Help with Getting 6 Month to Sleep

We recently had the same question and most of the responses were recommending the healthy baby, healthy habits book which I read and we had a hard time with but with week and week of sleep deprivation when we both work full time finally made us give in. She is now almost six months and the one thing that has made a difference is putting her to bed early (around 6:30 to 7:00 pm) gives us peace until she wakes at 1230 for a feeding; she use to sleep at 0830 but once we moved it earlier she actually slept longer! The ceral feeding, a warm bath, and then feeding her is a routine that has worked for us...good luck!

Hi M.~
I just went thru the same thing with my 9 month old daughter. After her cold was over with, she just didn't go back to her old sleeping habits. I started actually feeding her more solids during the day to try and get her more full to keep her asleep. I wasn't successful at first, but I decided to try and feed her a bowl of infant cereal immediately before bed. This actually worked best for me. I will give her a bowl of cereal, then change her into her pj's and then nurse her and she has been doing better since then. She is still waking up, but only 1 or maybe 2 times thru the night. I'd definitely prefer the 1-2 time as opposed to the every 1-2 hours!! I didn't really try the whole cry it out thing because that isn't my style or preference, so I don't have any input on that factor.
Good luck & I'm sure it will all work out eventually!!
~J.~

The truth is, no baby "should" sleep through the night and many studies show that most don't. It could just be a growth spurt and he's hungry. Let him cry 10 minutes each time he wakes to see if he goes back down on his own, then go in and try to comfort him without food.
Check out "The Baby Whisperer" from the library, it's very helpful.

Is he still sick? If the cold is lingering, that may be a cause for night waking. Does he eat a whole bottle? It could be that he is truly hungry. I agree with the other poster. More solids during the day may help. My dd is 10 1/2 mos old and she just started sleeping through the night. She was only waking up once though, not several times. If your guy is still sick and breathing through his mouth, he may be waking up cause he's thirsty. Personally, I have a hard time with the CIO method. My dd so stubborn that CIO is really not an option for us. I let her fuss for about 5 min. If she's not asleep after that, she's not going back to sleep. Good luck and happy sleeping! :)

I would love to know how this turns out for you. My situation is similar except that my guy is 5 mos old and his problem is teething. Ugh! I feel so guilty letting him cry it out knowing he is in so much pain, so I've been letting him sleep with us...it's the only way we can all get some sleep. But this cannot last. I think I'm going to try again to let him CIO after this tooth comes in. It is awful in the meantime though.

Good luck. I know how you feel!

My son has been sleeping through the night for quite some time. What I did back then was to make a warm bowl of cereal and a bottle of formula right before bed and give him. The cereal will help to keep his little tummy full. It worked for me. Good luck and happy sleeping to you!! Shannon G

My son did not start "sleeping through the night" ie sleeping more than 6 hours, until he was around 10 months old. I think it really depends on the child. If he is still a little sick I would just continue to do what you are doing. I did not actively try to night wean my son until he was about 12 months and that was from the "longer than 6 hours" feeding. I started bringing him to bed with me when he was about 4 months after he woke up the first time...we both got alot more sleep that way. By the time he was 12 months he was just trying to play and climb on us in bed, so I used a gentle night weaning approach where I would still go get him, but I would only let him nurse for a very short time. Then if he got upset I would offer it again, but for a shorter time. After a while he learned he wasn't going to get what he wanted and just stopped waking up then altogether.