6 Month Old Not Sleeping Thru the Night

Hi C. my son will be six months next week and he just this week started to do the same thing. Now he has never been a great sleeper but usually only wakes once a night. This past week he has gotten up 4 and 5 times a night which as you know is hard. I took him to the doctor in fear of maybe an ear infection but he is fine. He is a bit congested so the doctor recommended putting a humidfier in his room which we already had but he said to have it right next to his crib almost blowing on him directly. We tried that last night and it was much better he only got up once. The doctor also said he felt a tooth coming in so that maybe something to think about as well. Good luck to you and I hope you get some sleep soon!!

I can sympathize with the not sleeping at night thingy. My baby since birth didnt start sleeping through the night until he was 10 months old and I am still having occassional bouts of hearing him cry at night. He was allergic to soy and milk at birth and was on a couple different medications for reflux. He also had a lot of ear infections which are starting again now because his tubes are out, so looks like he will need more put in.. Have you brought him to the doctor and asked him about it? I know sometimes kid can develop the ear problems after a couple of months after birth.

Sounds like it might be his teeth. Try giving him some infant motrin before bedtime. When they are getting their teeth and they flat in their crib, the pressure on the gums will wake them because it can be very painful. You might also try propping his mattress by putting a pillow underneath it. Both of these suggestions helped my daughter (who is 7mos.).

Two good possibilities. One, he may be teething. Probably is at this age. Give him some infant tylenol and he will probalby sleep peacefully. Second, he may have an ear infection. They are very common at this age too. (especially if they are teething) You can imagine the way he feels to wake up with the discomfort and pain of an earache or teething and can't tell you what it is. I raised 5 children and infant tylenol was a real blessing at this age.

every time that happened to my baby, now 2, it was an ear infection. If you have insurance, I would say it is well worth the $10 to take him in!!

I think it's quite normal, yet frustrating, for this to happen around this age. From all that I have read, and with my own experience, there are usually two reasons this happens around 6 months. 1- is teething (some tylenol or hylands teething tablets work great, or 2- he is hitting some milestones (maybe he starting to crawl, babble more, is having some seperation anxiety, or possible dreaming more vividly etc. I found out that around 4,6,9,12 months, approx., babies go through major changes, which usually disrupts their sleeping patterns. My daughter, who like your son has always been a wonderful sleeper, started going through this. Now that she is 10 months, she again is having some sleeping issues because she is beginning to walk. Now that she can pull herself up in her crib (UGH) this is something fun and exciting for her. Usually these little episodes only last a week or so.

I have 4 children and they all did this around 6-7 months. By the last of my children I realized that they wake up looking for you. Kind of separtation anxiety. If you have established that he is not ill, and physically ok it may be time to either turn off the monitor (since you are in the next room)or turn it down to only lights and low noise. It is hard, but he may need to learn to self soothe. I do not suggest letting them cry forever, but if you are sure he is ok, he may just be waking up because he wants to see you. Depending on your parenting style, you may try and see if instead of going in to get him to go back to sleep, he might soothe himself and go back to sleep. My little guy is 12 months and will wake up a couple times a night, and cries for a minute or 2 and goes back to sleep. All parents do things differently, I am just offering my advice. Cry it out works in our house, but some parents do not agree with it. HTH,
~JennQ

Hi C. D:

I'm a Mother of 5 and even though I don't always follow my own advice...it might be time to let him cry it out. Only you will know best if 6 mos. old is too early for your child, but it sounds like he's at the cusp.

Also, these holidays really threw us off schedule and my boys ages 1 and 2 are really showing it. I really had to make an effort to make sure they were bathed, calmed, and well fed before I put them down.

They were staggering their "wake-ups" about 5 times a night and we were dying from lack of sleep. We decided to let them cry it out. It took about 3 evenings of screaming and then they slept through the night. I admit, they still wake up about 1 per night for a quick cuddle or drink - but it's way better than 5 times a night.

Good luck with whatever you do - and go with your gut!

He might be going through a growth spurt and could be hungry. Is he on solid foods yet? He may need to eat more closer to bedtime. I'd hate to suggest feeding him in the middle of the night, because thats opening up to causing this to become long term. But my inkling on this one is that he's hungry. I hope you find some answers!

I went through the same thing with my oldest. I finally figured out that she was going through a growth spurt. Now, against all advice I gave mine a bottle if she was persistent and the waking in the middle of the night only lasted a night or two and then not for several weeks again. Mind you I don't always follow "the books". I did what felt like it would work. I also wasn't opposed to letting mine cry it out a little. I never really clicked with the "know their cries" thing either. I know one cry-pain. All the rest blend together for me. Well, this was long winded and I apologize for that. Congrats on being a new mom! I wish you many peaceful nights of sleep! :)
A.

I found that Motrin worked better than Tylenol for teething. I would give it to him around a half hour before his bed time bottle when my son was that age. That way the Motrin was sort of working, then he ate, then slept like a baby! :-)

Also, we have always had background noise. My son likes the sound of this ocean CD we have, so we let it run all night.

Hope you get some sleep soon! Congrats!
K. C.

He might be teething again. My son woke up all hours of the night when he would get teeth. He also woke up every night for about 2 weeks when he went through his clingy phase. One night he will just go back to normal, promise.
M.

Teething *always* disrupts sleep around our house - no matter if it's the 1st tooth or the two-year molars. Ditto for growth spurts. Add to that big developmental changes like mobility (crawling, standing, cruising, walking)... and well, sleeping through the night is, hubby & I have our suspicions, an urban myth. ;) Or at least it's just the minority of kids that truly do this consistently. We seriously think that the majority of kids go through these waves of good sleep followed by waves of "bad sleep" which is weeks or months of nightwaking and then when you think you can't take it anymore, the good sleep returns.

So hang in there. :)

As for "cry it out" - this really, really depends on your baby. Some babies will cry for 5 minutes and be asleep, while others will be so distressed that they will cry for literally hours. I personally feel like I'd want someone to come to me if I were crying (whether due to pain, loneliness, tummy/diaper troubles), regardless of age - and it's important to remember that the *only* way your baby is able to communicate with you if they're in a crib at that young age is to cry. Please consider whether you want to ignore that communication. Lots of people suggest "cry it out" but I think those folks have kids who are more on the "asleep after 5 minutes" end of things. Plus, I really do think that parenting doesn't stop at bedtime (even though that'd be admittedly convienient). ;)

A really, really wonderful blog written by a practical, witty mom that talks about sleep in a realistic way that takes into account kids' ages/stages as well as individual personalities:

Moxie's Quick & Dirty On Sleep
http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2005/12/quick_and_dirty.html

Sleep Regressions
http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006/02/qa_what_are_sle.html

Babies & Crying
http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006/06/babies_and_cio.html

C.,

Most likely he is teething. If it was an ear infection he probably wouldn't want to suck on the pacifier as the sucking action would irritate his ears. If all you have to do is put the pacifier back in, feel greatful. We have gone through several phases of this with our son, the latest being at 14 months when he pushed through his two bottom molars. Luckily it was over Christmas break and my husband and I both had time off work. After letting him cry for over an hour (while he stood in his crib and shook the entire bed) we ended up sleeping with him either in our bed or in the spare room which, trust me, I don't normally approve of. This continued for the entire week and it's just because he was so miserable and in so much pain. We tried both motrin and tylonel and neither helped at night. When we had to go back to work we tried the cry it out method again and he only cried for 20 minutes before he fell asleep. After that night he would only cry for about 5 minutes but he did this about 3 times a night. That lasted for another week until they broke the gums and now we are back to normal and he is sleeping through the night. Those two were numbers 9 and 10 so we are halfway done! FYI: so far the eye teeth and molars have been the worst.

Good Luck!

C.

Hi C.!
If you have a night light in his room you may want to take it out. I went through my middle child waking up all of sudden every night and it ended up being because she would wake up and with it being lit up in there she wouldn't fall back asleep like yours without me going back in there and giving her the pacifier.

My daughter is 10 1/2 months and JUST slept through the last 3 nights. First off, as soon as she learned to stand in her crib she didn't want to sleep anymore. Then,she had an ear infection, that could be one option you may want to check out. The other option would be teething. Even tho you may not see any teeth and you may not see any teeth for a while those little teethers could be on their way down and it's very painful for them. If you think that's what it is I would recommend giving him some motrin before bed and if he wakes up and it seems to be helping every 4-6 hour after that. I know it's hard, I've been going through the same thing.

S.

I'm surely not an expert but my first thought is teething. Is your baby teething? Maybe give him some tylenol and see how that helps. Is he too hot/cold? Is he eating baby food? Could he still be hungry? These are all just shots in the dark from my experience. Hope this helps somehow.

D.