I have a 6 month old that is a bad sleeper. Any tips on controlled crying or crying it out??

Question

I have tryed it before but she was still crying after an hour. Of course I was going in to comfort her with out talking to her. I have a set night time routine but doesnt seem to work. HELP

Answer 1

You're going to get people telling you you should never leave your child to cry blah blah blah. With my eldest I did the controlled crying, key word, CONTROLLED, to all you who will give me a thumbs down!!! It worked a treat, after a week she was sleeping like a log from 7pm til 6am. When she wakes don't go rushing in, wait about 30seconds & then go in, give her water, lie her back down & leave the room. That is all it consists of, keep doing that until she is asleep. Then the next night do it again & keep doing it until she is sleeping right through!

You need to be sure that it is just disturbed sleep, give her a snack before bed & check that her nappy is not too full when she wakes, if it is maybe you could think about cutting back on her fluids before bedtime.

Answer 2

From a fathers point of view I will answer this because I have a nine months old that had the same problem until I got on the case and studied for hours until I got to a conclusion : Mommy was not feeding the baby on time and to her fullest, (same thing happened before to my first son), by 6pm time your baby must be hungry feed him right in that point tummy full : Baby happy as he is six he can have cereal food so go with that at that time, then baby will ask you for food at around 9 or 10 pm fill up the bottle, turn off the lights in her room turn on the a lullaby CD and start feeding him with the bottle all calmed at that time everybody in the house must sush this is the moment when Baby needs to be calmed and in mommys arms baby will fall asleep, put baby on the crib after finishing the bottle ( the reason why I tell you to fill up the bottle is because is hard to know if your baby will be full with the typical 6 oz go 8 Oz if the baby dont want more he will avoid drinking more that he can handle).
Well this will help you but all babies are different and once you have a child you never sleep the same as you used to, so may be you got to just get use to this, welcome to parenting.
GBY

Answer 3

The reason that controlled crying or cry it out works for some people is because the baby's body shuts down. After crying for an hour, two hours, three hours, the baby thinks it has been abandoned. The more he/she cries the more the body wears down, so when the baby thinks he/she has been abandoned, the body needs to preserve energy for survival. It is NOT that baby has learned to fall asleep on their own. So after a few nights, the baby doesn't cry because it knows it will be abandoned until the morning. If baby gets sick then he/she is going to fall into the same routines hense the reason for those people to do CIO again.

Baby will learn to fall asleep when he/she is ready. My oldest son learned to fall asleep on his own just before he was 2. My youngest son is 15 months old and I still rock him to sleep.

Answer 4

My son is 7 months old and I have the same problem. My son before was sleeping through the night and then about 2 months ago, just stopped after he had gotten sick. So for the past two months this went on with him crying and not falling asleep unless rocked in my arms and sung to, but finally this last week i tried it, i tried letting him cry and guess what it didnt work, so the next night i tried just going in and out in and out rubbing his back each time but not taking him from the crib, until the 3rd time when again it didnt work. So the third night i tried something different, i put son in his crib right at the first sign of him being tired, he fell asleep on his own after playing a bit in his crib, then when he woke up the first time in the night i gave him water, he didnt want it so i ended up rocking him back to sleep. the next night was different, he ended up only waking up once at 4:30 am and he didnt want a bottle, all i had to do was rub his back for 2 minutes and he was out again. The next night the same thing again and now he is back to sleeping through the night. I guess what I am trying to say is keep trying different things each night, and once your baby finds the comfort in one of these ideas she will use it to sleep peacfully. so try different things each night, try water in a bottle, catching her right at the first sign of her being tired, rubbing her back, going in and out, even try sitting beside her crib where she can feel your presence. Try everything, sooner or later something is bound to work babies are all just trial and error. Hope this helps a little.

Answer 5

i think of you need to look at her snoozing varieties as an entire. At 6 months, slumbering each 2 hours is incredibly severe. At 6 months my son grow to be waking at 8, slumbering at 11 and lower back at 3 and mattress at 7. She needs a recurring to appreciate what to assume and whats coming next. I many times do no longer enable him cry it out yet while there's a time i understand I even have met his needs all different procedures and that i can SEE he's drained then I bypass away him for somewhat, making particular he's getting of to sleep interior the technique! forget approximately on the subject of the fool who mentioned she would have downs, thats a daft suggestion, it may be clinically determined nicely earlier 6 months of age!

Answer 6

I got into the habit of putting my baby to bed awake, but drowsy every night. I bought her the Fisher Price Aquarium to put in her crib. And I gave her a very soft white bunny, made by Ty (not a beanie baby, but similar). As long as she has bunny, she is okay to go into her crib by herself. I had a few rough patches along the way too......there were still some nights where she just did not want to go to bed. But we worked it out.
Each night I carry her into her room. We stand next to her crib and we talk about our day...what we did today and what we are going to do tomorrow. I turn on her aquarium (lights and music only, no swimming fish) and hand her bunny. she actually leans into the crib. I talk to her for a minute or 2 and then leave here there.
I REFUSE to let my daughter cry it out though......I feel that is horrible and makes her feel as though she is scared and alone. If she fusses, I let her go. But if she cries, I go back to her. I talk to her, pat her back, make sure she still has bunny. but I do NOT pick her up.
Every once in while (twice actually) we have had really bad nights were she was screaming uncontrollably. Nightmares, maybe. Those nights I did pick her up. We sat and rocked until she was quiet, but still awake. Then we started bedtime over again with her and bunny going back into the crib awake.

Bunny has really been my saving grace. She clutches him when she is sleeping. And she buries her face in him when she goes to bed. That is what really helped me out......she has a "sleeping buddy" and does not feel alone. I have been putting her to sleep with bunny every night since she was about 5 months old. And I take no chances........I bought 5. We are cycling through 3 of them right now (one in the wash, one in the crib, one spare) and I have 2 more. just in case..........
good luck.......

Answer 7

My baby is 8 months old and she preferred sleeping in my bed. I've read many books, some advice was allowing the baby to cry it out or "ignoring the baby." Personally I say your baby is in a new world, this life is not what she is use to, ignoring her could give her the feeling of neglect. Psychologist Fraud would say "Trust Vrs. Mis-trust. With my baby I bath her, feed her well, had "baby and me time with her" and sanged to her until she was relaxed and comforted. Then I would lay her down. Sometimes she would sleep but when she did not I would pat her (not picking her up) letting her know I love you but you have to sleep in your own bed. Hope I helped. Good Luck

Answer 8

My son was a horrible sleeper. At 13 months he's still not the sleep champion of the country, but at least he usually sleeps through the night, and goes to sleep without a fuss. Finally. I finally got it figured out between 9 and 10 months.

Your baby just might not be ready to sleep. Just a thought.

Another thought is earlier bedtime, and 'push' naps. Baby yawns? NAPTIME! Eye rub? naptime! When a baby that age has trouble sleeping, imo it's often being too tired, or habit that needs breaking. At least that's what it was in my son's case.

I'm not sure if you mean your baby won't go to sleep on her own, or won't STAY asleep, waking up at night. But I'll go with not going to sleep.

What worked for me was not CIO per se. I let him cry, but I'm there. I pat-pat-pat his back (I gave up on back-to-sleep stuff when he started rolling over at night) and shhhhh him. Once or twice I would pick him up if he just got too frantic, but right away, back down he went. More pat-pat-pat and shhhhhhing. His room was totally dark, and I keep a fan or air filter going all night for white noise. Eventually he'd calm down and go to sleep. That's stage one.

Stage two is to start varying the patpatpating. pat ... patpat ... pat pat ... pat ... get her off depending on the pat. Slow it right down as she drifts off.

Now, he'll still fuss a bit sometimes, and he needs me to stay in the room and in sight for a few minutes. But it's no longer the scream-fest struggle with me bawling that it used to be.

I should also note, that sometimes it didn't, and still doesn't work. In those cases I kiss him, tell him (over screams) that i love him and I'll see him in the morning ... and I walk out. And cry. And like a previous poster said, I have a glass or two of wine. She had good advice.

Answer 9

My little one was in the exact same sitution until only a couple of weeks ago. She was up several times at night and would only fall asleep when nursed or rocked. I'm happy to say the the past two night she slept from 8pm until 7am. I'm so excited mostly because I'm getting more sleep!. I tried this book and it gave me some great suggestions. First with her daytime schedule. Awake around 7am down for first nap around 9ish and second nap around 2ish and then down for the night between 7:30 and 8pm. both naps are 1hr to 1hr 1/2. Sleep during the day will encourage more sleep at night. I can't explain but it works! A great sleep schedule should help to get her to sleep better during the day and at night as well. The times that you put your daughter to bed are important. There are specific sleep times during the day and night that will make sleeping easier. If your baby is too tired she will have great difficulties falling asleep and staying asleep. If she's put down too late at night the same. So if you can get some great naps during the day and in bed early enough, this should help too. Great nutricious meals during the day should also help her tough longer through the night. I give my little one her three meals with two little snacks during the day and one bottle or breastfeed in the morning (when she wakes) one before her first nap one feeding before her second nap and again before bed for the night. She's more full durin g the day and I found that helped at night. I hope some of this helps. Best of luck and I hope you catch up on your sleep soon!

Source(s):

Good Night, Sleep Tight. The Sleep Lady's gentle guide to helping your child go to sleep and stay asleep and wake up happy by Kim West with Joanne Kenen

Answer 10

lie her down in the crib with her head where her feet normally go....wait 30 seconds and turn her 180 degrees...head to toe. Wait 30 seconds...do it once more...wait one minute...and do it once more. She'll end up in her normal sleeping position...the turning throws her off a little and she ends up back where she is used to and will be able to sleep.

This might sound a little crazy, but I've seen it work many times.