Getting baby to sleep

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Permalink Reply by Fizzle on July 22, 2008 at 14:12

Hi Zoe,
As you can gather from the great response, this is a common difficulty for reflux babies and their families. I too with all of the previous replies had the smae problem with my little one. She is nearly 9 months now and all is settled until she is ill which completely messes up any childs routine. Before we knew it was reflux we would bounce her to sleep whilst she was screaming as this was the only way, although probably the worse thing to do as we were just shaking up that acid. i think she would fall asleep out of sheer exhaustion. i think then as with many reflux babies they assoicate sleep with pain as you have to lie down., and the majority of the time they do not wake up happy in their cots/cribs etc as they are in pain. Don't ever feel pressure to put him down awake if at the moment you think it will do more harm than good. It's not just as easy as that with our babies. i took little steps at a time but as someone else said until the pain of reflux is not a problem when lying them down then they will scream the whole night long as they are uncomfy. I did do the scream out method eventually but that was when I knew that the reflux was under control and had taken very small steps each week to get to that point. You have to judge your own child and have to be ready to do it mentally if that is what you want or it's just not fair on you or them.
The things i went by if this is any help to you was when my daughter was able to settle herself to sleep on my shoulder without me doing anything but holding her ie no bouncing, rocking, etc. i then decided she could settle herself in teh cot, oh and she was waking from a nap in her cot happy.
I found that my daughter had to learn to settle herself at a much older age than perhaps a non reflux baby because of their reflux pains etc you have comforted them so much. She would not take a dummy or suck her thumb but would suck a blanket to settle herself. I introduced this in order to transfer the comfort from me to a blanket or toy that she could do on her own. She only has this at bed/nap times and can now happily settle herself and in fact wants to go in her cot on her own.
As I said I did do the cry out which of course was a scream out, I sat next to her cot for an hour and a half the first night and then half an hour the next then 10 mins and now nothing. She was not comforted by my presence one little bit it just made me feel better! it worked for me but I know it doesn't work for all children. A friend of mine who also has a reflux baby has also done sleep training and did the pick up put down method which lasted for 2 hours the first night then dramatically reduced. She said though each time they picked her out she puked all down them so be prepared for that. She's now going on her own.

Sorry I'll stop rambling now, do what you feel is best for you and your child and I know it's hard but grit your teeth when well meaning family and friends tell you otherwise.
good luck xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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