u/ded892

Looking for some encouragement and practical advice from anyone who's been through this.

My little one is 7.5 months old and has been exclusively breastfed since birth. He's never taken a bottle despite us trying on and off over the months

My main motivation is simply to have a bit more flexibility so someone else (my husband, grandparents, etc.) can feed him occasionally. I'd love to be able to leave the house for more than a couple of hours without stressing about getting back for a feed.

We've recently started introducing a straw cup for water which he hasn’t really taken to either.

If your older baby eventually accepted a bottle after refusing for months, I'd love to hear:

How old were they when it finally clicked?
What type of bottle/teat/straw cup/open cup ended up working?
Was it breastmilk or formula?
What approach made the biggest difference? (Someone else offering it? Different positions? When they were sleepy? Cold vs warm milk? Daily practice?)
How long did it take before they accepted it?

Success stories especially would be amazing because I'm starting to wonder if it's ever going to happen! 🤍

Looking for some encouragement and practical advice from anyone who's been through this.

My little one is 7.5 months old and has been exclusively breastfed since birth. He's never taken a bottle despite us trying on and off over the months

My main motivation is simply to have a bit more flexibility so someone else (my husband, grandparents, etc.) can feed him occasionally. I'd love to be able to leave the house for more than a couple of hours without stressing about getting back for a feed.

We've recently started introducing a straw cup for water which he hasn’t really taken to either.

If your older baby eventually accepted a bottle after refusing for months, I'd love to hear:

How old were they when it finally clicked?
What type of bottle/teat/straw cup/open cup ended up working?
Was it breastmilk or formula?
What approach made the biggest difference? (Someone else offering it? Different positions? When they were sleepy? Cold vs warm milk? Daily practice?)
How long did it take before they accepted it?

Success stories especially would be amazing because I'm starting to wonder if it's ever going to happen! 🤍

My 7.5 month old has been sleep trained for almost a month now using Ferber type method. He is doing really well but still cries every single time we put him down.

He is on two naps as of the past two weeks. Typically something like 3/3/4.

I have found that when I push his wake windows to the limit, he goes down much more easily. For example, last night his last wake window was almost 4.5 hrs. He woke up from his second nap at 3:30pm and didn’t go to sleep until 7:45pm-ish as we had his sisters birthday dinner. This was the first time EVER since sleep training that he did not cry to go to sleep.

Similarly this morning he woke up earlier than usual at 5:30am and I kept him up until 9:00am to try and get the day back on track and he cried when I put him down but only for a couple of minutes.

Our sleep consultant calls this a ‘crash out’ and advised against it. She says it’s not ideal because he may start needing increasing amounts of sleep pressure to go to sleep.

What is everyone’s thoughts on this?

Thanks

We’re on day 12 of sleep training our 7 month old - Ferber type method.

He is doing well but he still cries for every nap and bedtime, sometimes for 10 minutes, rarely less than that and sometimes more especially for naps.

Our sleep consultant said it’s not actually a goal of hers for the crying to stop completely.

My 23 month old has always been a decent sleeper (didn’t need to sleep train) and never cries when put down for naps or bedtime so I was shocked to know that this isn’t a long term goal.

Are your babies still crying every time? What’s normal?

Thanks a lot

I’m 10 days into sleep training my 7 month old - Ferber type method.

Nighttime’s are going well, he essentially night weaned from the first night (previously waking 5-8 times a night and needing a feed to resettle). He is usually asleep within 10 minutes at night and sleeps through or wakes up very briefly and goes back to sleep.

However, naps are not going well and im ready to give up as im struggling a lot mentally with it. This morning took 40 minutes to get to sleep for his first nap.

We are still on three naps. Wake windows are approx. 2-2.5hrs and third nap is very much to tie him over to bedtime so usually only 15-30mins. Bedtime is approx. 6:30-6:45pm.

What will happen if I give up on sleep training for naps? Will that mess up the nights too?

Should I push through?

Looking for any advice. Thanks so much