Sigh...I Gina Ford-ed my DS from the word go because I was seduced by the claim that they would sleep through the night early on her routine.

I found quite a lot of her advice very helpful, particularly the feeding advice (which contrary to popular belief is not strictly scheduled...she emphasises that if you think the baby is hungry but it is not "time" for a feed you should forget that and feed the baby immediately).

But as for sleep...hahahahaha! DS did not EVER nap or sleep according to the pattern she said would emerge. Feeding...yes, he was textbook. I even contacted Gina Ford and got a personal reply with a couple of suggestions...but to no avail. And I hate to tell you this but he did not sleep through the night once until he was over 18 months old...when we moved him into a big bed (contrary to GF advice LOL). He dropped his day naps way earlier than he was "supposed" to, as well.

I was in fits over this, convinced I was doing something wrong (cried more than once over it too). Long term interrupted sleep will do this to you...especially when you think that this "shouldn't" be happening. Honestly, the best thing I ever did was accept that DS was going to wake up during the night and that was that. Mentally I was much calmer about it. But that's not what you want to hear, and not all babies are as awful as my DS is with sleeping!

If you are giving formula in the middle of the night, I have heard the theory that you gradually water down the formula until they are only getting plain water which is not really what they want so they think "oh how boring, I might as well go back to sleep." Or you could gradually cut down the amount...so that eventually you just offer the dummy again, rather than the formula?

I agree that I would not introduce a dreamfeed at this point, you want the night feeds to stop, rather than introduce a new one.

Slightly OT, but in terms of getting him to drink water, maybe try him on a very special new cup...my DS loooved getting a new cup to drink out of. The Mag-Mag by Pigeon seemed to be quite popular with DS and his little friends. (However DS is now 2yo and we have a special cup for juice, a special cup for milk, and water will only be drunk from his water bottle or a proper glass like Mum and Dad and heaven forbid you serve him the wrong beverage in the wrong cup ).