Discovery Home & Health

I have a 16 week old who is just starting on babyrice. He is very alert all day and melts down quickly if I miss the tired signs. Has anyone any advice on how to get him to go to sleep without rocking and shusshing - should I be using a dummy? or controlled crying? He also wakes in the night - for his 10.30 feed - has 4-5oz and then either at 3am or 5am and then up for the day about 7-7.30am He is on breast and bottle. He has slept from 10.30 - 7am ish once or twice but recently hasnt been able to. Am I giving him the wrong signals by holding him until is half asleep and then putting him the cot? Health visitors have advocated controlled crying but I am not so sure. Need to be consistent but not sure what to do. Have been watching Baby Whisperer and on one programe she uses the dummey and another she uses patting and cuddling. His naps during the day are x 3 and only for about 45min/1hr . Any advice gratefully received. LouiseC

Hi Louise, its difficult to be consistent as babies tend to change their patterns and behaviours all the time. At 16 weeks he is a little young for controlled crying so Tracy Hogg's method maybe better for your. She picks the baby up, calms him and puts him back down over and over.
For more details it maybe worth having a look at her book. We used controlled crying in the end when our son was 6 months old. Luckily he was already quite used to falling asleep on his own as we had practiced Tracy's method during the day. But we would not go to sleep in the evening. So we used the controlled crying method it took 3 days. For more info on controlled crying ask your health visitor or check out Gina Ford (the contented baby book). We followed a book called : all chilrden can learn to sleep, which gave us a consistent programmes. You need to stick to regulated sleep times during the day as well for a few weeks so clear your diary. Controlled cyring only works if you have fixed sleep times ie 10-11:30 and 2-3 and then 7-7 am. With regards to dummies. Some dentists prefer them to thumbs as you can wean baby off a dummy but not off the thumb. However sooner or later you will have to wan your little one of the dummy as well so you might have more tears.
I hope this helps.

Hi Louise
If you can try and get in the habbit of getting them to sleep on their own! My baby is six months now and cant go to sleep on his own. He has to be cuddled and fed to sleep. He is our first so we didnt know what to do but we are finding it a very hard cycle to break and wish we had triedthe p/u p/d routines sooner!

We have started giving the baby a bath and massage, then bottle before bed- just to get him on a routine and this has really helped with sleeping through the night.

Good Luck!

Cruel to be kind!! Mine both sleet well from about 4 months by letting them cry a bit when put in the cot. They both wanted dummies. Having watched the pick up put down technique it looks worth a shot but be sure you have 1/2 hour to 1 hour to stay in theroom to get them asleep for the first few nights!