7 month old feeding 2 hourly at night- help please!

[KatieRabbit]

My DS has gone 7 months and feeds to sleep day and night. Daytime he has 3 feeds, 2 to 3 sleeps and 2 small solids meals. Come night time, he wakes every 2 hours most nights, ocassionally 3 hrs and has done a 4 and 5 hour sleep. I feed him back to sleep but I end up very tired even when co-sleeping. I am at a loss as to what to do- I know he is not hungry, I am just his back to sleep helper. I wouldn't mind if it was a couple of times a night but not every 2 hrs. I am going insane with tiredness and a very active 2.5 yr old. I have even tried formula to see what he would drink, but he still kept waking,. Any ideas besides cosleeping? I have rang a parenting helpline who were okayish but no real suggestions that I would go with! DS also needs the longer sleeps as well as me! Would love some advice!

[Kmn]

Can you encourage a cluster of feeds in the early evening? Like 1.5, 1,and 0.5 hours before bed?
Also try feeding "almost to sleep" - where you detach him when he's still a bit awake and just try and rub and cuddle the rest of the way.

If you want him to learn how to go to sleep without feeding then try it with day sleeps first - it's easier to be ruthless and refuse a grumpy baby (that you know is fed) when you are not desperately wanting to go back to sleep yourself!

good luck!

[shazzi]

I have had similar frustrations with my almost 11 month old. We have always fed to sleep too. I think Kmn's suggestion of trying to get DS to sleep during the day is good without the boob, but I never get around to it..

For the last few months my DD has been wanting to feed overnight every 2-3 hours. Rarely do I get a 4 hour gap anymore. I am going to buy No Cry Sleep Solution but decided to try something in the meantime. For the last two nights I have not fed her if she wakes before 3 hours. We co-sleep so I just hold her and pat her and talk softly. She has cried, but more of a whinge cry and been thrashing around. But I noticed that it was not a real cry or a hungry cry and three times now over the last two nights I have been able to get her back to sleep without a feed within 20 minutes. I am hoping that it will translate into her waking less after we do it a few more nights. So last night she down at 8pm with a feed, woke and patted down at 10pm, woke and fed at 1.15am, woke and patted down again at 3am, then up at 5.30am for a feed. She then slept until 8am. Fantastic for me and so will keep trying that at night. It took me a while to get the confidence to just pat and cuddle, I thought I was so awful to let her cry, but she is responding well and if it became a big distressed cry I will immediately feed her.

Hope others have some more idea's for you too and you get more sleep soon.

[Jennifer13]

Hun, this sounds like a settling issue, rather than a feeding one. Some of the other mums here swear by No Cry Sleep Solutions, by Elizabeth Pantley, or another book by Dr Jay Gordon (can't remember the name). Perhaps try posting in Comforted Sleeping - No-Cry Sleep Solutions for some tips!

[MamaPan]

This was exactly what DS2 was doing - he will be 1 next week.
I hacve just cut all night feeding (gradually) - so he now has afeed if he wakes around 5am but thats it. it immediately helped his sleep - we do cuddles (DH notme as he dives down my top if i pick him up), patting, holding hand etc to sleep...
it has worked here - I wont say it was easy and he still wakes a few times in the night but he does longer stratches overall...

[onthefly]

Is he teething or unwell at all?
The only other thing that springs to mind is trying to get more milk into him during the day - 3 feeds doesn't seem like much at 7 months, but I guess they're all different.
In our case it was a mixture of settling (when teething or unwell or otherwise out of sorts) and hunger. DS was 18 months before he could go all night without eating anything, but it was just one feed if he wasn't sick or teething.