Help - 13 mo demaning feed in the middle of the night

[Masalamama]

Hi there, andy advice would be greatly appreciated!

My dd has been a great sleeper. Just before she turned 1 she started waking in the middle of the night and would not sleep until she was bottle fed. Sometime up to 12-14ozs. She ate really well during the day too. We put it down to a growth spurt.

Now it's started again after she's begun going to nursery! She yells the flat down unless we give her enough milk to make her totally full up and pass out. I'm pregnant again and both DH and I are working. So we're exhausted! The HV thinks we should stop feeding her and let her go back to sleep on her own. But sometimes she's up for 1.5 hrs screaming on top of her voice. We're worried she'll wake the neighbours and desperate for some sleep.

Help! Thanks so much.

Have you tried giving her a drink of water instead? She may just be comfort feeding, if she's thirsty then she'll drink the water, if she's comfort feeding then she won't. She should be getting plenty of milk and food during the day so she should be sleeping through.

Hi there, I started giving my lo redbush tea instead of milk, which improved his daytime feeding and he is less eager to wake up for that. His night sleep is not perfect but I think the sucking helps with teething. Might you lo be getting teeth? Good luck!

It seems to be comfort feeding because she totally rejects water. After my SOS i checked and she has 3 teeth coming out at the same time. One is nearly almost out. The problem is I really don't want this to turn into a routine!

i would just give her th emilk. she'll stop eventually

have you tried giving her skim milk? i did powdered skim milk and gradually watered it down.

Ok, so the first night after reading all your comments I tried the cry it out method. She was back to sleep after 3 goes and within half an hr. Then I read on another thread that a dose of Piriton breaks the cycle so I did this and we've had three consecutive nights of sleep since. She woke up one night, but we just did the cry it out method and she was asleep in 20 mins. Basically, the teething was waking her up and then she got into a routine of needing a comfort feed. I just don't think a 13 mo needs to be drinking milk in the middle of the night and it's certainly not helping my tiredness. Until the next tooth then... thanks so much for all your comments!

Ooh, I might try that! DS still waking for milk in the middle of the night at almost 2 yrs old. It's been going on for months...

What was the idea with portion? Ds2 will be 12months next week and has been waking at either 2.30am or 4.30am for a week now and it is.exhausting.us.

It's normal for a 12 month old to suddenly have disrupted sleep. It's developmental. It doesn't last forever. It coincides with learning to walk/talk usually. They physically cannot switch back off again and need help to do so.

I just looked up the Piriton idea - you can find it mentioned in this Guardian article below:

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/besttreatments/sleep-problems-in-children-summary