down in his next to me so we shall see how we go! Xx

Thank you, this makes sense as a lot of allergies are linked! We have asked the dietitian for testing but they didn’t seem too forthcoming! Which would help rule out other foods to avoid x

They won't, I begged them to do a wider test and they would only do tests to confirm things that had elicited a reaction because there are lots of false positives.

We found ours when baby ate more than usual in a slightly more raw form and suddenly hives everywhere. Baby was reacting to it before, just couldn't communicate the discomfort. We decided against re-introducing any of allergies with trials for that reason, we want to wait until baby can tell us 'mouth hurt' etc rather than waiting for an obvious reaction like hives.

I hate how we have to fight so much to get anywhere in this country! I may keep pushing for it but will likely go private for the testing when he’s a little older.

Bless them, I’m glad you know what seemed to be causing and what works sort of for you, I know it’s far from ideal!

we did manage to get some gaviscon prescribed so we have a trial to see how we get on!