My daughter is 6 months old and fights sleep very bad. The only way to get her to sleep is by feeding her to sleep at naps and at bed time and when she wakes up. It is hard, when others want to help put her to sleep but it is hard, and if I am wanting to visit people and have to put her to sleep it takes forever and sometimes, if too much is going on she will not go to sleep. Any suggestions?

Ohhhh Tracie I feel your pain. My daughter was the same way. She is now 13 months old and believe it or not, in the last month we finally brok the issue you are having. I am sure you have herd it before and am sick of hearing it but you have to break her from associating eating with sleeping. Trust me it will not be easy, like I said, we are finally there. We would feed her the same way you are, duringhte night when she would wake up and what she is doing is...needing that dependency on getting fed to fall asleep. When I finally had enough, the first night we put her to bed without a bottle she reached up for me to hand it her, in stead I handed her a stuffed animal and she went nuts. We left her. After a rough 40 mins she was out. The next night, she went to sleep after about 15 mins. After about 4 nights of her fussing for me to give her a bottle to go to sleep with she went down with any fight AND best of, has been sleeping through the nights ever since. I is going to be tough I am not going to sugar coat it for you, but take it from my own experience, the sooner, the better. I wish you all of the luck and keep me posted on your progress.

The same thing happened with our daughter. We had tried everything and I do mean everything. I did not want to resort to letting her cry it out, but we had to. The first night she cried for an hour. That was the hardest night. The next night she only cried for fifteen minutes and the third night only for seven minutes. The fourth night I put her down and she did not cry at all. She fell asleep within a few minutes. It seems like it usually takes 3-4 nights. If you give in, you have to start the process all over again and it takes much longer. Good luck!

oh my dear, I was in your shoes too, My little one fought sleep so hard and did not take a pacifier either which was both good and bad. I used to wonder if that would ever wear off and my hubby and I finally had to let her cry it out too. It was the hardest thing to do but after four nights (which each night being shorter and shorter when she woke during the night too) she slept from 7:30 til 630 the next morning. She was waking up 3 times a night and my Ped reassured me that she weighed enough and was old enough that she was waking up out of habit. She is almost one and she will cry for about 30 seconds then is out. She has learned to put herself to sleep. Plus I have done the same bedtime routine with her since she was 4 months old and now she knows bath, story, song, snuggle and to bed. I hope it helps, I read the book sleep easy solution if that helps. She does the same thing at nap time, will cry for a few seconds then go to sleep and I have done the same thing at naptime too like turn on her humidifier (which adds background noise), close her window and blinds, and sing a song then down for a nap.

Thank you, I will try that tonight. I am not looking forward to it, but will do what is best for her. :) Again thanks!

My daughter fights sleep hard too. She won't take a bottle or a paci when shes tired either. The only way I have found that works is to litterally hold her down and rock her with music playing. But within a couple minutes she's out

See Traci, you are far from being alone. And the funny thing is I swear each one of us who shared our stories had the exact same thing each night until it worked. Yep, the first night is going to be hard, but like we all said, it only takes 3-4 nights. And the funny thing is: Once she was broke from it and was sleeping throught the night (you know, only 4 nights later), I was so mad at myself for just not doing it sooner. That would have been months more that Icould have been sleeping throught the night too. LOL...How is it going by the way? Hang in there, and be tought about it.

It is hard, but even harder since my husband is not for it. We tried last night, but it didnt work out so well. I will try again from the top tonight. And thanks for the support and advice.

Tracie, oh my Lord!  Like everyone else, I feel your pain. My son is 5 months old, and he never liked to nap and had a terrible time falling back asleep once he fell asleep at night. We eventually tried a modiefied "cry it out" techinique.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_the-ferber-method-demystified_7755.bc#articlesection2

So far (fingers crossed) it has worked very well; but it is really hard.  Good luck! 

Wow, I didnt know it was a "bad" thing to put your baby to sleep w/ a bottle? My baby's 6 months old & I noticed she's been fighting her sleep for a little over a month now. I thought this was a normal part of growing up. She also doesnt like her pacifier too much at all anymore, which is good that I wont have too much trouble taking it from her later but at the same time bad because it helped put her to sleep before. I thought giving her a bottle to fall asleep was okay, so long as she slept? She drinks out of a cup during the day & I figured bottle was only for putting her to bed. Is this wrong? I tried the CIO method twice now and it doesnt work for ME. I personally can not stand the noise. At first it broke my heart then almost gave me a break down from it getting on my nerves. My little one cried for 22 minutes, but it seemed more like 22 hours. Then I started worrying about the trust issues they say the CIO method can create. So, for a six month old, how many hours of sleep is "Sleeping through the night"? Mine sleeps about 6 then wakes for a bottle. Is that normal?

I've heard that putting a baby in the crib with a bottle is a no-no because it will rot their teeth. Anyone else hear this?  Also, I've heard 6 straight hours asleep is considered "sleeping through the night"; but of course I've also met many people who claim their babies sleep 8-12 hours at a stretch.  On a good night, my 5 month old will sleep about 6 hours, wake up for a bottle, and then sleep another 5 or 6. That's pretty rare, though. 

I'm with Bethany one this one ladies. That is what I have always herd. They will develop calicum deposits on their teeth. Another "light bulb" reason my daughters dr pointed out to me was if she is slepping with a bottle or sippie or anything that will allow her to drink during the night......how will she ever potty break??? It was like DUH when she told me that. That was the same day that I went home and said "ENOUGH we are doing this tonight". And we did and I have not looked back since. Traci: Is your hubby home during the day when you little one takes naps? If not, start by trying the breaking then first. That was another piece of advice I heard from someone on here before. Try elimating a bottle at a time. See my daughter use to get handed one in the car and that is what I 1st tried. I 1st took that one away and then the nap one and so on. (well tried, but maybe it will help you). I just had to get rib of them all together. Now my daughter is 13 months old and just got over a very bad cold, so guess what? We are getting rib of the bottle around her for good..........................

Tracie's baby is only six months old (like mine) I have heard giving a baby a bottle for too long will rot their teeth & have been told to clean my baby's gums (since I dont brush her teeth yet). But I thought this no bottle thing wouldnt be for another couple of months? My baby drinks out of a cup during the day & I give her a bottle right before she goes to sleep (so she'll sleep the WHOLE six hours straight. Go figure if she goes to bed at 9pm she's up at 3am for a feeding. If I dont give her a bottle right before she goes to sleep, she'd wake me up twice to eat. She finishes her bottle (while laying down) THEN will drift off to sleep. Is this okay? I give her her last feeding of solids (veggies) at around 6:30 or 7

I think the problem lies with them falling asleep with the bottle in thier crib. I hear some parents do this so that if the baby wakes up they have the bottle. It can rot teeth and cause calcium deposits from the milk/formula sitting in the mouth on the teeth and gums. I always feed my daughter (11 months old) before bed, but she doesn't go to bed with a bottle.

I think that sleeping anywhere from 6-8 hours for a 6 month old is concidered sleeping through the night. This is what I have read anyway. I know with Sienna I had to still swaddle her at that age to get her to fall asleep. It drove me nuts but it worked wonders. I finally broke her of it at 7 months...thank goodness. She would sleep about 6 hours or so and then wake up and want to be fed. I had no problem with this, but once I stopped swaddling I stopped the middle of the night feedings. It was hard at first, but really babies hit a certain age and weight and should be able to go up to 12 hours without "needing" to eat something just like adults.

Anyway, good luck. Hope it all works out for you.

I can relate to what April said about worrying about the trust issues when I first let my little angel CIO. She is such a wonderful baby who knows to come to me if she needs me and that I will be there for her. She is a pleasant laughable child. I too was standing outside her door while she cried for what seemed like hours and hours praying that I would have strength and my hubby DID NOT like it either at first but once I wrote it out and showed him that it was working and she cried less and less each time and each night (my girl was wanting to be fed every 4 hours and my doctor told me that she can sleep 10-12 hours at night and be just fine nutritionally at her wt and age being 6 mos and 15 pounds) so we both felt better about it. And like I said, on the 5th night, she went to bed at 730 and woke at 630 and has done that ever since. I did it at 6 months and she is the best, strongest, funniest, determined to do it herself and wonderful baby. I would and will do it again with my next child. I think we moms need to be there for each other and support each other cause we have never done this before and at the end of the day. I look at my healthy daughter sleeping in her crib and know I did the best I could do for today and tomorrow is a new day.

Such a good point about the importance of supporting each other, Angie.  Like I said, I've been doing a modified CIO technique, and I've gotten such mixed feedback from friends and family about it.  The third day, my mom was visiting and while my baby was crying my mom kept saying, "Maybe he's sick!  We should go in there!  I think something's wrong with him!!"  NOT HELPFUL.  At about 5 minutes, my baby was asleep.  I felt very smug; but I would have felt better if I had some support.

Well my daughter is 13months and I was going to try the CIO method, but she went rite to bed.  She never does that.  It was good, but I guess we will see how it goes tomorrow.

All babies are so different. You never really know what is going to work until you try it and see. I know for me, I got to a point that my now 11 month old wasn't falling asleep unless I rocked her to sleep and she was about 9 months old at the time. It got to the point that I knew if I kept doing it that way I would pay for it in the end.

One night I just said that's it. I did her normal bedtime routine, bath, bottle and a couple of books and told her she had to go to sleep. To my surprise she didn't even whimper about it. I was ready for the CIO and I am so glad it didn't end up that way. I don't think that i could have followed through.

Lately she has been waking in the middle of the night for some reason, but goes right back to sleep. Hope things work out for you. Just do what feels right. Trust your instincts.

I'm having problem with my 9month old waking up in the middle of the night.  He used to sleep 930pm to 730am solid then recently wakes 3-4 times a night.  This started this when he was able to turn from his back to tummy and once he's on his tummy he doesn't know how to flip back to his back and he ends up crawling to the end of crib, then pulls himself up.  He stands at the end of the crib and realizing that he's alone; cries out.  He goes back to bed right away as soon as I tuck him in, but still that means me getting up 3-4 times a night. 

Cristine,

My daught did the same thing when she was first learning to crawl.  She did it for a couple of months.  I just tryed to pull her down before I went to bed so it would last for a couple more hours.