Help with self settling

My DS is 4 and a bit months and I am having a difficuilt time trying to get him to learn self settling. He was doing it pretty good a couple of months ago, then he got a cold and now he will not do it at all.
I am open to controlled crying techniques and have tried a few, but none seem to be working.
I have tried letting him cry and going in to sooth him every 5 then 10 then 15 minutes etc, but this will go on for over an hour and then he is due for another feed. I have read up a few things but the advise is conflicting and Im lost at what do you... Some say to try it for just a few minutes and then try again next time, and some say to perservere!!

He is in his own room, and is exclusively bf. He seems like a pretty hungry boy, but I want to hold him off solids till 6 months cos I want to try the baby-led weaning with him for food.

Any advise? Comments?

I am not totally against comforting him and feeding him to sleep, but I also have a few things I want to do for myself and it would be very helpful if I could leave him with his dad and have him self settle when its bed time. I play netball and have meetings for work on occasion that I can't really take him to. I also want him to get into good sleeping habbits because his 2 year old brother is still a terrible sleeper!

Help...

i think the big thing for me was to make sure they werent over tired. at that age they still need to be back to bed after about an hour to an hour and a half.

hmmm I think you might be right on the over tired thing.

I sort of don't really have a routine because of having to take my older boy to preschool and back etc.

He does have quite a few sleeps during the day, but they are more like napping in the car here and there, plus a few others when I am home.

I seem to fall in to the snacking trap quite easily with my kids...so that might have something to do with it..

I have started swaddling him again and will see how that goes. Ill also try and get him to bed sooner

He will take a dummy, but Im not sure I really want to continue with a dummy....my other boy ended up waking in the night cos he lost his dummy and I don't want to be doing that again.

Thanks for the routine skp I might try and use it as a guideline and see how that goes.....if I can work it around the travels

Well done on working it out.

Just for your information, we swaddled Amelia until almost 11 months old as this seemed to work for her. Don't feel too pressured to stop it again.