Ferber isn’t working!

[Anonymous]

Drop the nighttime feeds. Don’t do checks. Just close the door and don’t come back until 10 hours later. Repeat the next day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Drop the nighttime feeds. Don’t do checks. Just close the door and don’t come back until 10 hours later. Repeat the next day.

+1. Yep - unless your pediatrician said to keep night feeding there's no reason a 6.5 month old needs to eat in the middle of the night.

[Anonymous]

Honestly what we learned when we paid for an expensive sleep trainer (and it was well worth it).. was the only way it’d really going to work is if you don’t pick the baby up (unless of course baby vomits, has poopy diaper etc). The first 1-2 nights we did fast checks- peeked in the room said some soothing words and left until baby fell asleep. By third night was sleeping 12 hours. Ours was 13 months when we sleep trained him bc he had acid reflux and I wasn’t emotionally ready to do it then, but we were a lot faster when our second child came around to do it, and I agree with PP’s.. you’re probably going to have to drop the night feed to get this to work.
Does baby use pacifiers? If so, keep a bunch in the crib so the baby can find on it’s own if one falls out.

[Anonymous]

TBH you can’t exactly sleep train if you’re still doing overnight feedings. You’re either going to have to continue with this pattern if you keep up feeding overnight or wait until you drop night feedings and then train.

The problem is your child is waking up and expecting to be fed and held every time bc sometimes that happens. How would she know the difference between the times she wakes up and it’s time for a bottle versus the times she wakes up and it’s time for her to stop crying and go back to sleep without you coming in? Think about it…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Drop the nighttime feeds. Don’t do checks. Just close the door and don’t come back until 10 hours later. Repeat the next day.

+1. Yep - unless your pediatrician said to keep night feeding there's no reason a 6.5 month old needs to eat in the middle of the night.

OP again. Yes, pediatrician said to keep night feeds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TBH you can’t exactly sleep train if you’re still doing overnight feedings. You’re either going to have to continue with this pattern if you keep up feeding overnight or wait until you drop night feedings and then train.

The problem is your child is waking up and expecting to be fed and held every time bc sometimes that happens. How would she know the difference between the times she wakes up and it’s time for a bottle versus the times she wakes up and it’s time for her to stop crying and go back to sleep without you coming in? Think about it…

OP again. No, the problem is the baby not falling asleep on her own whether there is a feeding or not. Sorry that wasn’t clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TBH you can’t exactly sleep train if you’re still doing overnight feedings. You’re either going to have to continue with this pattern if you keep up feeding overnight or wait until you drop night feedings and then train.

The problem is your child is waking up and expecting to be fed and held every time bc sometimes that happens. How would she know the difference between the times she wakes up and it’s time for a bottle versus the times she wakes up and it’s time for her to stop crying and go back to sleep without you coming in? Think about it…

OP again. No, the problem is the baby not falling asleep on her own whether there is a feeding or not. Sorry that wasn’t clear.

I kept but slowly dropped nighttime feeds but sleep trained. The difference between him just going back to sleep and wanting to be held all night was huge for my sanity.

I did full extinction.

[Anonymous]

I don’t agree with co-sleeping if it doesn’t work for you, but it’s clear no one is getting enough sleep right now. Don’t co-sleep, but stop Ferber because it’s not helping. Try it again in a month or so.

[Anonymous]

You might need longer naps. Try to get her to nap longer.

[Anonymous]

I would stop. It's not supposed to be that hard. My daughter was very very easy to sleep train. My son was not. At 20 months after trying everything we gave him a sippy cup and a fuzzy blanket in his crib and he has been sleeping through the night ever since. No amount of sleep training was going to cure being thirsty or uncomfortable at night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. (OP) co-sleeping is not an option and neither is dropping the night feeds. I do think she’s overtired from not napping. We have to keep working at it.

Ferber doesn't work unless you drop the night feeds. Dropping the night feeds is step one in ferber if you read the actual book. You have to gradually reduce them one at a time first. Signed, someone who ferber'd a tough 7.5 month-old

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. (OP) co-sleeping is not an option and neither is dropping the night feeds. I do think she’s overtired from not napping. We have to keep working at it.

Ferber doesn't work unless you drop the night feeds. Dropping the night feeds is step one in ferber if you read the actual book. You have to gradually reduce them one at a time first. Signed, someone who ferber'd a tough 7.5 month-old

also unless your baby has health issues there is absolutely no reason for a 6.5 month-old to still be eating at night. cutting out that treat is your first step in sleep training

[Anonymous]

OP again. How do you get longer naps? The baby wakes up and good for ten minutes then starts to yell.


And the baby is tiny - under fifteen pounds - So pediatrician said to do a dream feed and feed once during the night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again. How do you get longer naps? The baby wakes up and good for ten minutes then starts to yell.


And the baby is tiny - under fifteen pounds - So pediatrician said to do a dream feed and feed once during the night.

Then I think you can’t sleep train. It doesn’t work with night feedings. As you now know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP again. How do you get longer naps? The baby wakes up and good for ten minutes then starts to yell.


And the baby is tiny - under fifteen pounds - So pediatrician said to do a dream feed and feed once during the night.

Then I think you can’t sleep train. It doesn’t work with night feedings. As you now know.

+100. You’ve had multiple people tell you the same thing. It’s not going to work unless you drop overnight feedings. Plain and simple. Wish it was otherwise for you but it’s not. Deal with it now and when you’re ready to stop feeding overnight go for it. (PS — if you want to try another route, add more ounces to daytime feedings and wean overnight. My baby was smaller than yours at that age and Ferber worked perfectly once we dropped overnight bottles, and he gained no problem by taking in more during the day; ask your ped about that if you want to get CIO going).