controlled crying question

Hi,
Cant help on the dropping a feed side of things but I did do CC with my DD at age 1 - to get her to settle at night. She had already dropped the night feed but was a terror to get to settle at night.

How much per feed is she having?? Is she BF or Bottle fed? Solids??

Sorry I cant give any proper advise but didnt want to read and run....

We completely night weaned DS at 12 months old- he was back to feeding up to every 1-3 hrs after being sick a few months before that.
We did not use CIO or CC at all, and I still bf right before bed til he was 2. We involved DH more in the evening routinue, starting with him being in the room reading DS a story while I fed him to sleep,....progressing to him being awake while I fed him, then me passing him sleepy, but still awake to DH who would settle him to sleep without me. After that DH then was the one who got up to settle DS int he ight and not me- I fed him only once the first night, then not at all after that. It was tonnes easier than we expected.


Tho from expeience with my 2, night weaning doesnt seem to reduce the number of wakeups at all!

My DD slept through the night from about 3.5 months old (by that I mean approx 10pm till 5 or 6am) and I didn't use CC/CIO at all. For her it was more about getting enough into her during the day to encourage her to sleep (the goal was just to stop the wakeups every 1.5hrs rather than sleep through the night). I started encouraging more feeding during the day, so a regular feed then a play followed by a top up (another 10 mins or as long as she wanted on the breast). Then offering just water every second wakeup at night. I still got up to her but offered water and put her dummy back in and shushed her/patted her tummy/stood next to the cot for as long as it took.
I did do a feed at 10pm but not a dream feed as such as I only had to walk into the room and DD would fully wake up. I think from memory she was in bed at 6.30pm/7pm and then I would get her up for a proper feed at 9.30/10pm but no play time and as quiet and dark as possible. After that I would offer water for the first wakeup and go through the process I outlined above. Then if she went back to sleep I would offer a feed at the next wakeup and then water at the one after that. The wakeups got gradually futher apart over a 2 week period till she wasn't waking till 5 or 6am. Then after about a month I worked on bringing the late feed back to 9pm (just so I could go to bed a bit earlier - I was back at work so I needed to be in bed by 10!).

Hope some of that helps. Good luck.

I have never dream fed, to frightened to wake her!
But to stop the other feeds, if E woke around that age DH went in to settle her and I would just do 1 settle and feed. We did that for a short time, then DH did all the settles, worked well.

I dream fed untill about 9 months - setting my alarm for 11pm and then feeding, a few nights I slept through the alarm and baby didn't wake until 6 so figured that she didn't need dream feed anymore.

As for controlled crying - we did it and it worked for us - even until the age of 2 when she went into her big bed, think we started quite early (like 6 months) as my plunket nurse was really helpful and supportive with this - she is a happy healthy little "monster" and no harm done, if anything she self soothes herself very quickly even if she gets hurt or upset.



Edited by MammieB